Medicare Advantage

Is Your 2027 Medicare Plan Still a Fit? Check Now

King County has 59 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 27 plans are not coming back, 18 are new, and 31 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 10 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for Seattle, not which plan to pick.

Seattle — It is fall 2026, and the thick envelope that landed in Seattle mailboxes in late September is the single most important piece of Medicare paper you will see all year. It is called the Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC, and it tells you exactly how your current Medicare Advantage or Part D plan will be different on January 1, 2027. The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, and anything you change in that window takes effect at the start of the new year.

If you do nothing, your plan simply renews with the changes the ANOC describes. That is fine for some people and a problem for others — which is why reading the notice, and checking a few things against next year's plan, is worth an hour of your time.

Start with the ANOC — what to actually look for

The ANOC compares your plan's 2026 rules to its 2027 rules, side by side. Open it with a highlighter and look for:

• The monthly premium for 2027, and any change to the plan deductible.
• Primary care, specialist and urgent care copays.
• The hospital cost-sharing (what you pay per day for an inpatient stay).
• Changes to the maximum out-of-pocket limit.
• Changes to extra benefits you actually use — dental, vision, hearing, over-the-counter allowance, fitness, transportation.
• For drug plans, any change to the tiers your medications sit on, and any new prior authorization or step therapy.

If the ANOC is missing or you tossed it, call the plan directly and ask them to resend it, or pull it from your member portal. The Evidence of Coverage (EOC) is the longer document with the full rules — useful if you want to dig deeper on a specific benefit.

Check your doctors and Seattle hospitals for 2027

Networks shift every year. Before you decide to stay, confirm that your primary care doctor, your specialists and the hospital you prefer — whether that is UW Medicine, Swedish, Virginia Mason Franciscan, Kaiser Permanente or another system — are in the plan's 2027 network. Do not rely on last year's directory. Ask each office directly whether they will accept your plan in 2027, and check the plan's online provider search for the new plan year.

Seattle is in King County, and the plan a clinic takes can vary by location and by product line (HMO vs. PPO vs. a Special Needs Plan), so be specific when you ask.

Check every prescription against the 2027 formulary

Each Medicare plan with drug coverage publishes a formulary — the list of drugs it covers and the tier each drug sits on. The 2027 formulary is what matters now, not the 2026 one.

For every prescription you take:

• Confirm it is still on the formulary.
• Note what tier it is on (tiers often shift year to year).
• Check for new restrictions like prior authorization, step therapy or quantity limits.
• Make sure your usual pharmacy — including mail order, if you use it — is still in the plan's preferred network.

Two numbers worth knowing for 2027: the Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 (up from $2,100 in 2026), and the Part D maximum deductible rises to $700 (up from $615 in 2026). The coverage gap was eliminated in 2025, so Part D now has three phases. If your drug costs are high, ask the plan about the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which lets you spread what you owe at the pharmacy across the calendar year in monthly installments.

Know what Seattle's 2027 landscape looks like

If your current plan no longer works, you have company options. For 2027, King County will have 68 Medicare Advantage plans from 10 carriers: Aetna (CVS Health), AgeRight Advantage, Centene (WellCare), Community Health Plan of WA Medicare Advantage, Elevance Health (Anthem), Humana, Kaiser Permanente, Molina Healthcare of Washington, Regence BlueShield and UnitedHealthcare. By type, that breaks down to 24 HMOs, 15 HMO-POS plans and 29 PPOs; 31 of the 68 are Special Needs Plans for people with specific situations (dual Medicare-Medicaid eligibility, certain chronic conditions, or residence in an institution); all 68 include drug coverage. The table below lists every plan.

The Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov is the cleanest place to compare them side by side. You can enter your prescriptions, your pharmacies and your preferred providers, and it will show how each plan handles them.

A simple pre-December 7 checklist

Work through these in order:

1. Read your ANOC and mark anything that changes. 2. List your doctors, hospitals and medications on one sheet of paper. 3. Confirm each one against the plan's 2027 directory and formulary. 4. If anything important is dropping, compare at least two alternatives on the Plan Finder. 5. If you want help, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) — it is open 24/7. 6. If you decide to switch, enroll by December 7, 2026.

A few 2027 numbers are not out yet. The standard Part B premium and deductible for 2027, and the updated IRMAA income brackets and surcharges, are published by CMS later in the fall — typically in November. For now, the 2026 IRMAA surcharges begin above $109,000 in income for a single filer.