Yesterday our team ran two library sessions, one in Glendale in the morning and one in Scottsdale in the afternoon, and walked through the whole workshop this week's Take-Home Notes put in print. I watched from the back of the room, which is the best seat for hearing what people take away. Thank you to everyone who came. Three things stood out, and they are worth writing down before the Annual Enrollment Period opens on October 15.
Did people know their plan was changing?
Many did not, and that was the first surprise. People came in holding their Annual Notice of Change, the letter every plan has to get to its members by September 30, and still had not caught that things were changing for 2027. Having the letter is not the same as reading it, and reading it is not the same as understanding it. That is not a criticism of anyone in the room. The letter is long, and the table that matters is a few pages in. If yours is still in the envelope, part two of the notes shows the four lines to find first.
Can't Medicare.gov just pick the plan for me?
It can do a lot, and it cannot do that. Medicare.gov is the one place that lists every plan in your area, and its drug search does real math with your prescriptions and your pharmacy. But when we pulled the Maricopa County data on October 1, none of the 52 standard Advantage plans had doctor information loaded for 2027, and the site's search looks up individual doctors, not hospitals. The room saw the same thing live. So the site can tell you what a plan costs for your drugs. It cannot yet tell you whether your doctors take it. That part of the research still happens on each plan's own directory and with a phone call to the office, the way part four lays out step by step.
Why isn't a bigger number a clearer number?
This was the moment of the day for me. A website can be redesigned, the type made bigger, the numbers set in bold. That makes a number easier to see. It does not make it easier to understand. Every number on a plan card answers a specific question, and the question is not always the one you think. Here are the ones on almost every plan card, and what each one represents:
| The number on the screen | What it means |
|---|---|
| Monthly premium | What the plan charges each month, on top of the Part B premium you still pay ($202.90 a month for most people in 2026; the 2027 amount comes out later this fall). A $0 plan premium is common in some counties, and availability varies. |
| Deductible | Which one? A plan can have one for drugs and a separate one for medical care. For 2027, a drug deductible can be "no more than $700." |
| Maximum out-of-pocket | The most you pay in a year for covered medical care, usually in the plan's network. It does not include prescriptions. |
| Drug cost cap | A separate yearly limit just for covered drugs: $2,400 in 2027. |
| Estimated yearly drug and premium cost | An estimate built from the drugs, doses, and pharmacy you typed in. Change any of them, and the number changes. Skip them, and it is not about you. |
None of those numbers is wrong. Each one is just narrower than it looks. The premium does not include Part B. The out-of-pocket maximum does not include drugs. The estimate is only as good as what you entered. Seen in bold on a clean screen, each one looks like the answer. Put together, with your doctors checked, they start to become one.
What should I do before October 15?
Three things, in this order. Open the letter and find next year's numbers in the cost table. Write each one next to its label on a single sheet of paper, with a note on what it covers and what it leaves out. Then check your doctors in the directory of every plan you are considering, and call the office to ask whether they will be in that plan's network in 2027. The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 to December 7, and a change you make in that window starts January 1.
Your take-home note
Next to every number on your notes sheet, write one word: what it covers. Premium, plus Part B. Out-of-pocket, medical only. Drug cap, drugs only. Estimate, my drugs at my pharmacy. If you cannot fill in the word, that is the number to ask about. If you missed the workshop, all five Take-Home Notes are linked in the last one. Questions? The advisors are at 602-281-3898.
You Finished the Series
Up next: What the Letter Leaves Out →Your plan's Annual Notice of Change is supposed to tell you what changed. It leaves things out. One gap a day before the Annual Enrollment Period: deductibles, your worst-case year, your drug plan, your doctors, and the extras, and where to find the real answer for each.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only. It is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise representative of Medicare or the federal Medicare program. American Retirement Advisors is not a government agency. For official Medicare information, visit medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).