Dear Larry
I took an early retirement deal from my employer December 1st 2016 and had a large payout for unused vacation and sick time. That plus cashing out a portion of my 401k pushed my earnings last year above 230k.
I started on Medicare in September 2017 and my wife is already on SSDI with Medicare for the last 12 years. I have not started my Social Security benefits yet and we are surviving on my employer pension and my wife's disability.
I got letters for both myself and my wife stating that we each would have an additional $167.50 a month IRMAA payment for 2018 based on our earnings in 2016.
I immediately contacted SS to request a new decision about our IRMAAs based on my no longer being employed and our earnings for 2017 being under the $170k threshold. Yesterday I received a letter for my wife, and expect mine is in the mail, denying my appeal as our MAGI had not decreased. I don't understand what I did wrong on my appeal. This increase of $4k a year for 2018, while it won't break the bank, hurts the pocket book quite a bit.

Hi,

I'll preface my answer by stating that I'm not an expert on all things Medicare. Therefore, I'm probably not the best person to address your question.

That said, it sounds to me like your work stoppage in 2016 would qualify as a 'life changing event' (LCE), which would permit Social Security to base your and your wife's Medicare premiums on a more recent tax return (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0601120030). So, the problem may be that you don't yet have a more recent tax return to show them. I would think that once you've filed your tax return for 2017, you could show that to Social Security and request a new determination on your Medicare premium rates.

Best, Jerry