Medicare 2026

SHIP/NJ and Licensed Agents: Medicare Help in Jackson Township

Sorting through Medicare choices in Jackson Township can feel overwhelming, especially when your mailbox fills up each fall with plan brochures and TV ads. The good news: you don't have to figure it out alone, and you don't have to pay for honest guidance. New Jersey's State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) — known locally as SHIP/NJ — offers free, one-on-one Medicare counseling, and licensed insurance agents can walk you through plan-specific details when you're ready to compare options.

Start with SHIP for unbiased help

SHIP stands for State Health Insurance Assistance Program. It's a federally funded program staffed by trained counselors and volunteers who don't sell insurance and don't earn commissions. That independence is the whole point — SHIP exists to help you understand your Medicare choices, not to steer you toward any product.

In New Jersey, the program is run through the Division of Aging Services and operates locally through county offices. Ocean County residents, including those in Jackson Township, can reach SHIP by calling the New Jersey SHIP hotline at 1-800-792-8820 or the Ocean County Office of Senior Services. Counselors can help you:

• Understand how Parts A, B, C, and D fit together
• Compare Medicare Advantage and Medigap approaches
• Review Extra Help and Medicare Savings Programs if money is tight
• Sort out a bill, denial, or appeal

Appointments are usually free and can be done by phone or in person.

When a licensed agent makes sense

SHIP counselors won't enroll you in a specific plan. Once you've decided what type of coverage fits — say, a Medicare Advantage plan with drug coverage, or Original Medicare paired with a Medigap and a Part D plan — a licensed insurance agent can walk you through the plans available in your ZIP code and handle enrollment.

A few tips when working with an agent:

• Ask which carriers they're contracted with. Some represent many; some represent only one.
• Confirm they're licensed in New Jersey.
• You are never required to enroll on the spot.
• Agents must follow CMS marketing rules, including a "scope of appointment" form before discussing specific plans.

What's available in the area

Jackson Township is in Ocean County, where Medicare plan availability is set at the county level. For the 2026 plan year, Ocean County had 47 Medicare Advantage plans on offer from 10 different carriers. There were no stand-alone Part D prescription drug plans reported in the county's landscape file for 2026, which means most drug coverage in the area came bundled inside Medicare Advantage plans (MA-PD). The 2027 lineup is in each plan's ANOC and on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder.

With roughly 148,000 residents age 65 and older in Ocean County, this is a market with strong demand for guidance — and that's exactly why unbiased resources matter.

Key 2027 rules worth knowing

Whether you talk to a SHIP counselor or an agent, a few program-wide facts for 2026 are worth having in mind:

• Part D out-of-pocket cap: $2,100 per year. Once you hit that, you pay $0 for covered drugs the rest of the year.
• Part D maximum deductible: $615.
• No more donut hole: As of 2025, the coverage gap phase is gone. Part D now has three phases instead of four.
• Medicare Prescription Payment Plan: You can ask to spread your drug out-of-pocket costs across the year in monthly payments, at no extra charge.
• IRMAA: Higher-income beneficiaries pay surcharges on Parts B and D. In 2026, IRMAA starts above $109,000 in income for a single filer.

Important dates

• Annual Enrollment Period (AEP): Oct. 15 – Dec. 7, 2026. This is when most people can join, drop, or switch Medicare Advantage and Part D plans for 2027.
• Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment: Jan. 1 – March 31. If you're already in a Medicare Advantage plan, you get one chance to switch to another MA plan or return to Original Medicare.

Missing a window can lock you into a plan for a full year, so it's worth putting these dates on the calendar.