Part D in Utah for 2027: the $700 deductible, the $2,400 cap, and what the eight drug plans now cost

What changes in Part D for 2027?

Two federal limits go up. The most a Part D plan can charge as a deductible rises from $615 to $700, and the annual out-of-pocket threshold, the cap on what you pay for covered drugs in a calendar year, rises from $2,100 to $2,400. Once you reach the cap, you pay $0 for covered Part D drugs for the rest of 2027. Both figures come from Table V-2 of the CMS Calendar Year 2027 Rate Announcement, published 6 April 2026.

The structure itself does not change. The coverage gap is still gone, the cap is still a hard cap, and the catastrophic phase still costs you nothing. CMS wrote that redesign into regulation in its 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D final rule, announced 2 April 2026. What changed is the size of the numbers, and both moved up by more than you might expect: the deductible by $85 and the cap by $300.

What do Utah's stand-alone drug plans cost for 2027?

Utah has eight stand-alone Part D plans for 2027, with monthly premiums from $5.30 to $238.00. Stand-alone drug plans are listed statewide rather than by county, so the same eight plans and the same premiums apply whether you live in Weber, Davis, Salt Lake, Morgan or Box Elder County. The table below puts each 2027 plan next to its 2026 figures, taken from the CMS landscape files released in September of each year.

Two things stand out. First, the deductible column is now mostly $700, the federal maximum. Six of the eight plans charge it. Only Humana Value Rx ($687), Humana Premier Rx ($350) and AARP Medicare Rx Preferred ($300) set theirs lower, and even those three went up from 2026. Humana Premier Rx had no deductible at all in 2026.

Second, the order of the premium column was reshuffled. The plan with the lowest premium in 2026, Humana Basic Rx, is now the third-lowest. The two Wellcare plans dropped and now hold the two lowest listed premiums, $5.30 and $7.30. HealthSpring Assurance Rx went down by $33.80 a month while the two AARP plans went up sharply. If you chose a plan last year because of where it sat in the list, it is probably not sitting there now.

For national context, CMS projected that the average stand-alone Part D premium would move from $35.09 in 2026 to about $36 in 2027. CMS also reports that every Utah resident enrolled in a stand-alone drug plan in 2026 has access to a 2027 plan with a lower premium than they paid this year. That is a statement about premiums only. Whether a lower-premium plan covers your medications on terms you can live with is a separate question, and it is the one that decides your year.

Which Utah drug plans are not coming back for 2027?

Two: SilverScript Choice (Aetna/CVS), which was $27.70 a month in 2026, and HealthSpring Extra Rx, which was $56.30 a month. Neither appears in the CMS 2027 landscape file for Utah. If you are enrolled in either one, plan on choosing a new drug plan for 2027, and read the letter your plan sent you this fall to confirm exactly what happens to your coverage on 1 January.

Your plan's own letter is the authority here, not this article and not a list on a website. A plan that is leaving must tell you in writing, and that notice explains your options and your deadlines. Find it, read it, and keep it. If you cannot find it, call the member services number on your plan card and ask what your coverage will be on 1 January 2027.

1. Find your letter. Plans send their notices so members receive them by 30 September. Look for an Annual Notice of Change or a notice that your plan is not renewing.
2. Write down your medications with the exact strength and how many you take each month, and the pharmacy you actually use.
3. Compare the eight 2027 plans against that list with Sarah, sorted by estimated yearly cost, at no cost to you.
4. Choose during Open Enrollment, 15 October to 7 December 2026, so the new plan starts on 1 January 2027 with no gap.
5. If you miss 7 December, read the letter again. Medicare.gov describes a Special Enrollment Period for people whose plan is not renewing, which runs from 8 December to the last day of February. Coverage chosen in December starts 1 January; coverage chosen later starts later, which leaves a gap.

One more practical point for former SilverScript Choice and HealthSpring Extra Rx members. Whatever plan you pick, it will have its own formulary, its own tiers and its own pharmacy network. A drug that was tier 2 on your old plan may be tier 3 or 4 on the new one, or need prior authorization. Check each medication individually before you enroll, not after.

What happens if I just stay in my current drug plan?

If your plan is one of the six that returned, you keep it automatically, at its 2027 premium, deductible, formulary and pharmacy network. For some Utah members that means paying less than this year. For others it means paying over a thousand dollars more in premium alone. Here is the yearly premium change for each returning plan, calculated as 12 times the monthly premium.

