As people compare 2027 Medicare plans, the biggest late-life cost is not on any plan summary. Medicare and Medigap do not pay for long-term care. What Medicare does cover runs out fast, what care costs today, and the questions a couple can settle calmly, before either of them needs it.
Plan shopping starts Thursday, and plenty of plans show a $0 premium. For about 1 in 12 people with Medicare, that is not the whole bill. The income-based Part D surcharge follows you to any plan, so here is how to shop around it instead of into it.
All week we read the 2027 plan letters line by line. Here is the whole series in one place: the deductible, the worst-case year, your drugs, your doctors, and the extras, with five days to go before October 15.
Dental, vision, and hearing are the extras people notice first, and the plan letter rarely shows their limits. On Medicare.gov, the dental flag read 'not specified' for every plan we pulled. Where the real limits live, and why the extras belong last on your list, not first.
The plan letter can say the network changed. It cannot say whether your doctor left. And as of October 7, Medicare.gov still had no 2027 doctor information loaded for any of Maricopa's 52 standard Advantage plans. How to check, and the one phone call that settles it.
The plan letter can list changes to the drug list. It cannot tell you what your own prescriptions will cost at your own pharmacy in 2027. Fewer stand-alone drug plans in Maricopa, a $700 deductible ceiling, a $2,400 cap, and the ten-minute search that answers it.