Every fall, someone at the mailbox swears by their Medicare plan. It may be perfect for them and wrong for you. Four things that make a plan personal, and three better questions to ask than 'which plan do you have?'
At Fiscal Fridays, David told the story of a drug list that made next year look like $972,000. Nothing was wrong with the plan. The list was wrong. How to get yours right before your review.
The Annual Enrollment Period opens today, and three claims are making the rounds that are wrong or out of date: a new escape hatch when your doctor leaves, a $2,000 drug cap, and a rule that you must re-enroll every year. What the official sources actually say.
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.
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.