Medicare Supplement

Medigap in Jacksonville: which lettered plans Florida shoppers can actually buy

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If you have Original Medicare and you live in Duval County, a Medicare Supplement policy (Medigap) is one way to help pay the out-of-pocket costs Medicare Parts A and B leave behind. In Florida, these policies come in standardized "letter" plans, so the benefits inside Plan G from one company are the same as Plan G from another. What changes is the price and how the company sets it.

Here is a plain-English look at which letters you can still buy in Florida, how Medigap fits alongside Original Medicare and a Part D drug plan, and where to compare policies for your Jacksonville ZIP code.

What Medigap is — and what it isn't

Medigap is private insurance you buy on top of Original Medicare. It helps pay costs like the Part A hospital deductible, coinsurance and some other gaps. Every Medigap policy sold today is federally standardized and labeled by a letter, so the benefits within a given letter are the same from one company to the next.

A few things Medigap does not do:

• It does not work with Medicare Advantage. You cannot have both at the same time.
• It does not include prescription drug coverage. For drugs, you enroll in a separate Part D plan.
• It does not cover long-term custodial care, most dental, vision or hearing.

The plan letters you can buy in Florida today

If you are newly eligible for Medicare, the standardized letters available in Florida are:

• Plan A
• Plan B
• Plan D
• Plan G
• Plan G High Deductible (Plan G-HD)
• Plan K
• Plan L
• Plan M
• Plan N

Plans C and F are only available to people who became eligible for Medicare before January 1, 2020. If that applies to you, you can still buy or keep those letters.

Each letter covers a different mix of Medicare's cost-sharing. For example, Plan G and Plan N are two of the most widely sold letters for newly eligible enrollees, but they handle Part B costs and office-visit copays differently. The federal Medigap benefits chart on Medicare.gov shows exactly what each letter pays.

How Medigap pairs with Original Medicare and Part D

A typical setup for a Jacksonville resident using Medigap looks like this:

1. Original Medicare (Parts A and B) pays first for hospital and doctor services. 2. Your Medigap policy picks up some or all of the remaining coinsurance, copays and deductibles, depending on the letter you chose. 3. A stand-alone Part D plan covers your prescription drugs.

That third piece matters. In 2026, Part D has a $2,100 annual out-of-pocket cap on covered drugs and a maximum deductible of $615. The old "donut hole" phase is gone as of 2025, and there is an optional Medicare Prescription Payment Plan that lets you spread your drug costs across the calendar year in monthly installments.

The Florida rules that shape your choice

Two things about Florida are worth knowing before you shop:

Your Medigap Open Enrollment Period is a one-time federal right. It lasts six months and starts the first month you are 65 or older and enrolled in Part B. During this window, insurers must sell you any Medigap policy they offer at their best available rate class, regardless of your health history. Miss it, and companies in Florida may use medical underwriting to decide whether to sell you a policy and at what price.

How the insurer prices the policy matters over time. Medigap premiums in Florida are generally set using one of three methods: community-rated, issue-age-rated or attained-age-rated. Two policies with the same letter can look similar at 65 but drift apart by 75 because of how each company builds in age. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation publishes a Medigap rate guide that spells out which method each insurer uses.

Florida does not have a "birthday rule" like some other states, but guaranteed-issue rights can apply in specific situations (for example, if certain other coverage ends). For those state-specific questions, check with the Florida Department of Financial Services or SHINE, Florida's State Health Insurance Assistance Program.

How to compare policies for a Jacksonville ZIP code

There is no single directory of insurers we can point to here, but three tools do the job well:

• Medicare.gov's Medigap policy search. Enter your Jacksonville ZIP code to see every company licensed to sell each letter in your area, along with sample premiums.
• The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation rate guide. Shows how insurers price policies in the state.
• SHINE counselors. Free, unbiased help from trained volunteers through the Florida Department of Elder Affairs. They can walk you through the letters and the fine print without selling you anything.

The table below lists every plan letter available to newly eligible Floridians so you can match it against the federal benefits chart.