Medicare 2026

Medicare's Dec. 7 Deadline: What Lebanon Residents Can Do Now

If you have Medicare and live in Lebanon, this is the busiest stretch of your Medicare year. The Annual Enrollment Period runs from October 15 through December 7, and any choice you make now takes effect on January 1, 2027. After December 7, most people lose the chance to switch until later in the year — and some options close entirely.

Lebanon, Pa. — The clock is ticking on Medicare's fall window

This is not a time to panic, but it is a good time to sit down for an hour and look at what you have.

What you can actually do between now and December 7

The Annual Enrollment Period (sometimes called AEP or the fall Open Enrollment) is the one window where nearly every kind of change is on the table. During AEP, according to Medicare.gov, you can:

• Switch from Original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan, or the other way around.
• Switch from one Medicare Advantage plan to another.
• Join a stand-alone Part D prescription drug plan, drop one, or switch to a different one.

Any change you make during this window starts January 1, 2027. If you make more than one change before December 7, the last one you submit is the one that sticks.

One thing AEP does not cover: buying or switching a Medigap (Medicare Supplement) policy. Those follow their own rules, and outside of your first Medigap window, insurers can ask health questions. If Medigap is on your mind, that's a separate conversation worth having with your local SHIP counselor.

Why 2027 is a year to actually read your mail

A few program-level changes make this fall different from past years:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027. Once your covered drug spending hits that ceiling, you pay nothing for covered prescriptions the rest of the year.
• The Part D deductible can be no higher than $615 in 2026, rising to $700 in 2027. Plans can charge less, but not more.
• The old "donut hole" is gone. As of 2025, Part D has three simpler phases — deductible, initial coverage, and catastrophic.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread your drug costs across the calendar year in monthly installments instead of paying a big bill at the pharmacy counter. It's optional, and you have to opt in.
• IRMAA, the income-related surcharge on Part B and Part D, kicks in above $109,000 in income for a single filer in 2026.

The point isn't to memorize any of that. The point is that the fine print in your Annual Notice of Change (the ANOC your plan mailed you in September) matters more this year than usual. Premiums, drug tiers, and pharmacy networks can shift from one year to the next — even if the plan's name looks the same. The 2027 plan lineup for Lebanon County is in each plan's ANOC and on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder.

What Lebanon County residents should check

Lebanon is in Lebanon County, and Medicare plan availability — both Medicare Advantage and stand-alone Part D — is set at the county level. That means the menu of plans on offer here can look different from what a friend in Dauphin or Berks County sees.

A short checklist before you decide anything:

1. Your drugs. Pull out your prescription bottles and compare them against next year's plan formulary. A drug that was on Tier 2 in 2026 may not be in 2027. 2. Your doctors. If you're in Medicare Advantage, confirm your primary care doctor and any specialists are still in-network for 2027. 3. Your pharmacy. Preferred pharmacy networks change. The pharmacy you've used for a decade may or may not still be "preferred." 4. Your total cost, not just the premium. A low monthly premium can hide a higher deductible or higher copays on the medicines you actually take.

What happens if you do nothing

You don't have to do anything. If you're happy with your current coverage and it's still being offered in 2027, you'll generally roll into next year's version of the same plan automatically. Just be sure that "next year's version" still fits — because the plan is allowed to change even if you don't.

If your current plan is being discontinued, Medicare will send you a notice, and you'll have a special window to pick something new.

After December 7: what's still possible

Missing the deadline isn't the end of the world, but your choices narrow:

• January 1 – March 31 is the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period. If you're already in a Medicare Advantage plan, you can switch to a different one, or drop it and return to Original Medicare (with a Part D plan). People on Original Medicare cannot use this window to jump into Advantage.
• Special Enrollment Periods may open if you move, lose other coverage, or qualify for Extra Help.