2018 Changes for Social Security and Medicare

Social Security Changes include:

  • Social Security recipients will receive a 2% increase in 2018, which amounts to approximately $27 per Social Security recipient.  We won’t know until later this year, but this increase could be offset by rising Medicare Premiums.
  • This increase may or may not effect Medicare Part B premiums
  • In 2018,  beneficiaries under full retirement age that are both working and collecting Social Security for the entire year would lose $1 in benefits for every $2 earned over $17,040 in 2018 compared to $16,920 in 2017.
  • Some workers will pay higher payroll taxes next year as the maximum taxable wage base increases to $128,700 in 2018, up from this year’s maximum taxable wages of $127,200 in 2017.

Medicare Changes include:

  • New Medicare cards that will improve beneficiaries identity protection by removing their Social Security numbers
  • The recent announcement that the popular Medicare Supplement – Plan F – will close to new applicants in 2020.