Medicare 2026

Before December 7: what Louisville needs to know for 2027

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — As fall 2026 arrives and the Annual Enrollment Period opens October 15, Louisville residents have a mix of hard facts and open questions to work with for 2027 coverage. CMS has already set the Part D numbers that will shape every drug plan next year. It has not yet released the 2027 Part B premium, the Part B deductible, or the IRMAA income brackets. Those come later this fall, usually in November.

That means part of your 2027 picture is clear right now, and part of it will fill in before the December 7 deadline.

What's confirmed for Part D in 2027

CMS has published the three Part D figures that anchor the drug benefit next year:

• Part D out-of-pocket cap: $2,400 in 2027 (up from $2,100 in 2026). Once your out-of-pocket drug spending hits that cap, you pay $0 for covered Part D drugs for the rest of the year.
• Part D maximum deductible: $700 in 2027 (up from $615 in 2026). Plans may charge less, but no Part D deductible can be higher than $700.
• Part D national base beneficiary premium: $41.33 for 2027. This is a formula input CMS uses — it is not what any particular plan charges.

The coverage gap (the old "donut hole") remains gone. Part D has three phases now: deductible, initial coverage, and catastrophic. The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan — the option to spread your drug costs across the year in monthly bills instead of paying at the pharmacy — continues in 2027.

What CMS has not yet announced

Two big pieces are still pending as of September 2026:

• The 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible. CMS typically releases these in November.
• The 2027 IRMAA income brackets and surcharges, which decide whether higher-income enrollees pay extra for Part B and Part D. These come out with the Part B figures.

For reference, IRMAA surcharges in 2026 begin above $109,000 in income for a single filer. We will not know the 2027 thresholds until CMS posts them. Be cautious of any source quoting "projected" 2027 Part B numbers — those are estimates, not the official figures.

Your Annual Notice of Change letter

If you are already in a Medicare Advantage or stand-alone Part D plan, your plan mailed you an Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) by the end of September. This letter is the single most important piece of mail you will get this fall. It compares your plan in 2026 to the same plan in 2027, line by line:

• Monthly premium
• Deductible and copays
• Drug formulary changes
• Provider and pharmacy network changes
• Extra benefits (dental, vision, hearing, OTC allowances, etc.)

If you do nothing during AEP, your current plan renews on January 1, 2027 with those changes baked in — assuming the plan is still offered. Read the ANOC with your prescriptions and your doctors in mind. If something you rely on changes, that is your cue to compare options.

How plan availability moves in Jefferson County

Louisville is in Jefferson County, where CMS data show 67 Medicare Advantage plans from 10 carriers for 2026. The table below lists every plan available in the county. All 67 include drug coverage; 28 are Special Needs Plans (D-SNP, C-SNP, or I-SNP) built for people with specific eligibility, such as both Medicare and Medicaid, certain chronic conditions, or institutional status.

For 2027, CMS filings show movement in the county: 13 plans are not returning, 13 are new, and 9 are renamed. The ANOC will tell you specifically if your plan is one of them. A renamed plan is not necessarily the same plan — the benefits can change too.

Carriers offering MA-PD plans in the county for 2026 include Abilis Health, Aetna (CVS Health), Centene (WellCare), Devoted Health, Elevance Health (Anthem), Essence Healthcare, Humana, Passport Advantage, Provider Partners Health Plans, and UnitedHealthcare. Humana offers the most plans in the county at 25; UnitedHealthcare offers 12 and Centene (WellCare) offers 9.

One thing to note: there are no stand-alone Part D plans listed in the Jefferson County landscape data for drug-only coverage shoppers in the way Medicare Advantage dominates here. If you are on Original Medicare and need Part D, use Medicare Plan Finder to see every stand-alone PDP available by ZIP code — those are set at a broader regional level.

Jefferson County has about 134,317 residents age 65 or older, which is why the local Medicare market is as active as it is.

A simple way to work through AEP

You have from October 15 through December 7, 2026 to make a change for 2027. There is no advantage to deciding on day one. A reasonable order:

1. Read your ANOC and highlight anything that changed. 2. List your current prescriptions, doctors, and preferred pharmacies. 3. Use the Plan Finder at medicare.gov to compare your current plan against others side by side with your actual drugs entered. 4. Call 1-800-MEDICARE or Kentucky's SHIP program (the State Health Insurance Assistance Program) for free, unbiased help. In Kentucky, SHIP is run through the Department for Aging and Independent Living. 5. If you want to stay in your plan, you do not need to do anything. It renews automatically if it is being offered in 2027.

If you choose a Medicare Advantage plan in AEP and change your mind, you also have the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period from January 1 to March 31, 2027 to switch MA plans once or return to Original Medicare.