Medicare Open Enrollment: What to Review Before December 7

This guide is for: Planning Your Own Retirement · Caring for a Parent · Both

Every fall, Medicare opens a seven-week window where you can change your coverage for the following year. Most people let it pass without doing anything.

Sometimes that’s the right call. But doing nothing isn’t neutral. It’s a decision to accept whatever your plan changed while you weren’t looking. Plans adjust their premiums, deductibles, drug lists, and provider networks every January, and those changes take effect whether you read the notice or not.

This guide walks through what you can actually change, what’s different for 2027, and a five-step review that takes about an hour. If you’re helping a parent with this, it works the same way, and the hour is usually worth more to them than to you.

What You Can Change During Open Enrollment

This window is broader than most people realize. You can move in almost any direction:

If you’re in…	You can…
Original Medicare	Join a Medicare Advantage plan, with or without drug coverage
A Medicare Advantage plan	Switch to a different Medicare Advantage plan, or return to Original Medicare
Original Medicare with no drug plan	Join a Medicare drug plan (Part D)
Original Medicare with a drug plan	Switch to a different drug plan, or drop drug coverage

One thing this window does not do: it does not guarantee you can buy a Medigap policy. That’s a separate set of rules, and it catches people out every year. More on that below.

If you would rather watch than read, this video runs through the same review in five steps.

What’s Changing for 2027

The headline numbers are modest this year, with one exception worth paying attention to.

Part D figure	2026	2027
Maximum deductible a plan may charge	$615	$700
Out-of-pocket spending that triggers catastrophic coverage	$2,100	$2,400
Average standalone Part D premium	$35.09	About $36
Average Part D premium inside a Medicare Advantage plan	$11.32	About $7

The one to notice is that out-of-pocket cap. It rises from $2,100 to $2,400, which means if you take expensive medications, you may pay up to $300 more before catastrophic coverage kicks in. The cap is still a genuine protection. It simply protects you a little later than it did this year.

The Five-Step Review

You don’t need to compare every plan in your county. You need to answer one question: is the plan I have still the right one? These five steps get you there.

1. Find the Annual Notice of Change

Your plan mailed this in September. Medicare describes it plainly: the Annual Notice of Change “includes any changes in coverage, costs, and more that will be effective in January.” It is the single most useful document you will read all year, and it is the one most likely to be sitting unopened in a pile of mail.

If you can’t find it, call the plan and ask them to resend it, or look for it in your online account. Read the summary of changes first. That’s usually the first few pages.

2. Check your medications against next year’s drug list

This is where the real money hides. Plans move drugs between pricing tiers, add prior-authorization requirements, or drop them from the formulary entirely. A medication that cost $10 a month this year can cost considerably more in January without the plan premium changing at all.

Write down every prescription, including the dose, and check each one against the 2027 formulary. The Plan Finder at Medicare.gov will do this comparison for you once you enter your drug list.

3. Confirm your pharmacy is still preferred

Many drug plans have preferred and standard pharmacies, and the difference in what you pay can be substantial for the same prescription. Pharmacies move in and out of preferred status every year. Check that the one you actually use is still in the preferred tier for 2027.

4. Confirm your doctors are still in network

This matters most if you’re in a Medicare Advantage plan, where going out of network can mean paying the full cost. Networks change annually, and a hospital system leaving a plan is not something you want to discover at an appointment in February.

Call the doctor’s office and ask whether they will be in the plan’s network next year. Don’t rely only on the plan’s online directory. Those are frequently out of date.

5. Compare total cost, not premium

A $0-premium plan is not a free plan. What you actually spend in a year is the premium plus the deductible plus copays plus coinsurance, and the plan with the lowest premium often isn’t the cheapest once your real prescriptions and real doctor visits are in the math.

Add it up for the year, using your own medication list and your own usual number of visits.

Four Mistakes That Cost People Money

• Assuming nothing changed. Something almost always changed. The question is whether it changed in a way that matters to you.
• Choosing on premium alone. See step five. It’s the most common and most expensive error.
• Forgetting one medication. People list the expensive drugs and forget the cheap one that just moved tiers. Write down all of them.
• Waiting until December 5. If a question comes up, and one usually does, you want days to resolve it, not hours. Medicare’s phone lines are busiest in the final week.

The Medigap Trap Nobody Warns You About

Here is the part that catches people. You can leave a Medicare Advantage plan and return to Original Medicare during Open Enrollment. But Original Medicare has no out-of-pocket maximum, which is why most people pair it with a Medigap policy, and buying Medigap is governed by entirely different rules.

Your Medigap open enrollment period is the six months after your Part B coverage starts. During that window, Medicare says, “you may be able to buy any Medigap policy sold in your state, even if you have health problems.”

So if your plan is to drop Medicare Advantage and pick up Original Medicare plus Medigap, find out whether a Medigap insurer in your state will actually sell you a policy before you drop the Advantage plan. Some states have more generous rules than the federal minimum. Your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) offers free, unbiased counseling on exactly this question, and it’s worth the phone call.

