Medicare open enrollment runs October 15 through December 7. Plans are leaving, the most people can pay out of pocket is rising, and in some counties no Medicare Advantage plan is left.
States in dark blue are ready. More are added every few days through open enrollment.
Your county's plan changes are part of a larger story about what Americans pay for health care and where the money goes. See The Bigger Picture.
Every state we have analyzed, side by side. Click a column heading to sort by it. Click a state to see its counties.
"Regular" means plans anyone with Medicare can join. Special needs plans, limited to people with Medicaid, certain chronic conditions or in nursing homes, are not counted.
This year's changes come as two larger deadlines approach. The government's own trustees reported in June 2026:
Congress can still act; it has before. But it has less room than in 1981, the last time Social Security came this close. The national debt then was just under $1 trillion. On October 8, 2026, it was more than $40 trillion.
Sources: 2026 Annual Reports of the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees (June 9, 2026); Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (June 9, 2026); U.S. Treasury, Debt to the Penny (Oct. 8, 2026); Washington Post, Oct. 23, 1981 (debt passes $1 trillion).
Pick your county to see every plan offered there for 2027, what each could cost you in a year, and what it covers. Tick "Compare" on two to four plans to see them side by side.
The yearly total adds a year of premiums to the plan's out-of-pocket maximum, minus any reduction the plan gives on your Part B premium. It is the most you could pay in 2027 for premiums and covered care from in-network providers. A plan with a low premium can have the highest yearly total.
Tick "Compare" on two to four plans to see what each covers side by side, or open "What it covers" for one plan.
Before you choose: check that your doctors, hospitals and pharmacy are in the plan's network. Search by name in Medicare's Plan Finder, then call the provider to confirm. This site does not show provider networks.
| Plan | Monthly premium | Most you could pay in a year, in network (out-of-pocket maximum) | Yearly total if you get sick | Drugs |
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If your plan is on this list, it will not be offered here in 2027, and your insurer should have sent you a letter. Choose new coverage by December 31. If you do not choose, Medicare will move you to Original Medicare, which does not include drug coverage.
If your plan is on this list, your insurer will move you to the 2027 plan shown unless you choose another plan. Check its costs in the table above before December 7. Because your coverage continues, the special right to buy Medigap without health questions generally does not apply.
Original Medicare has no out-of-pocket maximum: there is no cap on what you can pay in a year. Most people add a Medigap supplement and a stand-alone drug plan.
In 2027, what you pay out of pocket for covered drugs is capped at $2,400 a year in every Medicare drug plan, including drug coverage inside Medicare Advantage.
If you choose Medicare Advantage and later want to switch back to Original Medicare, you may not be able to buy a Medigap supplement. After your first chance to buy one, Medigap insurers can deny you or charge you more because of your health.
There are exceptions. If your Medicare Advantage plan is ending or leaving your area, as many are for 2027, federal law gives you the right to buy certain Medigap policies without health questions. This right applies only if you switch to Original Medicare, not to another Medicare Advantage plan. You can apply as early as 60 days before your plan ends and no later than 63 days after. Original Medicare does not cover prescription drugs, so you will also need a separate drug plan. You also have this right if you joined Medicare Advantage when you first got Medicare at 65 and switch to Original Medicare within the first year. If you dropped a Medigap policy to join Medicare Advantage for the first time, you have one year to get that policy back if the same company still sells it.
Check your own doctors and prescriptions in Medicare's Plan Finder at medicare.gov, or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). If your income is limited, ask about Medicare Savings Programs and Extra Help with drug costs.
If you are deaf, hard of hearing or have a speech disability, dial 711 to reach any of these numbers through a free relay service.
Sources: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CY2026 and CY2027 Landscape files (Sept. 2026), CY2027 Plan Benefit Package files, CY2027 Plan Crosswalk (Oct. 1, 2026); U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024, Table B19049. Shows plans open to everyone with Medicare in the county; special needs plans are not listed. Premiums are plan premiums and do not include the Part B premium. See How We Did This.
Choosing a Medicare plan is one decision. Behind it are a few facts about U.S. health care that every family pays for, whatever plan they choose.
That $40 trillion is more than 70 times the $562 billion that Social Security and Medicare together will be short in their first year.
In the Foundation's view, this is the cost of decades of congressional inaction. Congress has known for decades that the Medicare and Social Security trust funds would become underfunded and that the U.S. pays far more for health care than its peer nations. If Congress waits until the 2032 and 2033 deadlines, much of the cost (about $562 billion in the first year) will fall on our retired population, at a time in their lives when they are most vulnerable in their health and least secure in their finances.
