What the Letter Leaves Out, part three. If you have a drug plan, your letter has a section on changes to drug coverage. It can tell you a drug moved to a different tier, or came off the list, or now needs approval first. What it cannot do is add up your year: your prescriptions, at your doses, at the pharmacy you actually use, under next year's prices. That number does not exist in any letter. It exists on Medicare.gov, and finding it takes about ten minutes.
What changed for drug plans in 2027?
Three things worth knowing. First, there are fewer stand-alone drug plans in Maricopa County: 9 for 2027, down from 10 in 2026, according to the Medicare.gov data we pulled. That is a net change, with some plans leaving and others arriving. If yours is one that is not coming back, you should have received a different letter, and our piece on the two letters covers your rights. Second, the most a plan can charge for a drug deductible rose from $615 to "no more than $700" in 2027, and 6 of the 9 Maricopa drug plans set theirs at the full $700. Third, the yearly cap on your out-of-pocket drug costs rose from $2,100 to $2,400. Once you reach it, the handbook says, "you'll pay $0 for your covered Part D drugs for the rest of the year."
What does the letter leave out?
Your total. The letter describes the plan. It does not know your list. The same plan can be the cheapest one in the county for one person and one of the most expensive for their neighbor, because the answer depends on which drugs you take, which tier each one sits on, and which pharmacy fills them. Even the pharmacy matters more than people expect: the same pill on the same plan can cost different amounts at different counters. A letter can't run that math. A search can.
How do I check my own drug costs for 2027?
Gather your bottles or your pharmacy's printout first, with the exact drug names and doses. Then go to Medicare.gov's plan search, enter your ZIP code, choose drug plans, enter each prescription with its dose and how often you take it, and pick your pharmacy. The results list every plan sorted by the lowest yearly cost of drugs plus premium, with your current plan somewhere in that list. Our step-by-step walk-through of the search shows each screen. If your current plan is not near the top, that is worth a closer look before October 15.
What should I look at besides the total?
Three flags on each drug in the plan details: the tier, whether it needs prior approval, and whether there is a quantity limit. A plan can win on price and still ask your doctor for paperwork every few months on the one drug you cannot do without. Also remember that a plan's drug list can change during the year, with notice, so the plan that fits in January is the one to recheck the following fall.
What a Certified Medicare Planner® does differently
They run your full list at your pharmacy across every plan in your county, compare the result with what you are paying now, and check the flags on every drug, not just the total. When the cheapest plan has a catch on one of your prescriptions, they find it before you do. The advisors are at 602-281-3898.
Tomorrow in What the Letter Leaves Out: your doctors. The letter can say the network changed. It cannot say whether your doctor is still in it.
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).