How Are Medicare Part B Premiums Determined? 
Medicare premium rates come out each fall and take effect in January . Medicare beneficiaries as a group are required to pay one-fourth the cost of running Medicare , and annual premiums are set at a figure calculated to achieve that level of revenue . In other words , Medicare beneficiaries receive a 75 % subsidy for Part B , with every $ 1 in Part B premiums for enrollees matched by $ 3 in general revenues . Although the annual premium rates are n't officially set until they are announced each fall , Medicare administrators track trends and anticipated changes and use them to formulate projections of Medicare premiums for the next several years . According to the most recent report -LRB- WEBSITELINK of the system 's trustees , issued in May 2011 , those projected premiums -LRB- as listed on page 218 -RRB- are : 2014 : $ 115.80 2015 : $ 120.80 2016 : $ 126.00 2017 : $ 132.70 2018 : $ 140.30 2019 : $ 148.40 2020 : $ 158.60 There was a scary email going around last year about Obamacare causing Medicare premiums to skyrocket . I did some research and found the information in that email to be completely untrue . This is how I learned about how Medicare premiums were determined . You can read more about the email and what I uncovered on my blog at : WEBSITELINK 