Medicare Path Chooser

Original Medicare with a Medigap, or Medicare Advantage? Rank the paths for your situation — and mind the enrollment windows.

Educational, not insurance advice. Plans and prices vary by county — confirm specifics with Medicare.gov’s Plan Finder or your free State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) counselor before enrolling.

Your situationresults update live — no account needed, no AI

Where are you relative to the enrollment window?Health pictureHow much are you away from home?In your own words (optional)Recognized signals become chips — click each one to set how much it counts.

Try an example:

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Costs

0/1

Which kind of bill you’d rather live with.

Which cost bothers you more?

Care

0/3

The doctors, drugs, and extras your coverage has to handle.

Specific doctors you must keep?

Prescriptions

Dental / vision / hearing coverage important?

Ranking confidence Early read (24%) · Answer next: enrollment window, cost preference, extras

How these results work

Each path is scored on five dimensions — cost predictability when sick, monthly premium load, provider freedom, extras, and simplicity — and your answers about budget, doctors, travel, and health shift the scores and weights.

A second axis, Access, carries the domain’s defining gate: Medigap is guaranteed-issue only in your initial window, so where you stand relative to enrollment changes what’s realistically open to you.

Every path shares one baseline: the Part B premium ($202.90/month standard in 2026, with a $283 annual deductible; higher incomes pay IRMAA surcharges starting around $109,000 single / $218,000 joint).

Drug coverage (a standalone Part D plan or a bundled Advantage plan) now caps your annual out-of-pocket drug spending — $2,100 in 2026. The old “donut hole” is gone.

This compares the paths, not specific plans — county-level plan details belong to Medicare.gov’s Plan Finder and your free SHIP counselor.

Scores are computed instantly in your browser. Your answers are saved to your account only if you sign in; otherwise they stay on this device.

Scores start neutral — answer anything on the left and the list below re-ranks instantly.

County-level plan facts are coming

This ranking compares the PATHS, which is the durable decision. A research layer is planned for the volatile part: the actual plans in your county, this year’s premiums, and your state’s Medigap underwriting rules.

Plans in my county

What’s actually offered where you live, this year

My window countdown

Exactly which enrollment rights you have left, and until when

My state’s Medigap rules

Birthday rules, guaranteed-issue exceptions, community rating

Planned — the instant ranking above never waits on it. Tell us which research you’d want first.

Educational only — not insurance advice; plans vary by county and rules by state. Free unbiased help: your SHIP counselor. Scores are computed in your browser; answers are saved to your account only if you sign in.