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Your Annual Notice of Change: The 5 Lines to Read Before You Renew Your Medicare Plan

A brown envelope lying on a white envelope on a wooden table, with a sticky note reading “5 lines?”.
Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash

If you're in a Medicare Advantage plan or a stand-alone drug plan, your insurer had to get a document to you by September 30. It's easy to mistake for the rest of the fall insurance mail. It isn't an ad. It spells out what the plan will charge and cover starting January 1, 2027, and none of it needs your agreement. Say nothing by December 7 and you're renewed into the new version. Five lines in it move your costs.

See the 5 lines to read first

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By Margaret Linwood · Updated Sep 29, 2026 · Reviewed against Medicare.gov, CMS, KFF, NCOA

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A red envelope on a yellow background, with a sticky note reading “Plan G +26%?”. Medicare Your Plan G premium jumped again. Check your state's switching window A blank sheet on a black clipboard with a yellow pencil on a wooden desk, with a sticky note reading “7 checks?”. Medicare Your Medicare plan can change January 1. Seven checks, in order

Plenty of people never look. In one recent open enrollment, 43% of Medicare Advantage enrollees didn't review their own plan for changes in premiums or other costs (KFF's count). By January, when a higher copay turns up at the first appointment of the year, the main window to switch has closed.

The 2027 plan year also has more moving parts than usual. The maximum Part D deductible rises to $700, and a subsidy that held down stand-alone drug plan premiums ends December 31. Only your own notice shows what your plan does with all of it.

See what to do with the answers

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Can't find the notice? Where it tends to hide

It can come as a thick envelope or as an email, and it's easy to lose in the fall pile. If yours hasn't turned up, go down this list.

  1. Your inbox. If you ever agreed to electronic delivery, the notice may be a September email that's easy to mistake for marketing.
  2. Your online account. Many insurers post it under plan documents.
  3. Member services. Call the number on the back of your plan card and ask for the 2027 Annual Notice of Change. While you're on the line, have them confirm your mailing address.
  4. Whether you get one at all. With Original Medicare, a Medigap policy and no drug plan, there's no notice. Medigap insurers send rate letters on their own schedule, and Original Medicare's changes are printed in the "Medicare & You" handbook mailed each fall.
  5. A safe place, once you have it. Keep it with your plan card. If a bill in March doesn't match what the notice promised, that page is your proof.

Once it's in hand, the article goes through the five lines that move your costs, and then the one thing the notice never tells you.

See what the notice leaves out

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