Medicare Advantage

Pflugerville Medicare Advantage options for this year

For 2027, Pflugerville is looking at 56 Medicare Advantage plans: 11 new, 15 gone since 2026, and 21 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 8 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Travis County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — If you're sorting through Medicare choices this fall, take a breath. You have more options than you might think — and you don't have to figure them all out in one sitting.

Pflugerville sits in Travis County, where 48 Medicare Advantage plans are available for 2027, offered by 8 different carriers. That's a wide field of choices for the roughly 146,000 Travis County residents age 65 and older. Knowing how the numbers break down is the first step to narrowing them down.

What "60 plans" really means

Sixty Medicare Advantage plans sounds like a lot — and it is. But that number includes different plan types (HMOs, PPOs, Special Needs Plans), different networks, and different drug coverage designs from the same handful of carriers. In Travis County, those 60 plans come from just 8 companies, so once you decide which carriers and plan types fit your situation, the list gets shorter fast.

It's also worth noting that Travis County currently shows 0 stand-alone Part D drug plans in the Medicare Advantage landscape file for this area's MA-PD lineup. Most people who want Advantage coverage here choose a plan that already includes drug coverage (an MA-PD). If you stick with Original Medicare and want drug coverage, you'd shop for a stand-alone Part D plan separately on Medicare.gov.

The dates that matter

Two enrollment windows drive most decisions:

• Annual Enrollment Period (AEP): Oct. 15 – Dec. 7. This is when anyone with Medicare can join, switch, or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan. Changes take effect Jan. 1.
• Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period: Jan. 1 – March 31. If you're already in a Medicare Advantage plan, you get one chance in this window to switch to another Advantage plan or return to Original Medicare.

Miss these windows and, in most cases, you're locked in until the next one — unless you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period (a move, a loss of other coverage, and similar life changes).

The 2027 numbers to keep in mind

A few program-wide figures apply no matter which plan you choose:

• $2,400 — the out-of-pocket cap on covered Part D prescription drugs for 2027 (it is $2,100 in 2026).
• $700 — the maximum Part D deductible a plan can charge in 2027, up from $615 in 2026 (plans can set it lower).
• The coverage gap ("donut hole") is gone. As of 2025, Part D has three phases instead of four.
• Medicare Prescription Payment Plan. This optional program lets you spread your yearly drug costs into monthly payments instead of paying big amounts at the pharmacy counter.
• IRMAA. Higher-income enrollees pay surcharges on Part B and Part D premiums; for 2026, those surcharges begin above $109,000 in income for a single filer.

How to narrow 60 plans down to one

You don't have to read 60 brochures. A simple order of operations helps:

1. Start with your doctors and hospitals. If keeping specific providers matters, check each plan's network before anything else. 2. List your prescriptions. Medicare's Plan Finder at Medicare.gov lets you enter your drugs and see how each plan covers them. 3. Think about how you use care. Do you travel? Prefer a referral-based HMO or a broader PPO? 4. Look at Star Ratings for context. Medicare rates plans from 1 to 5 stars on quality and service. In this area, 0 contracts are currently rated 4 stars or higher, so ratings alone won't do the sorting for you — treat them as one input among several. 5. Ask for help. A Texas SHIP counselor can walk through the list with you at no cost.

Where to get unbiased help

For personalized answers, start with official sources:

• Medicare.gov — the Plan Finder tool lets you compare plans side by side using your own drugs, pharmacies, and providers.
• 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) — available 24/7.
• Texas Health Information, Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP/SHIP) — free, one-on-one Medicare counseling from trained volunteers. Call 1-800-252-9240 to find a counselor near Pflugerville.