05/18/2026
Shared from another post:
Your Medicare Advantage carrier sends a letter. They're pulling out of your county. Coverage ends in a few weeks. The letter doesn't tell you the most important part.
When a Medicare Advantage plan ends its contract, federal rules open two doors at once — and most folks only walk through the first.
Door one: a Special Enrollment Period. It starts one month before your plan ends and runs two full months after. During that window you can pick another Advantage plan, or you can drop back to Original Medicare.
Door two — the one most people miss: the Medigap guaranteed-issue right. You have 63 days from the day your coverage ends to buy a Medicare supplement (Medigap Plan A, B, C, D, F, G, K, or L from any company that sells it in your state) with no medical underwriting. One catch: if you first became Medicare-eligible on or after January 1, 2020, Plans C and F are off the menu — Plan D or G is the comparable swap. No health questions. They cannot turn you down. They cannot charge you more for a heart condition or diabetes.
That door normally closes six months after you first sign up for Part B. The Medicare Advantage contract ending reopens it. Once. For 63 days.
Keep the letter from the plan — you'll need a copy when you apply for the supplement, as proof of the right.
Most folks never hear this rule until it's too late. Worth knowing about before you need it.
