Medicare
Premiums, enrollment windows, star ratings, drug prices and the plans that are leaving a county in 2027.
Medicare
8 guides filed under this heading
- The $90 Medicare premium rebate: who gets one, when it arrives, and who is left out
The $90 Medicare Part B rebate is landing in bank accounts now. Who qualifies out of 20.8 million, when paper checks follow, and how to spot the fraud.
7 min read updated October 8, 2026 - Medicare Enrollment Is Moving Toward America.gov: What Changes and What Doesn't
Medicare enrollment is slated for the new America.gov portal. What the executive order changes, what it does not, and the one penalty to avoid.
5 min read updated October 4, 2026 - Medicare open enrollment 2027: lower average premiums, and the fine print that decides your bill
Open enrollment runs October 15 to December 7, 2026. Average Advantage premiums fall for 2027, but stand-alone drug plans go the other way.
5 min read updated October 11, 2026 - Your Medicare Advantage plan may not be there in 2027: the county-level retreat
Insurers are leaving 193 counties with no Medicare Advantage drug plan for 2027, and exiting hundreds more. How to check whether yours survives.
9 min read updated October 11, 2026 - Medicare's second round of negotiated drug prices starts January 1, 2027
Fifteen more Part D drugs get negotiated prices on January 1, 2027, while four first-round drugs leave. What the maximum fair price does not change.
10 min read - An Expert Tested America.gov's Health Answers. What That Means for Your Medicare Questions
An infectious-disease physician asked America.gov 37 health questions. Where the AI got Medicare right, where it got a federal rule wrong, and how to verify.
5 min read updated October 4, 2026 - Medicare's 2027 star ratings: 15 five-star plans, and what the score does not cover
CMS published the 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D star ratings on October 8, 2026. Five-star contracts fell from 22 to 15; drug plans moved the other way.
8 min read updated October 14, 2026 - CMS proposes Medicare Advantage directory accuracy rules — what changes and when
A proposed rule would require accurate Medicare Advantage provider directories and cap cost sharing when the directory is wrong. Most changes start in 2028.
6 min read updated October 20, 2026
Reference pages
Tables and lookups on the same filing, answered without reading around it
- Medicare Part B: the premium, and why yours is not the standard one
The 2026 Part B premium is $202.90 a month — unless your income two years ago was higher. The brackets behind the surcharge, who is protected, and who is not.
- The 15 drugs with negotiated Medicare prices from 2027
CMS's maximum fair price for each of the 15 Part D drugs negotiated for 2027, beside the 2024 list price and the reduction — plus the four that leave.
Other topics on Shield
Every guide on this site is filed under one of these
Marketplace and plan costs
Subsidies, the cliff, cost sharing, price transparency, and how premium, deductible and out-of-pocket maximum stack into one bill.
Home, auto, life and claims
The policies outside health cover, and the part that decides whether any of them pays: the claim, the deadline and the file you built first.