Enrollment Guide
How do you actually get the plan?
You've seen how both routes work. This is the part nobody explains: when you're allowed to apply, what gets asked, and when your coverage starts. The two routes work in opposite ways, so start with the one you're leaning toward.
The two routes enroll in opposite ways
This surprises almost everyone.
Your year at a glance
The same twelve months, seen from each route.
Medicare Advantage
Plus a Special Enrollment Period any time you qualify for one — see below.
Medicare Supplement
The health questions depend on when you apply, not on the month.
Now take the route you're leaning toward. Both are below, in full.
Getting a Medicare Advantage plan
A calendar, with more exceptions than people realize.
October 15 to December 7
This is the Annual Enrollment Period, when everyone can join a plan, change plans, or leave one. Whatever you pick starts January 1.
You may be able to change outside that window
Certain life events open a Special Enrollment Period — an exception that lets you sign up or switch outside the main window. Moving, losing other coverage and several other situations can all qualify you.
Most people never find out they qualified.
Tell a licensed support agent your situation and they'll tell you straight away whether an exception applies to you.
No obligation. You can request help from one of our licensed support agents at any time.You can't be turned down for a health condition
Advantage plans don't ask health questions, so an existing condition can't keep you out.
There are also plans built around specific ongoing conditions, which do ask questions — but to qualify you for the plan, not to exclude you. They often come with lower copays. If you have an ongoing condition, it's worth asking whether one applies to you.
A window to try your plan out
After every Annual Enrollment Period, Medicare gives everyone on an Advantage plan from January 1 to March 31 to try it out. Happy with it? Do nothing.
Run into a problem — a doctor who isn't in the network, a medication that costs more than you expected — and you can use this window to look at other options and change.
It's a try-out period, not a second shopping season. Most people never need it.
Coverage usually starts the 1st of the month
Your plan sends a card and a welcome pack. Your Medicare stays exactly as it is — you're still in Medicare, the plan is just how you get it.
Getting a Medicare Supplement
No calendar at all — but timing still matters.
You can apply any day of the year
A lot of people believe Supplements work like Advantage plans and can only be bought between October and December. They can't. There's no enrollment period for these — you can apply in April, or in July, or any other week of the year.
Six months from when your Part B starts
During those six months you can take any Supplement sold in your state. No health questions, and an existing condition doesn't count against you.
Your health can't be used to turn you down during it, which is why it's worth knowing your Part B start date.
After that, there are a few health questions
Apply outside those six months and the company usually asks a short set of health questions — typically about major procedures in the last few years.
The rules aren't the same everywhere: some states give you a yearly chance to switch without questions at all.
Going deeper — how to find out where you stand, without applying
A licensed support agent runs a short prescreen with you before anything is submitted, so you know the answer before you apply rather than after.
Nothing on this website asks you health questions, and nothing you read here goes on an application.
See what your state allows, or have a licensed support agent check your situation before you apply.
No obligation. You can request help from one of our licensed support agents at any time.Coverage usually starts the 1st of the month
Some companies can start a policy mid-month, which helps when you're trying to line it up with the day your old coverage ends.
Your prescription drug plan
One more step if you go the Supplement route.
A Supplement covers your medical care, not your medications
So a separate prescription plan goes alongside it. An Advantage plan usually has this built in, which is one of the real differences between the two routes.
- New to Medicare?Set the drug plan up at the same time as the Supplement, so both start together.
- Already on Medicare?It's usually the next conversation rather than the same one — but don't leave it sitting.
- Going without oneAdds a permanent late fee to your prescription coverage for as long as you have it, even if you take nothing today.
Before you apply
Five minutes of preparation saves the whole call.
What to have in front of you
- Your Medicare card — your number, and the date your Part B started.
- Your doctors — the ones you want to keep, and the hospital you'd use.
- Your medications — names and doses. The bottles are fine.
- Your ZIP code — plans and prices are set locally.
Four things worth doing first
- Check your own doctors and medications against the plan, not the brochure. It's the single most common regret.
- Read the notice your plan mails each fall. Advantage plans can change their copays, network and drug list each year — that letter is where it's spelled out.
- Ask what needs approval in advance. Some care needs the plan's OK before it goes ahead.
- Don't drop a Supplement assuming you can get it back. Going back may mean health questions, depending on when and where you are.
You're going to pay for your coverage one way or the other. Either more each month and you're covered when you use it, or less each month and more out of pocket if something major happens.
How Hunter puts it on a callWhen you're ready
See the plans where you live
Compare the real plans in your county, with your own doctors and medications checked against them. Nothing is saved unless you ask us to.
Go through it with someone
A licensed support agent can check whether you qualify, compare both routes for your situation, and handle the paperwork with you.