Medicare Advantage

Medicare in Mentor: 105 plan choices in Lake County for 2026

Lake County Medicare plan counts and how to compare your 2027 options during the Oct. 15–Dec. 7, 2026 Annual Enrollment Period.

MENTOR, Ohio — If you are shopping for Medicare coverage in Mentor this fall for 2027, you have a lot of choices to sort through. Mentor is in Lake County, where 105 Medicare Advantage plans were available for 2026, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Plan Finder and Landscape files. The 2027 lineup is in each plan's ANOC and on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder. It is normal to feel a little overwhelmed before you narrow it down.

What the numbers look like in Lake County

For 2026, CMS listed 105 Medicare Advantage plans available to people living in Lake County, spread across 15 carriers offering Medicare Advantage with prescription drug coverage (MA-PD). The 2027 count is published in each plan's ANOC and on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder. Plan availability in Medicare is set by county, not by city, so anyone with a Mentor address falls under the Lake County menu.

Roughly 50,308 Lake County residents are age 65 or older, so this is a decision that touches a large share of local households.

One note on stand-alone Part D drug plans: those are counted separately from Medicare Advantage and are available statewide in Ohio. If you stick with Original Medicare and want drug coverage, you would pair it with a stand-alone Part D plan from the Ohio list on medicare.gov.

Why so many plans?

The number of Medicare Advantage plans has grown steadily nationwide over the last several years, and Northeast Ohio is no exception. More carriers have entered the market, and existing carriers often offer several plan versions in the same county — for example, an HMO version and a PPO version, or plans aimed at people who also qualify for Medicaid.

That is why a single county can show a triple-digit plan count even though only 15 carriers are behind them.

How to narrow 105 plans down to one

A big list is easier to handle when you filter it with your own facts. A few questions worth writing down before you start:

• Which doctors and hospitals do you want to keep? Networks vary from plan to plan, so this is often the fastest way to shrink the list.
• What prescriptions do you take? Every Part D and MA-PD plan has its own formulary (drug list) and pharmacy network.
• Do you travel or split time out of state? That affects whether an HMO or PPO makes more sense.
• Do you already have retiree, VA, or union coverage? Adding Medicare Advantage on top can sometimes create conflicts.

Medicare’s Plan Finder at medicare.gov lets you type in your ZIP code, your drugs, and your preferred pharmacies, then compare plans side by side using official data.

Key Part D rules for 2026 and 2027

A few program-wide facts apply no matter which plan you land on:

• Part D out-of-pocket cap: $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027. Once your covered drug spending hits that ceiling, you pay nothing for covered drugs the rest of the year.
• Part D deductible: plans can charge up to $615 in 2026 and up to $700 in 2027, but many charge less.
• The coverage gap (“donut hole”) is gone as of 2025. Part D now has three phases: deductible, initial coverage, and catastrophic.
• Medicare Prescription Payment Plan: an optional program that lets you spread your drug costs into monthly payments instead of paying at the pharmacy counter.
• IRMAA: higher-income beneficiaries pay extra for Parts B and D. In 2026, the surcharge starts above $109,000 in income for a single filer.

What Star Ratings mean (and don’t mean)

CMS rates Medicare Advantage and Part D contracts on a 1-to-5 star scale based on things like customer service, member complaints, and preventive care. Stars are one useful data point, but they are not the whole story — a plan with fewer stars could still be the right fit if it covers your doctors and drugs well. Look at stars alongside network, formulary, and total cost.

Important dates

• Oct. 15 – Dec. 7: Medicare Annual Enrollment Period. You can join, switch, or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan. Changes take effect Jan. 1.
• Jan. 1 – March 31: Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period. If you are already in a Medicare Advantage plan, you get one chance to switch to another MA plan or return to Original Medicare (and add a Part D plan).

Where to get unbiased help

• medicare.gov — the official Plan Finder, updated each fall with the new year's plans, including 2027.
• 1-800-MEDICARE — 24/7 phone line staffed by CMS.
• Ohio SHIP (OSHIIP): the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program offers free, one-on-one Medicare counseling from trained volunteers who don’t sell insurance.