What If You Miss December 7?

You have one narrower second chance, and only if you’re already in a Medicare Advantage plan.

The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period runs January 1 through March 31. During it, you can switch to a different Medicare Advantage plan, or drop your Advantage plan and return to Original Medicare, and if you do, you can also join a separate Medicare drug plan. New coverage starts the first of the month after the plan receives your request.

What that window does not let you do is join a Medicare Advantage plan if you’re in Original Medicare, or switch drug plans if you’re in Original Medicare. For those, December 7 is the deadline.

Who Should Definitely Compare This Year

If any of these describe you or the person you’re helping, this is a year to look rather than coast:

• You started a new prescription in the past year, especially an expensive one
• Your Annual Notice of Change shows a premium or deductible increase
• You moved, or you now split time between two states
• You had trouble getting an appointment or a referral this year
• A doctor or hospital you rely on left the network
• You’ve never actually compared plans since you first enrolled

That last one is more common than you’d think. Plenty of people chose a plan the year they turned 65 and have renewed it by default ever since, through a decade of annual changes.

A Note on Spreading Out Drug Costs

If your prescription costs land heavily in the early months of the year, the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you pay your Part D out-of-pocket costs in monthly installments billed by your plan instead of all at once at the pharmacy counter.

Two honest caveats. Medicare is blunt about the first: this option “doesn’t save you money or lower your drug costs”. It spreads the same total across the year. And Medicare notes it “may not be the best choice for you if you sign up late in the calendar year (after September),” because there are fewer months left to spread across. If it appeals, signing up ahead of January is the sensible timing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to do anything during Open Enrollment?

No. If your plan is still offered and still fits, you can do nothing and it continues into next year. The point of reviewing is to make that a decision rather than an accident.

Is this the same as signing up for Medicare at 65?

No, and confusing the two is costly. Open Enrollment is for people who already have Medicare and want to change plans. Signing up for the first time runs on your own Initial Enrollment Period around your 65th birthday, with its own deadlines and lifetime penalties for missing them. See our Medicare Enrollment Checklist Before Age 65.

Can I change my Medigap policy during Open Enrollment?

Medigap isn’t part of this window. You can apply to switch Medigap policies at any time of year, but outside your own six-month Medigap open enrollment period, insurers generally don’t have to accept you unless you have guaranteed issue rights.

I’m helping my parent. Can I make the change for them?

You can help them compare, and you can be on the call, but Medicare will generally need their authorization to speak with you about their coverage. Setting that up ahead of time makes everything easier. Our Complete Guide to Family Caregiving covers how to get authorized to help with medical and benefit matters.

Where can I get free help comparing plans?

Two places. The Plan Finder at Medicare.gov lets you enter your medications and pharmacy and compare real costs. And every state has a State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) offering free one-on-one counseling from people who don’t earn commissions on what you choose. You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE.

Does Medicare cover long-term care if my needs change next year?

Largely no, and no plan you pick during Open Enrollment changes that. Medicare covers limited skilled nursing care under specific conditions, not ongoing custodial care. Our guide to what Medicare does and doesn’t cover for long-term care explains where Medicaid may come in.

The Bottom Line

Open Enrollment rewards about an hour of attention. Find the Annual Notice of Change, list your medications, check your pharmacy and your doctors, and add up what the year actually costs rather than what the premium says.

If everything still fits, do nothing and enjoy the certainty. If something has shifted, you have until December 7 to do something about it, and after that, for most people, the next real chance is twelve months away.

For how the parts of Medicare fit together, start with our Complete Guide to Medicare. And if you’re building a broader plan around it, our Retirement Planning Checklist for Your 50s shows where healthcare sits alongside income, housing, and legal planning.

Watch More Steady Source Videos

• Medicare vs. Medicaid: What’s the Difference, and Can You Have Both?
• Does Medicare Pay for Long-Term Care? What It Actually Covers

Sources and References

• Medicare.gov: Joining a Plan and Enrollment Periods
• Medicare.gov: How Much Does Medicare Drug Coverage Cost?
• Medicare.gov: Plan Annual Notice of Change (ANOC)
• Medicare.gov: Buying a Medigap Policy
• Medicare.gov: Medicare Prescription Payment Plan
• CMS: Medicare Open Enrollment Partner Resources
• CMS: Medicare Advantage and Part D Programs Expected to Remain Stable in 2027

Last reviewed October 2026. Open Enrollment and Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment dates, the changes allowed in each period, 2027 Part D deductible and out-of-pocket figures, projected 2027 premiums, Annual Notice of Change guidance, Medigap enrollment rules, and Medicare Prescription Payment Plan details were verified against Medicare.gov and CMS. The 2027 Part B premium and deductible had not been announced as of this review.

This article provides general educational information and is not personalized health insurance or financial advice. Medicare plan costs, coverage, and networks vary by plan and by location, and change annually. Verify details for your own plan at medicare.gov or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE, and see our Disclaimer for more.