The biggest single move is AARP Medicare Rx Preferred from UHC: up $105.40 a month, which is $1,264.80 more over the year before you fill a single prescription. Humana Basic Rx rises by $30.60 a month, so someone who chose it for its low premium will now pay $367.20 more a year for the same plan. On the other side, HealthSpring Assurance Rx members will pay $405.60 less in premium, and Wellcare Classic members $196.80 less.

Premium is only part of it. The 2027 deductible went up on every returning plan that had one below the federal maximum, and on the plans already at the maximum it rose with the maximum, from $615 to $700. Formularies and tiers also reset on 1 January. The Annual Notice of Change your plan sent in September lists what moved for your plan specifically, and it is worth the ten minutes it takes to read.

What is the most I could pay for prescriptions in 2027?

For covered drugs, $2,400 in out-of-pocket costs plus twelve months of premium. That is the ceiling on any Utah stand-alone plan in 2027, as long as your drugs are on the plan's formulary or covered through an approved exception. Your deductible counts toward the $2,400. So do your copays and coinsurance. Your premiums do not, and neither does anything you pay for a drug the plan does not cover.

Read this table as a ceiling, not a forecast. Most people never come close to the cap; their year is the premium plus whatever their tier copays add up to. But for someone on a high-cost brand or specialty medication, the cap is not a remote scenario. It is the expected outcome, and it can arrive in January or February. For that person, the table above is close to the real bill.

If I only take generics, which number matters most?

Usually the premium. When your medications are a few low-cost generics, your yearly drug spending can stay well below the $700 deductible. On a plan with a $700 deductible that applies to your drugs, you simply pay the plan's negotiated price for those generics all year, and the plan never starts paying its share. In that situation the plans differ mainly by premium, plus the price each one negotiates at your pharmacy.

Worked example A: a generics-only budget

Take someone in Davis County who fills two inexpensive generic maintenance prescriptions each month. Their total drug spending for the year, at the plan's price, stays under $700. Their costs on three of the 2027 plans look like this: on Wellcare Value Script, 12 × $5.30 = $63.60 in premium; on Humana Basic Rx, 12 × $30.60 = $367.20; on AARP Medicare Rx Preferred from UHC, 12 × $238.00 = $2,856.00. Add the same pharmacy spending to each. The premium gap between the first and last of those is $2,792.40 a year.

Two cautions keep this example honest. First, deductibles do not work identically from plan to plan: some plans, especially enhanced ones, do not apply the deductible to their lowest generic tiers, so you would pay a small copay from the first fill instead of the full negotiated price. Check how each plan's deductible applies to the tiers your drugs sit on. Second, the negotiated price of the same generic can differ from plan to plan and from pharmacy to pharmacy. Plan Finder accounts for both when you enter your actual drugs and pharmacy.

If my drugs will reach the cap, how do I compare plans?

Start from the worst-case table: 12 × the monthly premium + $2,400. Because the cap is the same on each of Utah's eight plans, someone who will reach it pays the same $2,400 in drug costs whichever plan they choose, provided their drugs are covered. What is left to separate the plans is the premium, the formulary, the restrictions and the pharmacy network.

Worked example B: someone who reaches the cap

Consider a Weber County resident on Original Medicare and a Medigap plan who takes a brand-name medication costly enough to reach the cap early in the year. On Wellcare Value Script the most they pay for covered drugs in 2027 is 12 × $5.30 = $63.60, plus $2,400, which is $2,463.60. On AARP Medicare Rx Preferred from UHC it is 12 × $238.00 = $2,856.00, plus $2,400, which is $5,256.00. Same cap, same drug, and a difference of $2,792.40 that is entirely premium.

That does not mean the lower-premium plan is the right one for that person. The arithmetic only holds if the plan covers the drug. If one plan puts the medication on its formulary and another does not, or one requires step therapy that the person has already been through, the comparison changes completely. What the example does show is that, for someone certain to reach the cap, paying a higher premium buys nothing on cost-sharing once the cap is hit. It has to buy something else, such as coverage of a specific drug, fewer restrictions, or a pharmacy you can actually get to.

