Medicare Supplement

Medigap in Memphis for 2026: the rule changes, rate season and how to check your plan

MEMPHIS — As open enrollment nears, Medigap shoppers in Shelby County are heading into another rate-filing season, and a few rules are worth reviewing before you compare policies for 2026. Medigap is separate from Medicare Advantage and Part D, but the same October–December stretch is when many households sit down to look at all of it together.

Unlike Medicare Advantage, Medigap has no yearly enrollment window. You can apply any time — but outside your one-time Medigap Open Enrollment Period, insurers in Tennessee can use medical underwriting to decide whether to sell you a policy and at what price. That makes the rules below more than technical detail. They shape what you can actually buy.

Which Medigap plans you can buy in Tennessee

Medigap plans are standardized by letter across most of the country, including Tennessee. That means a Plan G sold by one insurer covers the same gaps in Original Medicare as a Plan G sold by another. What differs is the premium and the customer service.

If you became eligible for Medicare on or after January 1, 2020, the plan letters open to you are A, B, D, G, high-deductible G, K, L, M and N. Plans C and F — which paid the Part B deductible for you — are closed to newly eligible people under a federal law that took effect that year. If you were eligible before 2020, you can still buy or keep C or F if an insurer offers them.

That rule has not changed for 2026. It's worth repeating each fall because many Memphis readers turning 65 next year assume every plan letter is on the menu, and it isn't.

Why the Part B deductible reset matters for Plans G and N

Plans G and N are the two most-discussed Medigap options for people newly eligible today. Both leave the Part B deductible for you to pay before your Medigap coverage kicks in on outpatient care. That deductible resets every January 1, and Medicare sets the new amount for 2026 in the fall.

You can find the confirmed 2026 Part B deductible on Medicare.gov. Once it's posted, it's the number to plug into any Plan G or Plan N comparison — because that's the first-dollar amount you'll be responsible for before the policy pays. Plan N also has small copays for some office and emergency-room visits and does not cover Part B excess charges; Plan G does.

Rate-adjustment season in Tennessee

Medigap premiums in Tennessee are filed with the state Department of Commerce and Insurance. Insurers can adjust rates during the year based on things like your age (in some pricing methods), claims trends and inflation. There is no single "2026 rate change" that applies to every policy in Memphis — each insurer files its own.

Two practical steps before you sign anything:

1. Ask the insurer or agent for the current 2026 premium for your ZIP code and age in writing, and ask how the policy is priced (community-rated, issue-age or attained-age). The pricing method changes how your premium moves over time. 2. Check the Tennessee Medigap rate guide published by the state, and the Medigap policy search on Medicare.gov, so you're comparing apples to apples across insurers licensed in Shelby County.

Insurers entering or leaving

Insurer participation in Medigap changes from year to year, but those changes are handled through state filings rather than a single federal announcement like Medicare Advantage. To see the current list of insurers selling Medigap in Memphis for 2026, use the Medicare.gov Medigap policy search with your Memphis ZIP code — it pulls the licensed insurers and the plan letters each one offers. The Tennessee SHIP can also confirm whether an insurer you already have is still writing new business here.

If you have an existing Medigap policy and your insurer stops selling new policies, that generally does not cancel your coverage. But it can affect future rate behavior, and it's a fair reason to shop — carefully, because underwriting may apply outside your original open enrollment window.

How Medigap fits with the rest of your 2026 coverage

Medigap only works with Original Medicare (Parts A and B). It does not include drug coverage, so most people pair it with a stand-alone Part D plan. A few 2026 Part D facts worth knowing while you're reviewing everything:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026.
• The Part D deductible can be up to $615.
• The old coverage gap ("donut hole") was eliminated in 2025; Part D now has three phases.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread drug costs across the year in monthly bills instead of paying at the pharmacy counter.
• IRMAA income-related surcharges on Part B and Part D start above $109,000 for a single filer in 2026.

The Medicare Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 – December 7 for Advantage and Part D changes. Medigap doesn't use that window — but many Memphis households review Medigap at the same time because the paperwork lands together.