Medicare Open Enrollment 2027: Dates, Changes & Your Checklist

Every fall, Medicare hands you a short window to change your mind — and every fall, most people let it close without opening the envelope. The Annual Enrollment Period for 2027 coverage runs October 15 through December 7, 2026. Whatever you choose during those eight weeks takes effect January 1 and generally sticks for the year. The good news: the work is small, and doing it in July or August — before the mailbox fills with plan ads — is far easier than doing it in a rush the first week of December.

You don't need to track the whole Medicare calendar. For this fall, three dates carry the weight.

If you're on a Medicare Advantage plan or a standalone Part D drug plan, the ANOC is the most useful piece of mail you'll get all year. It's a side-by-side of this year versus next: premium, deductible, copays, the drug formulary, and the provider network. It arrives in a plain envelope that looks like junk. It isn't. Set it aside when it lands and read it before October 15 — that's the whole first step.

One thing the ANOC doesn't cover: if you're on Original Medicare with a Medigap policy, you won't receive one, because Medigap benefits are standardized and don't change year to year. Your premium can still change, though, and if you also have a standalone Part D plan, that plan will send its own notice.

Two kinds of change land on January 1: the ones Medicare sets for everybody, and the ones your specific plan decides on its own. The national numbers are the headline, but the plan-level changes are usually what hits your wallet.

The Part D drug cap goes up to $2,400

The annual out-of-pocket limit on covered Part D prescriptions — the ceiling that means you pay nothing more for the rest of the calendar year — moves from $2,100 in 2026 to $2,400 in 2027. The standard Part D deductible rises from $615 to $700. Both figures are indexed to grow with drug cost growth each year, which is why the cap keeps drifting upward from the $2,000 it started at.

Two things worth knowing. First, that deductible counts toward the cap, so it isn't an extra $700 on top. Second, the cap is still a genuinely large improvement over the old design, where high-cost drugs had no ceiling at all. If your prescriptions are expensive, the practical question isn't whether you'll hit the cap — it's which plan gets you there for the least money along the way. That depends entirely on each plan's formulary tiers, and it's the single biggest reason to re-shop rather than auto-renew.

15 more drugs get negotiated prices

January 1, 2027 is also when the second round of Medicare drug price negotiation takes effect. Medicare announced negotiated prices for 15 additional Part D drugs — medications used for cancer, diabetes, asthma, and other chronic conditions. Roughly 5.3 million people with Part D used those 15 drugs in a single year, and Medicare estimates the new prices will save beneficiaries an estimated $685 million in out-of-pocket costs. If one of your maintenance medications is on the list, your share could drop meaningfully — but only if your plan's formulary places it well. Again: check the formulary.

Your plan's own changes

This is the part that surprises people. Plans adjust every year — a premium moves, a copay tier shifts, a drug moves from tier 2 to tier 3, a hospital system leaves the network, or the plan stops being offered in your county altogether. None of that is unusual, and none of it means anything is wrong. It just means last year's best plan for you isn't automatically this year's.

The 2027 Part B premium and deductible haven't been announced yet — Medicare typically releases those figures in the fall. For reference, the 2026 standard Part B premium is $202.90 a month with a $283 annual deductible. We cover the current-year numbers in detail in our Medicare 2026 changes guide, and we'll update this page when the 2027 figures land.

After a few enrollment seasons, the same handful of missteps show up again and again. None of them are about picking the "wrong" plan — they're about assumptions.

• Assuming nothing changed. Auto-renewal is convenient and it is not a review. The plan you're renewing into is next year's version, not this year's.
• Shopping on premium alone. Premium is one of four numbers. Deductible, copays, and formulary tier placement usually matter more over twelve months.
• Forgetting a new prescription. If you started a medication in June, it may not be covered the same way — or at all — by next year's formulary.
• Counting on switching to Medigap later. This is the big one. Leaving Medicare Advantage during AEP is easy; getting a Medigap policy to accept you afterward may not be. Outside your one-time Medigap open enrollment window or a guaranteed-issue right, insurers in most states can review your health history and decline. Confirm you're approved before you drop anything.
• Waiting until December. The last week is when hold times peak and good decisions get rushed. Starting in October costs nothing.

Want the broader picture before you dig into plan documents? Our Medicare education center covers the parts, the costs, and how Advantage and Supplement plans actually differ — and our Medicare plans page explains what we help with. Medicare's own Plan Compare tool and your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) are also free, unbiased places to start.