Staying in the same plan: 2026 vs 2027 for a cap-reacher

The higher cap matters most to people who reached it this year. Someone on Humana Basic Rx who hit the cap in 2026 paid a total of $2,100, because the plan charged no premium that year. In 2027, staying put, the worst case is 12 × $30.60 = $367.20 plus $2,400, a total of $2,767.20, which is $667.20 more. On AARP Medicare Rx Preferred the same calculation goes from $3,691.20 (12 × $132.60 + $2,100) to $5,256.00, an increase of $1,564.80. On HealthSpring Assurance Rx it goes the other way, from $3,643.20 (12 × $128.60 + $2,100) to $3,537.60, a decrease of $105.60, because the premium cut outweighs the $300 rise in the cap.

Can I spread my drug costs across the year instead of paying in January?

Yes. The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan continues in 2027. It lets you pay your Part D out-of-pocket costs in monthly installments across the calendar year instead of paying the full amount at the pharmacy when you fill the prescription. You ask your drug plan to enroll you, and the plan then bills you monthly.

It does not lower what you pay over the year. It changes when you pay it. That is why it matters most for exactly the person in worked example B: with a $2,400 cap, someone on an expensive medication can face most of that amount in the first fill or two of the year. Spreading it out can be the difference between filling a prescription in January and putting it off.

Medicare.gov has the current details and the rules for missed payments. If you think you will reach the cap, ask about this option at the same time you choose your 2027 plan.

What does Extra Help pay in 2027, and how many Utahns get it?

Extra Help, the federal Low-Income Subsidy, brings the Part D deductible to $0 and holds copays to a few dollars per prescription. In 2027 those copays are $1.65 for generics and $5.00 for other drugs if you have full Medicaid and income at or below 100% of the federal poverty level, and $5.80 for generics and $14.40 for other drugs for most other people who qualify. CMS reports that 13.60% of Utah residents in stand-alone Part D plans receive it.

If you have Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income or a Medicare Savings Program, you generally get Extra Help automatically. Everyone else applies through Social Security, and applying costs nothing. Your home and your car do not count toward the resource limit. Our earlier Part D guide walks through who tends to qualify, and it is worth a look if your income is modest: the copays in the table above are a very different year from the $2,400 cap.

Do I need a stand-alone drug plan if I have Medicare Advantage?

Usually not. Most Medicare Advantage plans in Utah include drug coverage (they are called MA-PD plans), and the formulary, deductible and pharmacy network come with the plan you chose. In most cases, enrolling in a stand-alone Part D plan while you are in an MA-PD plan ends your Medicare Advantage enrollment, so do not add one without checking first.

The eight plans in this post are for people on Original Medicare: those with a Medigap policy such as Plan G, those with Original Medicare alone, and those in a Medicare Advantage plan that does not include drug coverage. The 2027 deductible ceiling of $700 and cap of $2,400 apply to the drug benefit inside MA-PD plans too, so the cap arithmetic above still holds there; only the premium column is different, because an MA-PD plan prices its drug coverage inside one combined premium.

What should I do before 7 December?

Re-run your drug list against the 2027 plans before 7 December 2026, the last day of Open Enrollment. Changes you make by then take effect on 1 January 2027. The window opened today, 15 October, and Medicare.gov has had 2027 plans available to compare since 1 October.

1. Check whether your plan is still here. If you are in SilverScript Choice or HealthSpring Extra Rx, your letter is your starting point and choosing a new plan is not optional.
2. Read your Annual Notice of Change. It lists your plan's 2027 premium, deductible and formulary changes.
3. Update your medication list with exact strengths and monthly quantities.
4. Decide which kind of year you are likely to have. Generics only: the premium column and how the deductible applies matter most. Likely to reach the cap: start from 12 × premium + $2,400, then check coverage of each drug.
5. Check each drug on each plan you are considering for formulary status, tier, and restrictions such as prior authorization, step therapy and quantity limits.
6. Confirm your pharmacy is in network, and preferred if the plan uses preferred pharmacies.
7. Consider the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan if your costs will arrive early in the year.
8. Check Extra Help if your income is modest. It can change every other number on this page.

The bottom line

Part D for 2027 asks more of you before the plan pays and caps your drug costs a little higher, at $2,400. In Utah the choice narrows to eight stand-alone plans, two familiar names are gone, and premiums moved far enough that last year's ranking is no guide. Find your letter, update your drug list, decide whether your year is a generics year or a cap year, and run the numbers before 7 December. Your plan's own letter and the plan documents are the authority on your coverage; verify the details with a licensed agent or on Medicare.gov. Grab a Cup. Let's Get You Covered.