Seven in ten people on Medicare don't compare their options. Here's what they may miss.

Every fall, people with Medicare get the same choice: keep what you have, or look at something else. Open Enrollment runs October 15 through December 7.

Most people don't look.

KFF, the health policy research group, went through federal survey data on the 2021 Open Enrollment Period, the one that set coverage for 2022. Sixty-nine percent of people with Medicare did not compare their coverage with anything else.

Among people in Medicare Advantage plans, 43 percent didn't check their own plan for changes in premiums or out-of-pocket costs. Forty-four percent didn't check for changes in covered treatments, drugs, or services. For people 85 and older, nearly 60 percent skipped both.

Why that matters

Plans change. Every September, your plan mails you an Annual Notice of Change. It's the document that tells you what your copays, your drug tiers, your pharmacies, your doctor network, and your prior-approval rules will look like in January. It is also, by most accounts, the document people are least likely to open.

Here is what we hear at 64Plus, in people's own words, when they finally do:

"My prescription didn't change. Why did the price?"

"Is my doctor still in the network? The website says one thing and the office says another."

"My premium is $0. Why do I owe $60 for a specialist visit?"

None of these people made a mistake. They trusted that the plan they picked would stay the plan they picked. Medicare doesn't work that way, and nobody told them.

Keeping your plan is not the risk. Keeping it without reading the changes is.

Start with the notice

If your Annual Notice of Change is still sealed, open it tonight. Find the summary of important changes, usually in the first few pages, and hold it up against the doctors, prescriptions, and care you expect to need next year. If something moved, you have until December 7 to do something about it.

If you're not sure what you're looking at, ask us. You can ask the question you actually have, in the words you'd use with a neighbor, and get a plain-language answer sourced to Medicare.gov. If you want to go further, you can compare how the plans in your county handle your doctors and your prescriptions.

We don't sell Medicare plans. We don't take money from insurance companies. And we won't call you unless you ask us to.

Sources: KFF, "Nearly 7 in 10 Medicare Beneficiaries Did Not Compare Plans During Medicare's Open Enrollment Period," September 26, 2024; Medicare.gov, "Plan Annual Notice of Change" and "Open Enrollment."

64Plus is an independent educational resource. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government or the federal Medicare program.