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Those of you enrolled in Medicare have recently received your ANOC (Annual Notice of Change) statement for next year. It details what is changing in your plan. I know that many of you may be getting the news that your Medicare Advantage (MA) plan is being discontinued, and you need to switch to a new plan.

In many instances, there will still be other MA plans offered in your county that you can choose. So MA remains an option. But according to KFF.org, a record number of counties won’t have any MA plans. And overall, it is estimated that around one million MA enrollees need to find a new plan for 2027.

My advice for anyone with a discontinued plan is to consider whether switching to Original Medicare might be the way to go, even if you can choose another Medicare Advantage plan.

There are a few moving pieces to consider, so let’s take this slowly:

  1. Yes, if you enroll in Original Medicare, I insist—and I do mean insist—that you also purchase a separate Medigap policy. This is because Original Medicare only covers 80% of expenses under Medicare Part B (basically everything outside of being hospitalized). So you need a good Medigap policy to cover the 20% you are responsible for.
  2. Yes, a Medigap policy will charge a monthly premium. Rates vary by insurer and by state. But as a ballpark, for the most comprehensive coverage—called a Plan G—you might pay $150 to $200 a month. (In high-cost states, it could be more than $300.) Yes, that is a lot of money. But let’s compare it to how MA works.

Generally, there’s no premium for MA coverage, and you don’t need to purchase Medigap (actually, you’re not allowed to). Sound like a better deal? Hold on. If you actually need care, an MA policy is going to charge you copayments and coinsurance for all that care.

This year, the maximum of these out-of-pocket (OOP) charges if you stay in-network can be nearly $10,000. In reality, many MA plans set their maximum at about half that. But that’s still  $5,000 you could be on the hook for if you have a serious illness. And if you develop a chronic illness, you could be paying that maximum OOP every year. Suddenly, a $250 monthly Medigap policy ($3,000 a year) becomes a compelling option, right?

  1. If your MA plan is discontinued, you will be able to qualify for a Medigap policy without any penalty for a preexisting condition. This is so important: typically, if you wanted to switch from MA to Original Medicare, and you didn’t switch within your first year of coverage, you had a potential Medigap problem. While Medigap insurers can’t consider preexisting conditions for new Medicare enrollees, they can use preexisting conditions when someone wants to switch from MA to Original Medicare because they don’t like their MA coverage. But if your MA plan is discontinued, you get a special window where you can switch to Original Medicare without any “medical underwriting,” which is the technical term for when insurers look at your health status.
  2. You will also need a Medicare Part D policy with Original Medicare. Okay, there’s a second monthly cost if you switch over to Original Medicare: you need a separate policy that covers prescription drugs. This is called Medicare Part D.  The average monthly premium estimate for 2027 is around $40. So let’s say that’s another $480-$500 a year. Add that to your $3,000 or so (again, it varies widely) for a comprehensive Plan G Medigap policy, and you are still well below the potential out-of-pocket costs you would incur with an MA plan when you need plenty of care.

Like I said, those are a lot of moving pieces. But now you understand that the math for an Original Medicare plan may not be as expensive as actually using an MA plan. And one of the advantages of Original Medicare is that you can see any doctor in the country who accepts Medicare (most do), and you do not need to get prior authorization for care.

You can use the official Medicare.gov site to compare your current plan with other options. And Medicare also has a Medigap policy tool that can help you identify a supplemental plan if you switch to Original Medicare.

You can also make an appointment with your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), which provides free, unbiased help in sorting through MA, Original Medicare, and Medicare Part D options.

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