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Medicare Open Enrollment Checklist: What to Check Before December 7

A blank sheet on a black clipboard with a yellow pencil on a wooden desk, with a sticky note reading “7 checks?”.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Let December 7 come and go without a decision, and nothing stops. Your plan renews on its 2027 terms, with whatever premium, copays, drug list and doctor network it filed for next year. Often that's fine. But a plan can hold its premium at $0 and still raise the out-of-pocket maximum or drop a doctor you count on. The letter showing which way yours went came in September. Start there.

See all 7 checks, one a week

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By Margaret Linwood · Updated Oct 15, 2026 · Reviewed against Medicare.gov, CMS, 42 CFR 422

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A brown envelope lying on a white envelope on a wooden table, with a sticky note reading “5 lines?”. Medicare Your plan's September letter has five lines that set your 2027 costs A blank sheet of paper and a pen on a kitchen counter, with a sticky note reading “$75?”. Medicare Your 2027 raise is 3.6%. See what Part B leaves

On paper, next year looks calm, with the average Medicare Advantage premium projected to slip to $12.00 a month. Nobody pays the average, though. You pay your plan's, and the changes that sting tend to sit where a premium doesn't show them: the network, the drug tiers, the cap on what a bad year can cost.

How much you have to check depends on how you get Medicare. In an Advantage plan, everything can change. With Original Medicare and a drug plan, it's mostly the drug plan that moves, and a Medigap policy isn't part of this season. The window runs 54 days, and a choice made in the last week leaves no room to fix a mistake.

See the help you may qualify for

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Sales calls you don't have to take

As December 7 gets closer, the calls tend to pick up, and so do mailers dressed up to look like government envelopes. The federal marketing rules for Medicare plans are on your side.

  1. Calls, texts and voicemails. Plans and their agents can't cold-call you, send robocalls or texts, or leave a voicemail selling a plan, unless you agreed to be contacted or reached out first.
  2. Your front door. No agent should knock without an appointment you set up. Pitches in a parking lot or a building lobby are off limits too.
  3. The Scope of Appointment. Before a sales meeting, the agent has to record which kinds of plans you agreed to discuss. If the pitch wanders into something you didn't ask about, you can end the meeting.
  4. Your Medicare Number. Medicare itself never calls to sell you anything. Don't read the number to anyone who called you first, and report pushy calls to 1-800-MEDICARE.
  5. Help you ask for. A SHIP counselor has nothing to sell. An independent broker won't charge you either, though it's fair to ask which insurers they represent in your county.

None of that tells you which plan to keep. The seven checks do that, one per week, from the September letter to a confirmation number before December 7.

Compare two plans in a bad year

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