The short answer
In most cases you will not have a right under federal law to switch Medigap policies. The two exceptions are being inside your 6 month Medigap open enrollment period, or being eligible under a specific situation or guaranteed issue right. State law can add more, and a new policy carries a 30 day free look.
Say you find the same Medigap letter for less money. By law the benefits are identical, and the only difference is the price. What is not identical is what you have to go through to move, and that part is not on the price tag.
Can I change Medigap plans?
In most cases you will not have a right under federal law to switch Medigap policies. Two exceptions carry that right: being inside your 6 month Medigap open enrollment period, or being eligible under a specific situation or guaranteed issue right. State law can add more.
That is the opposite of how Medicare Advantage and drug plans work. Those have Medicare Open Enrollment, October 15 to December 7, which comes round every year. Medigap has no equivalent.
Medicare.gov sorts the question into four situations, and the list is worth reading as a list. Wanting to change your coverage. Having an issue with the company you get your policy from. Holding a Medicare SELECT policy. Moving out of state.
Only one of those four is about the policy being wrong for you. The other three are about something changing around you, which is the same shape guaranteed issue rights take.
The page carrying that list also carries a boundary in its own words: those answers apply to your federal rights only.
If you bought a policy during your 6 month open enrollment period and decide during that period that you do not like it, you can switch to a different Medigap policy. The window that let you buy also lets you change your mind.
Medicare.gov's instruction for everything outside the federal list is the same one it gives on buying: check with your State Insurance Department about what rights you might have under state law.
One switching right does come attached to a specific product. Medicare SELECT is a type of Medigap sold in some states that may require using particular hospitals and, in some cases, particular doctors for full benefits. If you bought one, you have the right to change your mind within 12 months and switch to a standard Medigap policy.
That right is unusual, because it belongs to the policy rather than to a situation or a date. It is worth checking whether the policy you hold is a Medicare SELECT policy before assuming no route exists.
The same is true of the letter you hold. Because every lettered policy is standardized, knowing your letter tells you what a switch would actually change, and what it would not.
Will I be medically underwritten?
Whether a new Medigap policy asks about your health depends on timing. Without an open enrollment period or a guaranteed issue right, a company may apply medical underwriting. Call it the Two Sixes: a six month window opens the door, and a six month wait can follow you through it.
The Two Sixes is our naming for two numbers the government states on two different pages. The first six is the open enrollment window, where no health question may be asked. The second is the pre-existing condition waiting period, which can be up to 6 months on a new policy.
The second six is not fixed. A new policy must subtract the number of months you have already held your current Medigap policy, or prior creditable coverage such as recent employer health insurance, from the wait. Medicare.gov's own example: 2 months of prior coverage leaves 4 months of wait, because 6 minus 2 is 4.
So the wait can be cancelled entirely. If you have held your current policy longer than 6 months and it has the same benefits as the new one, the new company cannot exclude your pre-existing condition or make you wait before covering it.
One exception survives that. If the new policy has a benefit your current policy does not, you may still wait up to 6 months for that benefit, no matter how long you have held the current policy.
Here is how the waiting period is counted, in Medicare.gov's own arithmetic.
| Your situation | The waiting period | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| No prior coverage | Up to 6 months | It applies to pre-existing conditions only |
| 2 months of prior coverage | 4 months left | 6 minus 2, Medicare.gov's own example |
| Over 6 months held, same benefits | None | The new company cannot exclude your condition |
| The new policy adds a benefit | Up to 6 months for that benefit | However long you have held the old one |
The third row is the one people miss. Time already served on the same benefits erases the wait.
Why would I change my Medigap policy?
Medicare.gov names four reasons a person may want to change a Medigap policy: paying for benefits you do not need, needing more benefits, wanting to change insurance companies, and wanting a policy that costs less. The list is the government's, not a recommendation.
Two of the four are about the policy and two are about the company. That split is worth noticing, because only the first two require changing letters at all.
Four reasons come up repeatedly, and they are not equally strong.
- Your premium rose and another company charges less for the same lettered plan
- You want a different letter, with different cost sharing
- Your current company's service or billing has become a problem
- You are moving, and your policy or its pricing does not travel well
The first one is the commonest, and it is also the one where the health questions matter most, because outside a protected window the new company can ask them.
Wanting a policy that costs less does not necessarily mean a different letter. Because same-letter policies carry the same basic benefits, the same coverage from a different company at a different price is a real option.
What this page will not do is tell you when to act. The reasons are Medicare.gov's, the timing rules are federal law, and the decision is yours.
Is there a free look period?
When you get a new Medigap policy you have 30 days to decide whether to keep it, called a 30 day free look period. Do not cancel the first policy until you decide to keep the second, and expect to pay both premiums for the month you hold both.
The overlap is deliberate and it costs money on purpose. Paying two premiums for one month is the price of not being uninsured if the second policy turns out to be wrong.
Cancelling the first policy early is the mistake the instruction is written to prevent. Once a Medigap policy is dropped, getting it back is not guaranteed.
How do I compare the same plan letter?
Comparing the same plan letter is the comparison Medicare.gov prescribes: compare Plan G from one company against Plan G from another. Same-letter policies carry the same basic benefits, so price is the only difference, and there can be big differences in what companies charge.
