Is Your Medicare Advantage Plan Ending in 2027? Your Rights and Deadlines

A Medicare Advantage plan that is not renewing must mail each member a notice at least 90 days before the plan ends, and CMS lists this Plan Non-Renewal Notice among the October mailings. Plans that continue send an Annual Notice of Change in September instead.

The non-renewal notice tells you the plan will not be available next year and that you need to choose other coverage. The same federal rule requires the plan to give you information about the other ways to get Medicare coverage in your area, either in writing or by phone.

Keep the letter and the envelope it came in. It shows the date your coverage ends, and CMS suggests keeping letters like this as proof if you later apply for a Medigap policy using a guaranteed issue right. If your plan is continuing, its Annual Notice of Change describes what will be different in January, so it is worth reading even when nothing is ending.

You have two windows. The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7, and choices made then take effect January 1. Because your plan is not renewing, you also get a Special Enrollment Period from December 8 through the last day of February 2027.

In either window you can choose a different Medicare Advantage plan, with or without drug coverage, or Original Medicare with a separate Medicare drug plan if you want drug coverage. Our guides to the Annual Enrollment Period and to Special Enrollment Periods explain how each window works.

Your current plan covers you until it ends on December 31. If you want new coverage to begin as the old plan ends, make your choice before then. The plan you choose can confirm the date your coverage starts.

If you don't join another Medicare Advantage plan before your current plan ends, you are enrolled in Original Medicare, Parts A and B. Original Medicare does not include drug coverage on its own, so to have it you would join a separate Medicare drug plan.

Your Medicare itself does not end. What can lapse is drug coverage. Medicare.gov explains that going 63 days or more in a row without Part D or other creditable drug coverage can add a late enrollment penalty if you join a drug plan later, and the penalty stays for as long as you have Medicare drug coverage. Settling drug coverage before your plan ends avoids that gap.

You would also not have a Medigap policy unless you apply for one. The next section covers the rights that make that possible.

If you go to Original Medicare because your Medicare Advantage plan is leaving Medicare or stops giving care in your area, federal rules give you a guaranteed issue right to certain Medigap policies sold in your state. You can apply from 60 days before your coverage ends until 63 days after.

With a guaranteed issue right, an insurance company must sell you a Medigap policy, must cover all your pre-existing conditions and cannot charge you more because of past or present health problems. CMS's guide lists the start of the window as 60 days before your Medicare Advantage coverage ends, or the date in your plan's termination notice, and the end as 63 days after your coverage ends. A Medigap policy cannot start until your Medicare Advantage coverage ends.

The right applies only if you go to Original Medicare rather than join another Medicare Advantage plan. Your state may give you more rights than the federal ones. Our guide to moving from Medicare Advantage to Medigap covers every federal guaranteed issue situation, and Medicare Advantage vs Medigap explains how the two kinds of coverage differ.

Start with how you get care today. Write down your doctors, hospitals and prescriptions, then check each option against that list, along with how you would get care when you travel and which kind of coverage you would rather have.

Useful questions include: Are my doctors and hospitals in this plan's network, or would I rather see any provider that accepts Medicare? Are my prescriptions on the plan's drug list? Do I spend part of the year away from home? Would I want a Medigap policy, and is now a time when I have a guaranteed issue right to one? Writing the answers down makes it easier to compare options side by side, whether you do it yourself, with a counselor or with an agent.

Your State Health Insurance Assistance Program, or SHIP, offers one-on-one Medicare counseling, and Medicare.gov and 1-800-MEDICARE can answer questions about the federal rules. A licensed independent agent can read your letter with you and walk through the plans the agent offers in your area.

SHIP counselors do not sell insurance; you can find your state's program at shiphelp.org. An agent can help with an application but can discuss only the plans that agent offers, which is why the plan-availability disclosure appears next to the request button on this page. If you live in one of the counties listed below, its guide also lists the local counseling contacts that official sources give for that county.