The Medicare help millions qualify for and never claim

If your income is modest, there are programs that will pay your Medicare Part B premium — $202.90 a month in 2026, straight out of your Social Security payment — and in some cases your deductibles and copays too.

They are chronically under-claimed. Millions of people who qualify have never applied, generally for one of three reasons: they've never heard of them, they assume the limits are far lower than they are, or they think of this as welfare and would rather not.

So here are the actual numbers.

What it’s actually worth

Start with the Part B premium: $202.90 a month is about $2,435 a year, added straight back onto your Social Security payment. For someone on the average benefit of $2,071 a month, that's close to a 10% raise.

QMB goes considerably further. It covers deductibles, coinsurance and copays, and QMB enrollees are protected from being billed by providers for Medicare-covered services at all.

And Extra Help transforms drug costs. With it, generics run about $5.10 and brand-name drugs about $12.65 in 2026, with no late-enrollment penalty for Part D.

Qualifying for the smallest of these programs is worth roughly $2,400 a year. Qualifying for the largest can be worth several times that.

Also on The Second Half Guide The Medicare deadline that never forgives you Miss your Medicare enrollment window without the right coverage and you pay a surcharge every month for life. The seven months that decide it. Read it →

Four things people get wrong

• “My income is too high.” Maybe. But states set their own limits and many are more generous than the federal floor — some have raised limits substantially, and a few have removed the asset test entirely. The only way to know is to apply in your state.
• “I own my house, so I won't qualify.” Your primary home doesn't count toward the resource limit. Neither, usually, does one car.
• “It's welfare.” These programs are run through your state's Medicaid office, which is what puts people off, but what they do is pay a Medicare bill you are already being charged. You are not taking someone else's place either; QI is the only one with a cap, and it routinely goes unfilled.
• “It'll affect my estate.” Medicare Savings Programs are not long-term-care Medicaid, and estate recovery rules generally do not apply to MSP benefits in the way people fear. Worth asking about specifically rather than assuming the worst.

How to apply

• Apply for Extra Help directly with Social Security at ssa.gov, by phone on 1-800-772-1213, or on paper. It is a short form.
• Apply for Medicare Savings Programs through your state Medicaid office — not Medicare. This split confuses people and is the commonest reason an application never gets made.
• Do it even if you think you are slightly over. State limits vary and some income is disregarded in the calculation.
• Ask your SHIP counselor to help — free, and they do these applications constantly. shiphelp.org.
• Try BenefitsCheckUp at benefitscheckup.org, which screens for these alongside food, energy and property tax help in one pass.
• If your income drops — a spouse dies, you stop working — apply again. Eligibility is not a one-time verdict.

The reason to take this seriously even if you're comfortable: circumstances change. The most common path into these programs is a household going from two Social Security payments to one, which is the subject of a separate piece on this site and is far more financially violent than people expect.

Twenty minutes and a form is a strange price for $2,400 a year, and it's the reason this is probably the most materially useful article we've published.