🏥Medicare Open Enrollment Deadline

About Medicare Open Enrollment Deadline

Medicare Open Enrollment — officially the Annual Enrollment Period — runs from October 15 to December 7 every year, and the countdown above tracks the days left before it closes. Changes made during the window take effect on January 1. Miss December 7 and you generally keep your current plan for the whole of the following year, whatever happened to its premiums, its drug list or its provider network.

The window is for anyone already on Medicare, whether through Original Medicare, a Medicare Advantage plan, a Part D drug plan, or some combination. You can switch from Original Medicare to Medicare Advantage or back, change Advantage plans, join or drop a drug plan, or move between drug plans. Plans publish next year's costs and formularies in the autumn, which is the point of the window: it is the one guaranteed chance each year to react to them.

Every plan has to receive your request by December 7 — a decision made on the day it closes still counts, but a form sitting unsent does not. If you only realise afterwards, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period from January 1 to March 31 offers a narrower second chance, and certain life events open a Special Enrollment Period at any time.