Medicare FAQs

Medicare Part A is better known as hospital coverage. It includes inpatient care in a hospital, skilled nursing care, hospice, and home health care. To put it simply, Part A covers your room and board in the hospital or inpatient facility. One important note, Medicare does not cover long-term care or home health care that assists with activities of daily living.

If you have worked at least 40 quarters (or 10 years) paying Medicare taxes, Part A will be premium free. If you have not worked 40 quarters, the cost for Part A is either $278 a month or $506 depending on how many quarters you have earned.

This is another common question I get asked. Part A covers only room and board at the hospital; the costs for your doctors or any procedures fall under Part B.

Medicare Part B is also known as your Medical coverage. Part B includes elements such as doctor’s visits, diagnostic tests, mental health coverage, ambulance rides, procedures, and durable medical equipment. Care must be considered medically necessary in order to be covered by Medicare Part B.

For 2025, the base premium for Medicare Part B is $185 to $628.90 per month depending on income. This amount will either be taken out of social security or billed to you directly if you are not collecting Social Security. Note that I stated it is a base premium. This premium can adjust depending on your income. Please check out the chart below taken from Medicare.gov to see what your premium may be. Medicare will send you a notice in the mail of any income related penalties. If your yearly income in 2023-24 (for what you pay in 2024-25) was:

There is a $257 yearly deductible before Medicare begins to pay for Part B. After the deductible, Medicare pays for 80% of your medically necessary medical costs while you are responsible for 20%. One thing to note: there is no out of pocket maximum to original Medicare. This means there is no upper limit to the amount you can be required to pay!