Medicare Advantage
Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Ends December 7: How to Switch, Drop, or Keep Your Plan
Medicare Open Enrollment ends December 7. Do you have a Medicare Advantage plan? You can switch plans. You can drop back to Original Medicare. Or you can keep your plan. Here is how each choice works.
Key takeaways
- The window runs from October 15 to December 7, 2026 (Ledger B4). Your plan must get your request by December 7.
- Changes you make now start on January 1, 2027 (Ledger B4). They take effect that day.
- You can switch to a new Medicare Advantage plan. The new plan may or may not cover drugs.
- You can drop your plan. You can go back to Original Medicare. Want drug coverage? You can join a drug plan on its own.
- Keep your plan and you do nothing. Your plan renews on January 1, but costs and rules can change. Read the fall notice your plan sent you.
- A second window opens January 1. It is shorter than this one. It is not the same window. Fewer people can use it (Ledger B5).
Medicare Open Enrollment runs from October 15 to December 7 each year (Ledger B4). Make a change in this window and it starts on January 1, 2027. Do you have a Medicare Advantage plan? Then this is your main chance to change it for next year.
You have three basic choices. You can switch to a new Medicare Advantage plan. You can drop your plan and go back to Original Medicare. Or you can keep your plan and do nothing. This guide walks through each choice. It goes step by step. Our Medicare Advantage section holds our other guides for this part of Medicare.
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How to switch to a different Medicare Advantage plan
First, compare the plans in your area. Check your doctors. Are they in the new plan's network? Check your drugs too. Does the plan cover each drug you take? Look at the premium and the copays. Look at the yearly out-of-pocket limit too.
You can join the new plan in one of three ways. Pick "Enroll" for the plan at Medicare.gov/plan-compare. Or contact the plan and join by phone. You can join on its website or on a paper form. Or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). Join a new plan in this window and your old plan ends on its own. You do not need to cancel the old plan in a separate step.
The plan must get your request by December 7. New plan coverage starts January 1, 2027 (Ledger B4).
How to drop your plan and return to Original Medicare
Some people leave Medicare Advantage. They go back to Original Medicare. You can do that in this window too. Leave, and Original Medicare is your main cover again. That starts on January 1.
Want drug coverage? Join a drug plan on its own in this same window. Say your Advantage plan covers drugs. Join a drug plan and that move ends the Advantage plan too. Your drug plan and Original Medicare then both start on January 1.
Check two things before you drop a plan. First, check your doctors. Do they take Original Medicare? Second, ask about Medigap. A Medigap policy can help with Original Medicare costs. But you may not have a protected right to buy one. Most people do not get that right just by leaving an Advantage plan. Ask the state health insurance help line in your state. Ask before you decide.
How to keep your plan
Keeping your plan takes no action at all. Send no request and your plan renews on January 1. It is the easy choice. It is not always the cheap one. Plans can change each January 1. They can change premiums and copays. They can change drug lists and doctor networks too. Your plan sent you a notice this fall. The notice lists its changes for 2027. Read it before you decide to stay. Is your main doctor leaving the network? Is a drug you take moving to a higher cost tier? A switch could save you real money next year.
The January window is a different window
A second window runs from January 1 to March 31 (Ledger B5). Its name is the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period. It is open to one group only. You must already be in a Medicare Advantage plan on January 1. In that window, you can switch to a new Advantage plan. Or you can drop your plan and go back to Original Medicare. You can join a drug plan on its own too.
Here is the key point. Say you are in Original Medicare on January 1, the January window is shut to you. You cannot use it to join an Advantage plan. You cannot use it to change a drug plan on its own. Say you are in Original Medicare now. Say you want an Advantage plan for 2027, December 7 is your last day. Say you are in an Advantage plan now. You get this window. Stay in an Advantage plan on January 1, and you get the second window too.
Some life changes open a window of their own. These can pop up at other times of year. A move can do it. A lost plan can do it. New help with drug costs can do it too. Each such window has its own rules and dates.
Who pays for what
Our guide on Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans tells who can join those plans. Our guide on Medicare Advantage star ratings tells what the quality scores mean. You see those scores when you compare plans. Our open enrollment checklist for care needs can help too. It helps you list the care you expect next year. List it before you choose.
- Medicare (Original Medicare) pays first if you go back to it. It pays its share of covered care. For most Part B care, that share is 80% of the approved amount. That share comes after the deductible.
- A private company runs each Medicare Advantage plan. Medicare pays the company to cover you. As a member, you get care under the plan's rules. The plan pays for your covered care. You pay the plan's copays.
- Medicaid can help some members with premiums and costs. Do you have both Medicare and Medicaid? You can look at plans built for you. They are called Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans.
- Private pay: you pay your plan premium, if your plan has one. You keep paying your Part B premium too. You also pay the copays your plan sets. You pay its coinsurance too. You pay up to its yearly limit.
Sample situation
Ruth is 74 and has a Medicare Advantage plan. In October she gets a letter that says her heart doctor will leave her plan's network on January 1. Ruth wants to keep seeing that doctor. She uses Medicare.gov/plan-compare and finds two plans in her county that list the doctor as in network. She checks her drugs in both plans and adds up the premiums and copays for the care she uses most.
On November 20, Ruth joins the plan that covers her doctor and her drugs at the lower total cost. The plan gets her request well before December 7. Her old plan ends December 31, and her new plan starts January 1, 2027 (Ledger B4). She did not need to call the old plan to cancel it.
Steps to take before December 7
- Read the fall notice from your plan. Mark each change that affects you.
- List your doctors and your drugs. List the care you expect to use next year.
- Compare at least two plans against that list. Add the choice of staying put.
- Check the yearly out-of-pocket limit on each plan. Do not look at the premium alone.
- Send your request with time to spare. The plan must get it by December 7.