Is Your Medicare Advantage Plan Ending in 2027? How to Check and What Happens Next

When an insurer decides not to offer a Medicare Advantage plan next year, federal rules make it tell members by mail at least 90 days before the plan ends. For a plan stopping on December 31, the letter was due by October 2.

This used to be rare. Researchers at Johns Hopkins, writing in JAMA, found that from 2018 through 2024 about 1% of Medicare Advantage members a year were forced out because their plan closed or left their area. For 2026 they estimated 10%, about 2.9 million people. In Vermont it was 92% of members, and rural areas took the worst of it.

Your coverage still works normally through December 31, so nothing changes at the doctor’s office this fall. What follows is the whole job, in order.

Step 1. Find out which of three things is happening

Fastest route first.

Call the number on your plan card. One question: “Is my plan, in my county, being offered in 2027?” Give them the plan name and your ZIP code. A few minutes, and you don’t wait for the mail.

Read the mail from your plan. A plan that’s continuing sends an Annual Notice of Change. A plan that’s ending sends a non-renewal notice saying in plain words that coverage ends December 31. The real one carries your plan name and member details; be wary of look-alike mailers from sales agencies.

Check the Medicare Plan Finder. From October 1, Medicare.gov lists the 2027 plans in your ZIP code. If yours isn’t there for your county, you have your answer.

Then work out which version of “ending” you’ve got, because they don’t work the same way.

A merger is the one people misread. You’re not left bare, so it feels like nothing happened. Your Annual Notice of Change names the new plan: read it like a plan you’ve never seen, because that’s what it is.

Step 2. Know what January 1 looks like if you ignore it

Medicare.gov puts the default in one sentence: you’ll be enrolled in Original Medicare if you don’t join another Medicare Advantage plan before your current plan ends.

Nobody enrolls you anywhere else. The insurer moves you only in a merger. If your plan was terminated or left your county, Original Medicare is where you land, with two holes in it.

No Part D, so no prescription coverage unless you choose a drug plan yourself. And no annual cap: after the Part B deductible, $283 in 2026, you owe 20% of most outpatient bills with nothing on top, and the hospital deductible of $1,736 applies per benefit period, which means more than once a year is possible.

A $4,000 outpatient procedure in January would cost you the $283 deductible plus 20% of the remaining $3,717, about $743. Call it $1,026, with nothing capping the next bill.

Going without drug coverage costs later too. Sixty-three days or more without Part D or equally good coverage adds a late enrollment penalty to your drug premium for as long as you have Part D.

Step 3. Pick one of three routes, by the date that applies

Two lines in that table matter more than the rest.

A plan termination sets that aside. When your Medicare Advantage plan leaves Medicare or stops serving your area, you have a guaranteed issue right: an insurer selling Medigap in your state must sell you a policy, can’t charge more because of your health, and can’t make you wait out a pre-existing condition. Medicare lists the policies available with this right as Plans A, B, C, D, F, G, K or L, with C and F open only to people eligible for Medicare before 2020.

Three conditions. You have to return to Original Medicare, you have to apply within 63 days of your coverage ending, and you need the non-renewal letter as proof. Keep it.

Whether Medigap beats another Advantage plan is a separate question, laid out in Medicare Advantage against Medigap. But if your county has few plans left, which is common in rural areas, price Medigap seriously now. You may not get another chance without a health questionnaire.

Under 65 and on Medicare because of a disability? Medigap rules then depend heavily on your state. Call your state insurance department before counting on this.

Step 5. Work through it in this order

1. Confirm the facts. Call the plan. Terminated, left your county, or merged? Write down the date, the rep’s name and what they said.
2. Put the letter somewhere safe. It’s proof of both the special enrollment period and the Medigap right.
3. List your doctors, hospitals, drugs and pharmacies, with exact drug names and doses. Every replacement gets measured against this list.
4. Settle the big question first: another Advantage plan, or Original Medicare with Medigap.
5. Compare against your list, using the Medicare Plan Finder for Advantage and Part D. Medigap benefits are standardized by letter, so Plan G is Plan G everywhere; what differs is price and the insurer’s history of rate increases.
6. Call your doctors’ billing offices. The online directory alone isn’t enough.
7. Enroll by December 7 if you can, December 31 at the latest. Going the Medigap route, apply as soon as you’ve chosen and ask for a January 1 start.
8. Get it in writing. Enrollment confirmation and a new card before January. Two weeks of silence means pick up the phone.

Expect the mail to get heavy while you do this. When a big plan leaves a county, the insurers that stay know thousands of people are shopping at once. Marketing rules say agents aren’t supposed to cold-call you about Medicare Advantage or Part D plans, so if one does, hang up. And treat the first $0 plan that lands in the mailbox as an advertisement: a zero premium tells you nothing about whether your doctors are in it.

The free help is the most neutral: your State Health Insurance Assistance Program has nothing to sell, and 1-800-MEDICARE connects you to it. If you’d rather use a broker, ask which insurers they represent in your county and whether they can quote Medigap as well as Medicare Advantage. The detailed comparison routine is in the open enrollment checklist.

Three dates for the calendar

December 7. The last comfortable day to choose, while counselors and agents still have time for you.

December 31. The last day to enroll for coverage that starts January 1. After this, a gap.

March 4. Sixty-three days after a December 31 end date, and the end of your guaranteed right to buy Medigap without health questions. This is the one you can’t undo.