Medicare Advantage

Laramie Medicare: Counting Advantage, Medigap, Part D Choices

LARAMIE, Wyo. — If you're turning 65, helping a parent sort through mail, or just tired of the flood of TV ads, here's the short version for our corner of Wyoming: Medicare beneficiaries in Laramie have a manageable — but real — set of choices to compare for 2027.

Laramie Medicare shoppers weigh their Advantage options for 2027

Laramie sits in Albany County, where 8 Medicare Advantage plans were available for the 2026 plan year, offered by 2 carriers, according to CMS Medicare Plan Finder data. The 2027 count is in each plan's ANOC and on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder. Fewer plans than a big metro area, yes, but still enough that reading the fine print matters.

What the numbers look like in Albany County

Here's the local snapshot at a glance:

• Medicare Advantage plans available: 8
• Carriers offering Medicare Advantage with drug coverage: 2
• Stand-alone Part D (drug-only) plans available: 0 at the county level in the Plan Finder dataset — most Laramie residents who want drug coverage will look at it through a Medicare Advantage plan or through the broader Wyoming Part D market on medicare.gov.
• Contracts rated 4 stars or higher in the area: 0 for 2026. Star Ratings are CMS's quality scores; they change each year and are one input among many, not a verdict on any single plan.
• Population age 65+ in Albany County: about 5,169 residents.

These are county-level availability counts. They tell you how big the menu is — not which item on it fits you.

A quick refresher on how Medicare is put together

Original Medicare has two main pieces: Part A (hospital) and Part B (doctor and outpatient). From there, people generally go one of two directions:

1. Original Medicare, often paired with a stand-alone Part D drug plan and sometimes a Medigap (supplement) policy. 2. Medicare Advantage (Part C), a private plan that bundles Part A, Part B, and usually Part D into one package.

In Albany County, the 8 Medicare Advantage plans fall into that second bucket. If you prefer the Original Medicare route, your Part D and Medigap choices come from separate statewide markets, not from the county Advantage count.

Program-level facts worth knowing for 2027

No matter which direction you go, a few national Medicare figures are set for 2027:

• Part D out-of-pocket cap: $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027. Once your drug spending hits that ceiling, you pay nothing for covered drugs the rest of the year.
• Part D maximum deductible: $615 in 2026 and $700 in 2027.
• The coverage gap ("donut hole") is gone as of 2025. Part D now has three phases instead of four.
• Medicare Prescription Payment Plan: an optional feature that lets you spread your drug costs across the calendar year in monthly installments instead of paying big amounts at the pharmacy counter.
• IRMAA (the income-related surcharge on Part B and Part D) starts above $109,000 in income for a single filer in 2026.

Enrollment windows to circle on the calendar

• Annual Enrollment Period: October 15 – December 7, 2026. This is when most people compare and switch plans for 2027.
• Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment: January 1 – March 31. If you're already in an Advantage plan and it isn't working, you get one more chance to switch or drop back to Original Medicare.
• Initial Enrollment Period: the 7-month window around your 65th birthday.

Missing a deadline can mean waiting months for coverage or paying a late penalty for life, so it's worth marking the dates.