Medicare For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 15

Changing Your Medicare and Medigap Coverage

In This Chapter

Changing coverage during standard enrollment periods

Switching plans at any time of the year in certain circumstances

Separating from a plan because you or it wants out

Figuring out whether to switch to another plan next year

Moving to a different Medigap supplemental insurance policy

After you’ve done the hard work of choosing your Medicare coverage the first time around, changing to another plan is probably the last thing on your mind — especially if you needed to select a stand-alone Part D drug plan or a Medicare Advantage (MA) plan from many options. But you’re still better off knowing when you can switch to another type of coverage if you want or need to, when you can drop out of a plan (yeah, Medicare has rules for that too), and whether you should compare plans all over again at the end of the year to see whether you’d get a better deal with a different one.

Broadly, you can switch coverage within the ...