Medicare Supplement

Aurora Medicare 2026: 70 Plan Choices in Kane County

AURORA, Ill. — If you're turning 65 in Aurora, or you're already on Medicare and rethinking your coverage, 2026 brings a lot to sort through. Aurora sits in Kane County, where 70 Medicare Advantage plans are available for the coming plan year, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plan landscape data.

Aurora seniors face a crowded Medicare menu for 2026

That's a big menu — and with more than 80,000 residents age 65 or older in the county, plenty of neighbors are working through the same decisions.

What "70 plans" actually means

The 70 figure counts Medicare Advantage plans available to people living in Kane County. Availability is set at the county level, not the city level, so the same set of options applies whether you live near downtown Aurora, Fox Valley, or further out in the county.

A few things to know about that count:

• 11 different carriers are offering Medicare Advantage plans with prescription drug coverage (MA-PD) in the area.
• Illinois has 12 stand-alone Part D plans for 2026, sold statewide, and anyone with Original Medicare in Kane County can join one of them. If you want prescription drug coverage and stay with Original Medicare, you'll want to double-check current Part D options directly on Medicare.gov, since availability can change.
• Under CMS's 2026 Star Ratings, 9 of the 24 rated contracts offering plans in the area carry a 4-star or higher overall rating (out of 31 contracts total). Star Ratings are CMS's quality measure — they're a tool to help you compare, not a ranking of which plan is right for you.

None of these numbers tell you which plan fits your doctors, your medications, or your budget. They just show how wide the field is.

The 2026 rules that apply to everyone

Some of the biggest Medicare changes for 2026 aren't about plan choice — they're built into the program itself:

• Part D out-of-pocket cap: $2,100. Once your out-of-pocket spending on covered prescriptions hits that amount in 2026, you pay $0 for covered drugs the rest of the year.
• Part D deductible: up to $615. Plans can charge less, but not more.
• No more donut hole. The old coverage gap was eliminated in 2025. Part D now has three phases: deductible, initial coverage, and catastrophic.
• Medicare Prescription Payment Plan. This is an optional program that lets you spread your yearly drug costs into monthly payments instead of paying big bills at the pharmacy counter.
• IRMAA. Higher-income beneficiaries pay extra for Part B and Part D. In 2026, the surcharge starts above $109,000 in income for a single filer (higher thresholds apply for joint filers).

Dates to circle

• Annual Enrollment Period (AEP): October 15 – December 7. This is when anyone with Medicare can join, switch, or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan for the next year.
• Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period: January 1 – March 31. If you're already in a Medicare Advantage plan on January 1, you get one chance during this window to switch to a different MA plan or return to Original Medicare.

Miss those windows and you generally have to wait, unless you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period (for example, after a move or a loss of other coverage).

How to narrow 70 plans down to one

With so many options in Kane County, a checklist helps:

1. List your doctors and hospitals. Then check whether they're in-network for the plans you're considering. 2. List your prescriptions. Include the dose and frequency. Coverage and pharmacy tiers vary a lot from plan to plan. 3. Think about how you use care. Do you travel? Do you need dental or vision? Some plans build in extras, others don't. 4. Compare on Medicare.gov's Plan Finder. It's the official tool and it uses your ZIP code and drug list to give apples-to-apples comparisons. 5. Ask for help. In Illinois, the Senior Health Insurance Program (SHIP) offers free, unbiased counseling.