The country is not short of money for health care. It spends more than any nation in history. What is running short are two trust funds, and the money that could close their gaps is already being spent elsewhere in the system.
Cutting benefits for everyone is not the only choice. It is what happens if no one decides.
Sources: World Health Organization, Global Health Expenditure Database (2023 data); U.S. Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2024 (Sept. 9, 2025); KFF, Characteristics of Uninsured Adult Workers Ages 19-64, 2024; KFF and Purchaser Business Group on Health, How Corporate Executives View Rising Health Care Cost and the Role of Government (Apr. 29, 2021); Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), via Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms (June 10, 2026); RAND, international prescription drug price comparisons (2022 data); 2026 Trustees Reports; U.S. Treasury, Debt to the Penny (Oct. 8, 2026). The $40 trillion figure: Imperative Foundation calculation from CMS National Health Expenditure data and OECD per-person spending (Peterson Foundation, Healthcare Chart Pack, Aug. 2026). Waste: Shrank and others, "Waste in the US Health Care System," JAMA (2019); 2026 national health spending of $6.0 trillion from CMS National Health Expenditure projections, via Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (Aug. 6, 2026).
Every figure on this site comes from public data and can be checked. This page explains where each number comes from and what it leaves out.
Source: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Landscape files for 2026 and 2027, which list every Medicare Advantage, Cost and drug plan by county, with premiums and in-network out-of-pocket maximums. We include plans open to everyone with Medicare (Medicare Advantage, with or without drug coverage, and Cost plans). Special needs plans, which only certain people can join, are counted but not listed.
Source: CMS Plan Benefit Package files for 2027, the same data Medicare's Plan Finder uses. We show copays or coinsurance for doctor visits, the emergency room, outpatient hospital care, hospital and skilled nursing stays, which services need the plan's approval first, and dental (including the number of cleanings), vision, hearing and over-the-counter benefits. Insurers code some benefits in ways that require judgment to summarize; where a benefit varies, we show the range. Provider networks are not in any CMS bulk data, so we cannot tell you whether your doctors are in a plan.
Some plans offer optional packages, such as extra dental coverage, for an added monthly premium. We show each plan's standard benefits only. To see a plan's optional packages, open the plan in Medicare's Plan Finder and select Optional Packages.
Source: the CMS 2027 Plan Crosswalk (October 1, 2026), which records what happens to each 2026 plan. A 2026 plan not offered under the same number in a county is counted as moved if the crosswalk sends its members to a 2027 plan offered in that county, including plans folded into another plan that continues. Otherwise it is counted as ending in that county. An insurer is listed as leaving a state when none of its plans open to everyone are offered there in 2027; for each one listed, the crosswalk shows its contracts as terminated or not renewed.
For each 2027 plan that continues a 2026 plan, under the same number or through the crosswalk, we compare its in-network out-of-pocket maximum with the 2026 maximum. Each plan is counted once in its state, however many counties it serves. A plan sold in regional versions with different costs is counted once for each version. The "typical" maximum is the median across the state's plans.
Twelve months of the plan premium, plus the in-network out-of-pocket maximum, minus twelve months of any Part B premium reduction the plan offers. It does not include the Part B premium, which everyone pays, or drug costs, which are capped separately at $2,400 in 2027. It is the most a person could pay for premiums and covered in-network care in a year.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020-2024, Table B19049, median income of households headed by someone 65 or older, by county. We divide the lowest yearly total among plans with drug coverage in the county by that median. Census estimates for small counties have wide margins of error; where the margin is more than 20% of the estimate, we say so and do not rank the county. The yearly total is per person, so a couple would face up to twice the amount.
Source: the 2026 Annual Reports of the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees, released June 9, 2026. The percentages describe what current law requires if Congress does not act before each trust fund runs out.
We check every figure against its source, but errors can happen. If you find one, or have a comment, please email us. Tell us the state and county and what looks wrong. We will check it, correct it if it is wrong, and list the correction here with its date.
Corrections: None so far.
The Imperative Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) based in Minnesota, working for reform of U.S. health care and a transition to universal coverage.
We believe people make better decisions, and the country makes better policy, when the facts are public and easy to check. This Medicare analysis is the first in a series that will put the numbers behind American health care, county by county, in plain view.
We do not sell insurance, take payments from insurers, or recommend any plan. For personal advice, use the free counseling services listed on each state page.
Contact: Tom Coleman, President, tom.coleman@imperativefoundation.org.