About 600,000 people with Medicare Advantage are about to get a letter dated October 2 that says their plan will not exist in 2027. It arrives in a plain envelope during the busiest mail weeks of the year, and it looks a lot like the change notice you get every fall. It is not that letter. This one is a goodbye letter - and the two months after it arrives are the only time you get to choose what comes next without answering a single health question.
If you are one of the people getting it, here is the whole job, in order:
- find out what your letter actually says,
- learn the window that protects you,
- make one choice, and
- do it before December 7.
None of it is hard. Most of it is knowing that this letter is different from the one you have thrown away for years.
The letter dated October 2
In late July, Humana - one of the largest Medicare Advantage insurers in the country - announced it is ending some of its plans in 2027. The number attached to it: about 600,000 members, or roughly 8 percent of everyone who has a Humana Medicare Advantage plan. This is the second year in a row Humana has closed plans. In plain terms, the company said the plans it is closing sit in the “lower tail of profitability” - a polite way of saying they did not make enough money.
If your plan is one of them, you will not hear it first from the news. You will hear it from a letter. Federal rules require the notice to be dated October 2 - the 90-day mark before a plan that ends December 31 - so it lands in the first week of October, two weeks before open enrollment even starts.
That timing is deliberate: you get the news before the shopping window opens, which means you have time. The letter is not a bill and not a threat. It is the start of a calendar that ends December 7.
First, which letter did you get?
Plans close in different ways, and your rights depend on which one is yours. Read the cover page before anything else. It will say one of these words: “discontinued,” “will no longer be offered,” or “not renewed.” That word tells you which path you are on.
Your plan is ending in your area. The company decided not to offer it where you live next year. This is the Humana situation. Your coverage ends December 31, and you have the full set of special rights described below.
Your plan is leaving Medicare entirely. The company is getting out of the Medicare Advantage business, or out of that product line altogether. Same result, same rights: your coverage ends, and the special window opens for you.
Your plan is changing, not ending. New name, folded into a sister plan, benefits and costs shuffled - but the plan still exists. If that is your letter, you are not in the plan-ending group. You are in the group that reads the September Annual Notice of Change, and the article on how to read the ANOC letter is the one written for you, along with the guide to what changes in 2027 for people keeping a plan. You can still shop and switch during open enrollment, but you do not get the special window - because you still have a plan, and that is exactly why the window exists only for people whose plan actually ends.
The window that protects you
Here is what normally happens when someone over 65 tries to buy a Medigap policy outside their first sign-up window: the insurer asks about your health, and it can say no, or it can charge you more for the conditions you have. This is why people feel trapped in a plan they do not like: leaving feels like a gamble with your medical history.
When your plan ends on the company’s decision, the rules flip. You get what Medicare calls a guaranteed-issue right, and it is as strong as it sounds:
- Insurers must sell you a Medigap policy. They cannot turn you down.
- They cannot ask health questions or use your medical history to price it.
- No waiting period for pre-existing conditions. No surcharge for being older or sicker. You pay the same standard rate as anyone else.
- You can buy any Medigap policy sold in your state, not just a short list.
For someone with a health condition, this may be the only time in their Medicare life they can ever get a Medigap policy. That is the silver lining inside a scary letter, and it is why the timing matters so much.
The choice, in plain terms
The plan-ending letter does not make the decision for you. It hands you a fork with two real options, and both are legitimate. Your job is to pick the one that fits, not the one that sounds more impressive.
Option one: another Medicare Advantage plan. Advantage plans bundle your hospital and doctor coverage into one private plan, usually with drug coverage and extras like dental, vision, or hearing built in. You use the plan’s network of doctors and hospitals, and the plan caps what you can pay out of pocket in a year. If you like having one card and one company, the simplest move is to pick another Advantage plan in your area. Do not just take the one the letter suggests - Humana expects about 40 percent of affected members to stay with the company, and if the letter names a replacement plan, treat it as one option among many. Compare it like any other: are your doctors in it, are your drugs on its list, and what does it actually cost?
Option two: Original Medicare with a Medigap policy and a drug plan. Original Medicare is the traditional coverage: it goes with you to any doctor or hospital in the country that accepts Medicare, no network to worry about. The catch is that it pays about 80 percent of most care, with no yearly cap on your share - which is exactly what Medigap exists to cover. You add a separate drug plan (Part D) for prescriptions. You pay a monthly Medigap premium on top of your Part B premium, and in exchange your out-of-pocket costs become small and predictable. This is the option the guaranteed-issue window makes possible - and for travelers, for people with serious conditions, or for anyone tired of network surprises, it is often the better long-term home.
Three questions decide it, and they are the same three questions for both forks: Are my doctors in it? Are my drugs on it? What do I pay in the worst month, not the best one? The free official Medicare Plan Finder lets you enter your zip code, your drugs, and your doctors and see every plan side by side - it is the same tool the counselors use. If you would rather talk to a human, your state’s SHIP counselors are free, they do not sell anything, and they walk through this exact decision every fall.
One warning before the steps: doing nothing is a choice, and it is the riskiest one. The plan ends December 31 no matter what. If you have not chosen something new by then, you do not stay in a version of your old plan - on January 1 you are back on Original Medicare, and the layers your Advantage plan bundled in are gone with it. If your plan included drug coverage, that ends too - and a gap of more than 63 days without it can bring a late-enrollment penalty that follows you for years. Doing nothing is not staying put. It is falling back by default, with none of the protections you could have locked in.
The order of what to do
When the envelope arrives, work it in this order:
One: read the cover page. Find the word - “discontinued” or “not renewed” - and confirm which group you are in. If the plan is ending, you are in the protected group. Set the letter aside somewhere safe. You will need it.
Two: write down the two dates. December 7, the last day to choose anything for January 1. And the end of your coverage, December 31. Everything else is decoration.
Three: look before you listen. If someone calls you offering to “help you keep your coverage” or “save your plan,” that call is not from Medicare and not from your plan. Medicare never calls you, and the one-question test from the scam series catches these callers every time. Take the name, hang up, and use the official tools: nobody legitimate needs your Medicare number to rescue your coverage, and nothing here is urgent enough to decide on a phone call.
Four: compare, then choose. Run the Plan Finder with your zip code, your drugs, and your doctors. Pick the Advantage plan that fits, or start the Medigap application for the policy you want. Apply early enough that your new coverage starts January 1, and you never have a day without protection.
Five: tell the person you trust. The article on the paperwork your family hopes you have applies here in miniature: one person should know the letter arrived, what you chose, and where the papers live.
What to do now, before the letter
If you are on a Humana plan - or any plan you have heard may be closing - you do not need to act before the letter lands. But do not let the envelope sit in the pile when it does. It starts your clock, and the clock is generous only if you read it.
If you are not in the plan-ending group, your job this month is the other letter: the Annual Notice of Change, due by September 30, which tells you what your continuing plan costs next year. Run the three ten-minute checks and you are done until December.
And either way, put December 7 on the calendar today. It is the one date that does not move, for everyone, no matter which letter they got.
The plan-ending letter reads like bad news, and in one sense it is: a company you trusted is walking away from your coverage. But it is also a rare thing in Medicare - the system telling you ahead of time that you get to choose, with no health exam, no fine print, and no one holding your medical history against you. That window is the whole ballgame. Read the letter, learn the dates, and use it.
I am not a Medicare counselor or a benefits expert. I am a grandmother who has read these letters for years, and I am telling you: this one deserves the ten minutes.
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