Medicare Supplement

New to Medicare in Tempe? Here Are Your Medigap Letters

Medicare Supplement Insurance — better known as Medigap — is one of the more misunderstood pieces of the Medicare puzzle. In Tempe, the good news is that the rules are simpler than they look, because Medigap plans are standardized by the federal government. Once you understand the letters, you can compare policies on an apples-to-apples basis anywhere in Arizona.

What Medigap does — and what it doesn't

Original Medicare pays most of your hospital and doctor costs, but it leaves you responsible for deductibles, coinsurance and some copays with no annual out-of-pocket limit. A Medigap policy is private insurance that fills in some or all of those gaps.

A few points worth remembering:

• Medigap works only with Original Medicare. You cannot use it alongside a Medicare Advantage plan.
• Medigap does not cover prescription drugs. If you want drug coverage, you pair it with a stand-alone Part D plan.
• Medigap does not cover most dental, vision, hearing or long-term care.

The standardized letters you can buy in Arizona

Because Medigap is federally standardized (in every state except Massachusetts, Minnesota and Wisconsin, which use their own systems), a Plan G from one insurer covers the same benefits as a Plan G from another. That is the single most useful thing to know when shopping.

If you are newly eligible for Medicare today, the letters available in Arizona are:

• Plan A — the basic benefits package.
• Plan B — adds the Part A hospital deductible to Plan A.
• Plan D — broader coverage without the Part B deductible benefit.
• Plan G — the most comprehensive plan open to new enrollees; you pay the Part B deductible, and the plan picks up most other gaps.
• Plan G-HD — a high-deductible version of Plan G, with a large annual deductible before benefits kick in.
• Plan K and Plan L — cost-sharing plans that pay a percentage of certain gaps, with an annual out-of-pocket limit.
• Plan M — splits the Part A deductible with you and skips the Part B deductible.
• Plan N — a lower-premium alternative to Plan G, with small copays for some office and ER visits.

Plans C and F are only available to people who were eligible for Medicare before January 1, 2020. If a friend or family member has one of those, they can keep it, but a newer enrollee cannot buy one.

How Medigap pairs with Part D in 2026

Because Medigap does not include drug coverage, most people in Tempe pair a Medigap policy with a stand-alone Medicare Part D plan. A few 2026 numbers to know:

• The Part D annual out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026.
• The maximum Part D deductible a plan can charge is $615.
• The old coverage gap ("donut hole") was eliminated in 2025; Part D now has three phases.
• If drug costs are uneven month to month, the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread them across the calendar year.
• Higher-income enrollees pay an IRMAA surcharge on Part B and Part D premiums; for single filers in 2026, this begins above $109,000 in income.

You can add or change a Part D plan during the Annual Enrollment Period (October 15 – December 7) each year.

The insurers selling Medigap in Arizona

Because benefits inside a letter are identical, shopping Medigap really means comparing companies, not benefits. Well-known names selling Medigap in Arizona include AARP – UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, Aetna Health and Life Insurance Company, BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona, Humana Insurance Company, Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and USAA Life Insurance Company, among many others.

Not every insurer offers every letter. For example, some carriers focus on Plans A, F, G and N, while others also sell Plan G-HD or Plan K. The table below lists every insurer approved to sell Medigap in Arizona and which letters each one offers.

Arizona rules and enrollment rights that shape your choice

A few state and federal rules do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to timing:

• Medigap Open Enrollment Period. This is a one-time, six-month window that starts the month you are 65 or older AND enrolled in Part B. During this window, any Medigap insurer in Arizona must sell you any policy they offer at the best available rate, regardless of your health history.
• Guaranteed issue rights. Federal law gives you the right to buy certain Medigap plans without medical underwriting in specific situations — for example, if a Medicare Advantage plan leaves your area, or you move out of a plan's service area.
• Outside those windows, Arizona insurers can generally use medical underwriting to decide whether to offer you a policy and at what rate. Arizona does not have a statewide "birthday rule" of the kind some other states use, though individual insurers may offer their own switching windows.

For questions about your specific rights, call the Arizona SHIP program (SHIBA) at 1-800-432-4040 or the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions.

A practical shopping approach for Tempe residents

Tempe is in Maricopa County, so the insurers listed for Arizona are the ones available to you. A common approach:

1. Decide which letter fits your budget and how you like to pay — more up front (higher premium, fewer surprises) or less up front (lower premium, some cost-sharing). 2. Get quotes from multiple insurers for that same letter. Because benefits are identical, this is a fair comparison. 3. Ask how each company sets rates (community-rated, issue-age or attained-age), because that affects how the premium may change as you get older. 4. Add a stand-alone Part D plan for your medications. 5. Review your Part D choice every fall during Annual Enrollment, since drug lists and pharmacy networks can change.