Medicare Supplement

Which Medigap letters can El Paso buyers still pick?

If you live in El Paso and you are pairing Original Medicare with a Medicare Supplement policy — better known as Medigap — the first thing to understand is that you are not choosing from a bottomless menu. Medigap policies are standardized by letter across most of the country, including Texas. That means a Plan G from one insurer covers the same core benefits as a Plan G from another. What can differ is the price and the way that price is set.

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This guide walks through which plan letters are still open to new enrollees in Texas, how Medigap fits with Original Medicare and a separate Part D drug plan, and where to look for the insurers that sell these plans in El Paso County.

What Medigap is — and what it is not

Medigap is private insurance you buy to help pay some of the out-of-pocket costs Original Medicare leaves behind, such as coinsurance and, for some letters, the Part A deductible. It sits on top of Original Medicare. It is not Medicare Advantage, and you cannot use a Medigap policy with a Medicare Advantage plan.

Medigap also does not include prescription drug coverage. If you want help paying for medications, you generally add a stand-alone Part D plan.

The plan letters you can buy in Texas today

Texas follows the federal standardized Medigap letters. For someone newly eligible for Medicare in 2026, the letters open to you are:

• Plan A
• Plan B
• Plan D
• Plan G
• High-deductible Plan G
• Plan K
• Plan L
• Plan M
• Plan N

Plans C and F still exist, but under federal law they are only available to people who became eligible for Medicare before January 1, 2020. If that is you, you may still be able to buy or keep one; if you turned 65 after that date, those two are off the table.

Each letter has its own benefit set that is the same at every insurer. A Plan N is a Plan N, whether you buy it in El Paso, Amarillo, or Austin. What changes from company to company is the premium and how that premium is calculated.

How Medigap pairs with Original Medicare and Part D

A typical setup for an El Paso resident using Medigap looks like this:

• Part A and Part B (Original Medicare) pay first for hospital and medical care.
• A Medigap policy picks up some or all of the remaining coinsurance, copays, and deductibles, depending on the letter you choose.
• A stand-alone Part D plan covers your prescription drugs.

For 2026, Part D has an out-of-pocket cap of $2,100, a maximum deductible of $615, and the old "donut hole" coverage gap is gone as of 2025 — drug coverage now moves through three phases instead of four. There is also a Medicare Prescription Payment Plan that lets you spread drug costs across the year in monthly installments if that helps your budget. Higher-income enrollees (above $109,000 for a single filer in 2026) pay IRMAA surcharges on Part B and Part D.

None of that changes because you have Medigap — Medigap and Part D are separate policies with separate rules.

Texas rules that shape your choice

Two things drive what you actually pay in El Paso County: when you apply and how the insurer prices the policy.

When you apply. Your strongest window is the six-month Medigap Open Enrollment Period that starts the month you are 65 or older and enrolled in Part B. During that window, insurers in Texas must sell you any Medigap plan they offer, at their published rate, without using your health history against you. Miss it, and outside of certain federal guaranteed-issue situations, insurers can generally use medical underwriting — meaning they can charge more or decline to cover you based on health. Texas may recognize additional guaranteed-issue rights; the Texas Department of Insurance and the state SHIP can confirm what applies to your situation.

How the insurer prices the policy. Medigap premiums are typically set one of three ways — community-rated, issue-age-rated, or attained-age-rated. Two policies with the same letter can cost very different amounts today and increase differently over time. That is why comparing on price alone, without asking how the rate is built, can be misleading.

Finding insurers that sell Medigap in El Paso

Because insurer lists and premiums change, we do not name specific carriers here. Three official, no-cost tools will give you the current picture:

• Medicare.gov Medigap policy search. Enter your El Paso ZIP code to see every insurer licensed to sell each Medigap letter in your area, along with sample premiums.
• Texas Department of Insurance rate guide. The state publishes a Medigap rate comparison you can use to see how different companies price the same letter.
• Texas SHIP (Health Information, Counseling and Advocacy Program, or HICAP). Free, unbiased counselors can walk through your situation over the phone or in person.

The table below lists the standardized letters again for quick reference; use the tools above to attach real insurer names and prices to them.