Medicare enrollment date calculator

Medicare treats a birthday on the first of a month as falling in the previous month. Eligibility, the seven-month window and the earliest coverage date all shift a month earlier.

The calculator has a checkbox for this, because it is the single most common reason a hand-worked date is wrong.

If you enroll in the three months before your birthday month, coverage starts on the first day of your birthday month. If you enroll during or after it, coverage starts the first of the month after you sign up.

Enrolling early in the window is what avoids a gap.

You may be able to delay Part B without penalty while covered by an employer group plan, then use a Special Enrollment Period when that coverage ends.

The rules turn on the size of the employer, and COBRA and retiree coverage do not count the same way active employment does. Worth a conversation rather than a guess.

Your six-month Medicare Supplement open enrollment, which starts the month your Part B is in force. During it a Supplement cannot ask health questions or decline you.

It is the one window where a Medigap plan is guaranteed issue, which is why it is shown alongside the enrollment dates.

No. It is an estimate computed from published plan-year figures and the details you type in. It is not an offer of coverage or a determination of eligibility.

Your final premium and eligibility are confirmed at enrollment on HealthCare.gov or with the carrier.

From the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announcements for plan year 2026. They are plan-year stamped and reviewed each January, when the federal government publishes the new ones.

If a figure here does not match what you see elsewhere, check which plan year the other source is quoting first.

Nothing. Carriers pay a commission when a plan is issued, and that commission is already built into the plan price whether you use an agent or not.

Buying the same plan on your own does not make it cheaper — it just means nobody checked your doctors and prescriptions first, and nobody picks up the phone in March when something goes wrong.

No, and no agency does. We are independent, which means we compare across the carriers listed on this site rather than representing a single one — but that is not the same as offering every plan on the market.

We do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 8 organizations which offer 72 products in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.