The tool that decides it
The Plan Finder, click by click: the only comparison that counts
Short answer: Medicare’s official Plan Finder at medicare.gov is free, unbiased, sells nothing, and will tell you in about fifteen minutes which 2027 plan costs you least across a full year with your exact prescriptions. Almost everyone who gets burned skipped it or sorted it wrong. Here is the walkthrough: what to gather first, every screen in order, the one sort setting that changes the answer, and what CMS added for this season. 2027 plans and prices go live October 15.
Key takeaways
- Gather first: your prescription bottles (exact names, doses, quantities) and your preferred pharmacy.
- Sort by total annual cost (premium plus drug costs), never by monthly premium, or the tool will mislead you.
- Enter drugs exactly as prescribed; a dose or quantity error can change the estimate by hundreds.
- New for this season: sign in with Login.gov, ID.me, or CLEAR, and save your providers to reuse across plan comparisons.
- Free human help exists at 1-800-MEDICARE, available 24 hours a day, and through your state SHIP counselors.
What to gather first (five minutes)
Have these in front of you before you start, because guessing is what makes the results wrong: every prescription bottle (you need the exact drug name, dose, and how many you take per month), your pharmacy of choice, your Medicare number if you want the personalized version, and a rough sense of which doctors you must keep if you’re shopping Advantage plans. A page of notes beats a memory every time, which is the entire reason the workbook’s shopping tables exist.
The walkthrough
| Step | What you do | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Start | Go to medicare.gov/plan-compare and choose to continue without logging in, or sign in for a personalized view | Signing in pre-fills the drugs Medicare already has on file for you |
| 2. Pick the plan type | Drug plans (Part D) if you have Original Medicare; Medicare Advantage if you want the bundled private plans | Shopping both? Run the comparison twice, once per type |
| 3. Enter your ZIP | County-level results, since plans and prices are local | A neighboring county can have different plans entirely |
| 4. Add your drugs | Type each drug name, then select dose, quantity, and frequency | Generic versus brand matters; so does 30 versus 90 day supply |
| 5. Choose your pharmacy | Select up to several, including mail order | “Preferred” pharmacies cost less on the same plan |
| 6. Sort the results | Change the sort to lowest total annual cost (see below) | This is the step almost everyone gets wrong |
| 7. Open the finalists | Click into two or three plans for tier placements, restrictions, star ratings, and (for Advantage) the out-of-pocket maximum | Restriction flags mean prior authorization, step therapy, or quantity limits |
| 8. Enroll | Enroll directly through the tool, or call the plan | Your old plan ends automatically January 1; no cancellation call |
2027 plans, prices, and star ratings appear October 15. Enrollment runs October 15 through December 7 for January 1 coverage.
The sort that changes everything
The Plan Finder can rank plans by monthly premium or by lowest total annual cost (premium plus what your specific drugs will cost you across the year). These two lists routinely disagree, and the premium list is the one that costs people money: a $9 plan with a $700 deductible and your medication on tier 4 can lose badly to a $45 plan that puts the same drug on tier 2. Sort by total annual cost, then compare the top few. CMS reports that most non-low-income beneficiaries can find a basic drug plan at $10.30 or less for 2027, which is exactly the kind of cheap-premium plan that deserves the total-cost test before you trust it.
What CMS added for this season
Two changes worth knowing. You can now sign in to your Medicare account using Login.gov, ID.me, or CLEAR, and you can find and save your providers so they carry across plan comparisons instead of being re-entered. From October, plan pages also show more detail on preventive services, link directly to plan documents like formularies and the Summary of Benefits, and display prominent messages about changes affecting your current plan in 2027. That last one is genuinely useful: it surfaces, inside the tool, the same changes your Annual Notice of Change disclosed by mail.
Five costly mistakes
- Sorting by premium. Covered above, and worth repeating because it is the single most expensive click in Medicare.
- Entering drugs approximately. Wrong dose or quantity produces a confidently wrong annual estimate.
- Ignoring the pharmacy field. The same plan prices differently at preferred versus standard pharmacies, and mail order changes it again.
- Skipping the plan detail page. Restriction flags (prior authorization, step therapy, quantity limits) live there, not in the summary row.
- Trusting the network directory alone when comparing Advantage plans. Call the office with the exact 2027 plan name, as the checklist insists.
If the tool frustrates you, two free and unbiased human options exist: 1-800-MEDICARE, staffed around the clock, and your state’s SHIP counselors, who will run this comparison with you and earn no commission either way. Neither is trying to sell you anything, which cannot be said of most phone numbers that appear during enrollment season.
Questions people also ask
How do I use the Medicare Plan Finder?
Should I sort Medicare plans by premium or total cost?
When can I see 2027 Medicare plans on the Plan Finder?
Do I need a Medicare account to use the Plan Finder?
Is there free help comparing Medicare plans?
Sources for this article
- Medicare.govMedicare Plan Finder: the official comparison and enrollment tool.
- CMS.gov2027 landscape announcement (September 28, 2026): the new sign-in and provider-saving features, plan availability, and the $10.30 basic-plan figure.
- Medicare.govMedicare.gov: enrollment windows and coverage start dates.
Figures checked against these sources on September 30, 2026. We update within days when CMS publishes new amounts.
Not sure which path fits you? Get a straight answer.
Start the decoderThe one paid thing
Stop re-reading Medicare articles. Decide, on paper, in two evenings.
The Turning-65 Decision Workbook is this site’s free explanations turned into pages you fill in, so the decision ends up written down instead of rattling around in your head.
- Your enrollment dates calculated from your own birthday, with the penalty deadlines marked
- Advantage vs. Medigap scored against your doctors, drugs, travel, and budget
- Word-for-word scripts for the broker, HR, the pharmacy, and Social Security
- The September re-shop ritual you reuse every fall, with the 2026 and 2027 numbers card
Instant PDF download. Free update when the remaining 2027 figures land. Full refund within 30 days if it doesn’t help, and you keep the PDF.