Medicare 2026

El Paso Medicare Annual Enrollment: your window to reshape 2027 coverage

EL PASO — The calendar page every Medicare household in El Paso County should circle is here: from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, 2026, you can change how your Medicare works for next year. Any choice you lock in during that window takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.

This is the once-a-year stretch when you can join, switch, or drop a Medicare Advantage plan, pick up or change a Part D drug plan, or return to Original Medicare. If you like what you have and your plan is being offered again next year, you don't need to do anything — your coverage renews on its own.

What you can actually change during AEP

The Annual Enrollment Period is broad on purpose. Between Oct. 15 and Dec. 7, 2026, you can:

• Join a Medicare Advantage plan for the first time (if you have Parts A and B).
• Switch from one Medicare Advantage plan to another.
• Drop Medicare Advantage and go back to Original Medicare (Parts A and B).
• Join a stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.
• Switch from one Part D plan to another.
• Drop your Part D plan.

If you move back to Original Medicare, you may also want to look into a Medigap (Medicare Supplement) policy, though the rules for buying one outside your initial window are different and worth asking about.

A quick timing note: a separate Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period runs Jan. 1 – March 31, 2027. That one is narrower — if you are already in a Medicare Advantage plan on Jan. 1, you get one chance to switch to a different Advantage plan or return to Original Medicare.

Why this fall is worth a careful read

Even if your plan name stays the same, the details can shift. The ANOC your plan mailed (or posted online) in late September shows exactly what is changing for 2027 — the premium, the drug list, the pharmacy network, the copays for visits you actually use.

In El Paso County this year, 18 plans are not being renewed for 2027, 16 are new, and 19 are being renamed. "Renamed" doesn't necessarily mean the plan itself is unchanged under the hood, so the ANOC is still the document to open.

A couple of program-wide figures CMS has already confirmed for 2027:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 in 2027 (up from $2,100 in 2026).
• The Part D maximum deductible rises to $700 in 2027 (up from $615 in 2026).

The 2027 Part B standard premium, Part B deductible, and the IRMAA income brackets have not been published yet. CMS normally announces those in the fall, usually in November. Don't let anyone quote you a 2027 Part B number before CMS releases it.

The El Paso County landscape

El Paso is in El Paso County, where plan availability is set at the county level. For plan year 2026, 91 Medicare Advantage plans from 12 carriers are offered in the county, and every one of them includes drug coverage. By type, that includes HMO, HMO-POS, PPO and PFFS plans, along with 39 Special Needs Plans designed for people with specific conditions, dual Medicare-Medicaid eligibility, or who live in an institutional setting.

The carriers offering Medicare Advantage in El Paso County include Aetna (CVS Health), Alignment Health Plan, Blue Cross Blue Shield (HCSC), Centene (WellCare), Devoted Health, El Paso Health Medicare Advantage, Elevance Health (Anthem), Humana, Molina Healthcare of Texas, ProCare Advantage, Provider Partners Health Plans and UnitedHealthcare. The full plan roster — every plan, with its type — is in the table below.

One local note: the CMS Landscape file shows no stand-alone Part D plans listed for El Paso County in that dataset. If you want drug coverage with Original Medicare, you'll still be able to shop stand-alone Part D plans available in Texas on the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov.

How to work through your choices

A sensible order of operations:

1. Read the ANOC for the plan you have now. Look at the premium, the drug tier for any medication you take, and whether your doctors and pharmacy are still in-network for 2027. 2. List your prescriptions with dosages. The Plan Finder at medicare.gov lets you enter them and see how each plan would price them. 3. Check your doctors against any plan you are considering. 4. Decide the structure first, the plan second — Original Medicare (with or without Medigap and Part D) versus Medicare Advantage. Each works differently with specialists, referrals and travel. 5. Make the change before Dec. 7, 2026. The newer of two choices wins if you enroll more than once, and the January effective date is the same either way.

If you take enough prescription drugs that cost spreads out matters, ask about the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, the optional program that lets you pay drug costs in monthly installments instead of all at once at the pharmacy.

Where to get free, local help

You don't have to figure this out alone, and you don't have to call a sales line.

• medicare.gov — the official Plan Finder, where you can enter your drugs and compare plans available in ZIP codes across El Paso.
• 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) — open 24/7.
• Texas SHIP (also known as HICAP) — the State Health Insurance Assistance Program offers free, one-on-one Medicare counseling with trained volunteers who do not sell insurance. Call the Texas Health Information, Counseling and Advocacy Program at 1-800-252-9240 to be connected with counselors serving El Paso.
• Area Agency on Aging of the Rio Grande — the local point of contact for benefits counseling for older adults in the El Paso region.