Medicare Advantage

Before You Renew Medicare in Milwaukee, Read the ANOC

People in Milwaukee can choose from 52 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 52 this year. Six of this year’s plans are gone, 6 are new to Milwaukee County, and 31 that continue have changed their premium, deductible, plan type or name, 12 of them under a new name.

MILWAUKEE — Fall 2026. The envelopes started landing in September. If you have a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan, the booklet labeled Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) is the single most important piece of mail you'll get this season — it spells out what your plan will look like on January 1, 2027. You have until December 7, 2026 to make a change for next year.

Here is a plain-English checklist built for Milwaukee County readers, so you can finish your review without the stress.

Step 1: Read the Annual Notice of Change

Your ANOC arrived (or will arrive) by late September. It compares your 2026 plan with your 2027 plan line by line: monthly premium, deductible, primary care and specialist copays, drug tiers, and extras like dental or vision. Flag anything that changed — especially the drug formulary and the pharmacy network, which quietly shift the most from year to year.

Keep the longer Evidence of Coverage booklet nearby too. That is the full rulebook for how your plan works in 2027.

Step 2: Check your doctors and hospitals

Networks change every year. Before December 7:

• Call your primary care doctor's office and ask whether they will be in-network with your 2027 plan.
• Do the same for any specialists you see regularly.
• Confirm the hospital system you use — Froedtert, Aurora, Ascension, Children's or the Milwaukee VA, depending on your care — is still contracted.
• If you travel between Wisconsin and another state, ask how the plan handles out-of-area care.

Don't rely only on the online directory. A quick phone call to the office is the surest confirmation.

Step 3: Price your prescriptions for 2027

Drug coverage is where surprises hide. Pull your current medication list and run it through the Medicare Plan Finder at Medicare.gov, which shows your estimated 2027 drug costs at specific Milwaukee-area pharmacies.

A few program-level facts to keep in mind:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026 and will rise to $2,400 in 2027.
• The Part D maximum deductible is $615 in 2026 and will be $700 in 2027.
• The coverage gap (the old "donut hole") was eliminated in 2025 — Part D now has three phases.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread your drug costs across the year in monthly installments if you choose.

Step 4: Know what's available in Milwaukee County

Milwaukee is in Milwaukee County, where CMS lists 52 Medicare Advantage plans from 7 carriers for the 2026 plan year, including 18 Special Needs Plans. All of them include drug coverage. The carriers offering plans in the county are:

• Aetna (CVS Health)
• Centene (WellCare)
• Elevance Health (Anthem)
• Humana
• Molina Healthcare of Wisconsin
• Network Health Medicare Advantage Plans
• UnitedHealthcare

The table below lists every plan available in the county. Use it as a starting point for your Plan Finder comparison — not as a ranking.

Remember you also have the option of Original Medicare (Parts A and B) plus a standalone Part D drug plan, often paired with a Medigap (Medicare Supplement) policy.

Step 5: Check if you qualify for extra help

If your income or health situation changed in 2026, look at:

• Extra Help (Low Income Subsidy) for Part D costs.
• Medicare Savings Programs through Wisconsin Medicaid, which can help pay Part B premiums.
• Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) if you qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid.
• Chronic Condition Special Needs Plans (C-SNPs) if you have a qualifying condition.

Milwaukee County has 18 Special Needs Plans in the mix — enough that it's worth asking whether one fits.

Step 6: Mark the deadline and act

December 7, 2026 is the hard stop for Annual Enrollment choices. If you do nothing, your current plan renews on January 1, 2027 with the changes in your ANOC. If you want something different, you need to enroll by December 7.

One more date to tuck away: if you end up in a Medicare Advantage plan on January 1 and it isn't the right fit, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (January 1 – March 31, 2027) gives you one chance to switch to another MA plan or return to Original Medicare.

A quick note on Part B: CMS typically announces the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, along with the IRMAA income brackets, later in the fall. Watch Medicare.gov for those figures.