Ask how the company rates its policies as well as what it charges today. A policy is priced in one of three ways, and only attained-age-rated raises the premium because you got older.
The comparison prices shown when you compare plans are estimates. Medicare.gov's instruction is to contact the insurance company for a more accurate price.
Three states sit outside the standardized comparison entirely: Massachusetts, Minnesota and Wisconsin standardize Medigap in a different way.
What happens to my old policy?
To drop a Medigap policy you contact the insurance company to cancel it. Two cautions ride with that. Keep the first policy until you have decided to keep the second, and know that once you drop a policy you might not be able to get it, or any policy, back later.
That second caution is the one that turns a switch into a decision. Dropping is easy and reversible only if a company will sell to you again, which outside a protected situation is the company's choice.
If you are switching under a guaranteed issue right, the paperwork is part of the right. Apply no more than 63 days after your coverage ends, and keep copies of letters, notices, emails or claim denials as proof the coverage was terminated, because they may need to go with the application.
What this means for you
Medigap switching runs on situations, not on a calendar. In most cases federal law gives no right to switch a Medigap policy at all, and the two rights that do exist are your one time 6 month open enrollment window and a guaranteed issue right. State law can add others.
The Two Sixes decide how much a switch costs you in exposure. Six months of holding your current policy, with the same benefits, cancels the six month wait on a condition you already have. Less than that, and part of the wait comes with you.
The 30 day free look and the 63 day application deadline are the two dates worth writing down. One protects a decision you have just made; the other protects a right you may not get twice.
For what each lettered plan covers, read the Plan G and Plan N article in this cluster. For the window that opens all of this in the first place, read the open enrollment article beside it.
FAQ
How does the pre-existing condition waiting period actually work?
It is a subtraction, not a flat penalty. A new Medigap policy can make you wait up to 6 months before it covers a pre-existing condition, but it must subtract the number of months you have already held your current Medigap policy, or prior creditable coverage such as health insurance you recently had through an employer.
Medicare.gov works the arithmetic itself: someone with 2 months of prior coverage waits another 4 months, because 6 minus 2 is 4. Held longer than 6 months, with the same benefits in both policies, and the wait disappears entirely: the new company cannot exclude the condition or make you wait.
The exception is a benefit the old policy did not have, which can carry its own wait of up to 6 months regardless.
Can I switch Medigap policies during Medicare Open Enrollment in the autumn?
Not by that route. Medicare Open Enrollment, October 15 to December 7, is where you join, drop or switch a Medicare Advantage plan or a Medicare drug plan, and Medigap is neither of those.
Medicare.gov states that in most cases you will not have a right under federal law to switch Medigap policies unless you are within your 6 month Medigap open enrollment period or are eligible under a specific situation or guaranteed issue right.
Nothing about the calendar changes that. It is one of the most common misunderstandings in this subject, and it matters because someone waiting for autumn to switch may find that the only window they ever had was the 6 months that followed their own Part B start date.
What is a guaranteed issue right when switching?
It is a situation in which an insurance company cannot deny you a Medigap policy. Medicare.gov states that in most cases you have one when your other health coverage changes in some way, such as losing that coverage, and that a trial right may apply if you tried a Medicare Advantage plan and changed your mind.
Where the right applies, the company must sell you a policy, must cover all your pre-existing health conditions, and cannot charge you more because of past or present health problems.
The deadline is the part that catches people: apply no more than 63 days after your coverage ends, and keep proof of the termination, because the application may need it to establish the right.
If I drop my Medigap policy, can I get it back?
Medicare.gov's answer is deliberately unreassuring: if you drop your Medigap policy, you might not be able to get it or any policy back later. Outside a guaranteed issue situation and outside your one time open enrollment window, an insurance company is allowed to apply medical underwriting and may decline you.
That is why the instruction attached to switching is to keep the first policy until you have decided to keep the second, and to accept paying both premiums for the month you hold both. The overlap costs one month of double premium. Cancelling first and being declined second costs the coverage itself, with no guaranteed way back.
Does changing companies mean changing coverage?
Not if the letter stays the same. All Medigap policies are standardized, so policies with the same letter offer the same basic benefits no matter where you live or which company sells them, and price is the only difference between same-letter policies from different companies.
Medicare.gov's instruction is to compare like with like, for example Plan G from one company against Plan G from another, because there can be big differences in what companies charge for identical coverage.
Two qualifiers apply. Massachusetts, Minnesota and Wisconsin standardize Medigap differently. And a Medicare SELECT policy, sold in some states, may require using particular hospitals and in some cases particular doctors for full benefits.
Do state rules give me extra switching rights?
They can, and Medicare.gov says so twice without ever listing them. Its statement is that you have the right to switch or drop your Medigap policy in some situations under federal law, and that you should check with your State Insurance Department about what rights you might have under state law.
It publishes no national list of state switching rules, so this article names none. That is a deliberate limit rather than an omission: a state rule quoted from memory on a page about insurance a 68 year old may act on is exactly the kind of specific that does harm when it is wrong.
The State Insurance Department is the source's own route, and it is the accurate one.
