$12 is not your bill
Your own premium can rise while the average falls 16 percent
WHAT CHANGED?
Good news first: the plan you have now does not vanish on January 1, and on average next year costs a little less, not more.
Medicare's annual enrollment window opens Thursday, October 15 and closes December 7. The government has already published what 2027 plans will cost: the average Medicare Advantage premium falls from $14.37 a month this year to $12.00 next year, down more than 16 percent. The average stand-alone drug plan goes the other way, from $35.09 to $36.
One line in that announcement matters more than either average. About eight in ten Medicare Advantage members can keep their current plan at the same premium or less. Which is another way of saying about two in ten cannot.
WHO IS AFFECTED?
Anyone in a Medicare Advantage plan. About 5,532 of them will be offered next year, and you can price your own options in Medicare's official plan finder.
Anyone in a stand-alone Part D drug plan. The average premium barely moves next year, but the list of drugs behind it can change completely, and that is where the real money is.
Anyone whose plan sent a letter in September and set it aside. Your own 2027 numbers are in that envelope.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
An average is not a bill. That $12 is a weighted figure spread across thousands of plans, and nobody is actually charged it. Your premium is set by your plan where you live, and it can rise in the very year the national average falls.
The September letter is called the Annual Notice of Change, and Medicare's own instruction for it is plain: review the changes and decide whether the plan still meets your needs next year. It carries your 2027 premium, your deductible, your copays and — the part almost everyone skips — which medications the plan still covers and which pharmacies it treats as preferred.
A plan can hold its premium at zero and quietly move one of your prescriptions to a higher tier. You would not find out until the January receipt.
My honest take: the premium is the smallest number in that letter. What decides your year is whether your drugs and your doctors are still covered, and that answer changes plan by plan.
WHAT TO DO
Set aside twenty minutes with the official Medicare plan finder between October 15 and December 7, with your pill bottles and your doctors' names in front of you. Enter each drug, each dose and your pharmacy, and it prices your current plan against every alternative where you live on total yearly cost, not premium alone. If your plan still wins, do nothing and you keep it. If it loses, you have until December 7 to move, and new coverage begins January 1.
One guardrail while enrollment season is loud: the tool is free, and nobody needs your bank details to let you use it. Medicare does not call you to sign you up for a plan.
If you would rather work it through on paper, The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit is our own $47 guide that walks the same comparison in order: the drug and doctor coverage check, a three-year cost model, the phone scripts, and a January verification pack.
One question for you: did your plan's September letter raise your premium, change your drug list, or neither? Hit reply and tell me which. I read every reply, and it decides what I cover next.
Know someone who lets a plan renew every year without opening the letter? Forward this to them, or send them your personal sign-up link so they get the next one too.
SOURCE: what Medicare says 2027 plans will cost
Written by Ellen Marsh
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