What Medicare Part B costs now, compared with plain inflation since 1966
When Medicare started in July 1966, the standard monthly premium for Part B was $3.00. Part B is the part of Medicare that helps pay for doctor visits, outpatient care, and similar services. Sixty years later, the 2026 standard premium is $202.90. We wanted to know how much of that jump is just ordinary inflation, so we put the two side by side.
The comparison
We took the 1966 premium of $3.00 and grew it each year by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), the government's main measure of everyday price changes. If the premium had only kept pace with that index, it would have been about $29.81 a month in 2025.
The actual 2025 standard premium was $185.00. That's a little more than six times the inflation-only amount. For 2026, the standard premium is $202.90. We can't draw an inflation comparison for 2026 yet, because the annual average CPI-U for 2026 hasn't been published.
A few stops along the way, from the same data:
Year · Standard Part B premium · $3.00 grown by CPI-U
1966: $3.00 / $3.00
1980: $8.70 / $7.63
1990: $28.60 / $12.10
2000: $45.50 / $15.94
2010: $110.50 / $20.19
2020: $144.60 / $23.96
2025: $185.00 / $29.81
For the first fifteen years or so, the two lines stay close together. The gap opens in the 1980s and keeps widening. Overall, prices measured by CPI-U rose to almost 10 times their 1966 level by 2025, while the standard Part B premium rose to about 62 times its 1966 level.
Where the numbers come from
Premiums, 1966–1989: CMS, 1997 Annual Report of the SMI Trustees, Table II.B1: https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/reportstrustfunds/downloads/tr1997smi.pdf
Premiums, 1990–2026: 2026 Medicare Trustees Report, Table III.C2: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/2026-medicare-trustees-report.pdf
Inflation: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U, U.S. city average, all items (series CUUR0000SA0), annual averages, from the BLS Public Data API: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/
All of it was retrieved on October 21, 2026.
Things to keep in mind
Early years use a different calendar. Before 1984, Medicare premiums were set for periods running July through June. For example, the $8.70 shown for 1980 covers July 1979 through June 1980. CPI-U is a calendar-year average, so the early years don't line up perfectly. Using the rate that took effect each July instead would make 1980 $9.60. From 1984 on, both are calendar years.
The first years had odd stretches. The program began July 1, 1966. The premium changed from $3.00 to $4.00 partway through 1968. The 1989 figure includes a short-lived $4.00 catastrophic-coverage premium that was later repealed.
"Standard" isn't always what people paid. These are the standard amounts set each year. Some people pay more because of late enrollment or income-related adjustments. In some years (2010–11 and 2016–17), "hold-harmless" rules meant many enrollees paid less than the standard amount.
This isn't a full picture of health costs. The chart compares one premium with general inflation. It doesn't include deductibles, other parts of Medicare, or what any one person spends.
We share charts like this because we think plain numbers are useful when you're planning a household budget.
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