Medicare Advantage

Norwich Medicare 2027: New London County Options

NORWICH, Conn. — If you live in Norwich and you're sorting through your Medicare choices for 2027, here's some context on the field: New London County had 38 Medicare Advantage plans available for 2026, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plan landscape data. The 2027 lineup is detailed in each plan's Annual Notice of Change and on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder. Knowing how the field is shaped can make the Annual Enrollment Period feel a lot less overwhelming.

This article is about the count of options available near you — not a comparison of benefits, premiums, or specific plans. For that, medicare.gov's Plan Finder is the tool built for the job.

The snapshot for New London County

Norwich sits in New London County, and Medicare plan availability is set at the county level. Here's what the CMS landscape files showed for 2026 (the 2027 lineup is in each plan's ANOC and on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder):

• 38 Medicare Advantage plans available in the county
• 7 carriers offering Medicare Advantage with prescription drug coverage (MA-PD)
• 4 contracts rated 4 stars or higher in the local Medicare Advantage market under CMS's 2026 Star Ratings
• Connecticut has 11 stand-alone Part D plans for 2026, sold statewide and available to Original Medicare enrollees in the county

A quick note on how PDPs are sold: stand-alone Part D plans are offered by CMS region, not by county, so the same statewide list is available to every Connecticut resident — Connecticut has 11 stand-alone Part D plans for 2026, sold statewide. When you use Plan Finder with your Norwich ZIP code, you'll see the PDPs available to you.

What "38 plans" really means for a shopper

Thirty-eight is the raw count of Medicare Advantage plans offered in the county — but that number overstates how many are truly relevant to any one person. A few reasons why:

• Some plans are HMOs, some are PPOs, and some are Special Needs Plans (SNPs) designed for people with specific conditions or dual Medicare-Medicaid eligibility. If you don't qualify for an SNP, it's not on your menu.
• Plans differ in the doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies they contract with. A plan is only useful if the providers you want to see are in-network.
• Drug formularies vary. Two plans with similar-looking coverage can treat the same medication very differently.

The practical takeaway: 38 is the size of the shelf, not the size of your short list.

The 7 carriers piece

Seven different insurance companies offered MA-PD plans in New London County for 2026. That matters because carriers set the networks and the customer service experience. If you've had a good — or frustrating — experience with a specific insurer in the past, that's a reasonable filter to apply before you start comparing individual plans. The 2027 carrier lineup is on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder.

Program-level changes you should know for 2027

Separate from the local counts, a few Medicare-wide figures apply in 2027:

• Part D out-of-pocket cap: $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027. Once your out-of-pocket spending on covered drugs reaches the annual cap, you pay nothing for covered prescriptions for the rest of that year.
• Part D deductible: up to $615 in 2026 ($700 in 2027). That's the maximum a plan can charge; some charge less.
• No more "donut hole." The old coverage gap was eliminated in 2025. Part D now has three phases: deductible, initial coverage, and catastrophic.
• Medicare Prescription Payment Plan. This is an optional program that lets you spread your drug costs across monthly payments instead of paying large amounts at the pharmacy counter. You have to opt in through your plan.
• IRMAA. Higher-income enrollees pay income-related surcharges on Part B and Part D. For a single filer in 2026, IRMAA starts above $109,000 in modified adjusted gross income (based on your 2024 tax return).

Dates to circle

• Annual Enrollment Period (AEP): October 15 – December 7. This is when you can join, switch, or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan for coverage starting January 1.
• Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period: January 1 – March 31. If you're already in a Medicare Advantage plan, you get one chance during this window to switch to another MA plan or return to Original Medicare.

If you do nothing during AEP, your current plan generally rolls over into 2027 — but the plan itself may change. Every fall, your plan sends an Annual Notice of Change (ANOC). Read it. That's how you find out if your premium, drug list, or network is shifting for the new year.