A batch of rate filings submitted to state insurance regulators at the start of 2026 shows how differently six of the largest sellers of Medicare Supplement insurance are pricing the same policy. On Plan G, the version most Medigap buyers choose, the smallest of the first-quarter increases ran just over 12 percent; the largest topped 26 percent. For the roughly 12 million people who carry a Medigap policy to cover the deductibles and copays traditional Medicare leaves behind, the size of that gap can mean hundreds of dollars a year depending on which insurer happens to hold the policy.
State Filings Put Six Carriers on a Wide, Uneven Curve
The range comes from a review of early-2026 rate filings covering Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, Mutual of Omaha and UnitedHealthcare, published by a Nebraska-based consulting firm that tracks Medicare Supplement pricing each quarter. For Plan G policies — chosen by most Medigap buyers because the plan covers nearly every out-of-pocket cost traditional Medicare leaves behind — the six carriers’ first-quarter increases spanned just over 12 percent on the low end to more than 26 percent on the high end.
That firm, Telos Actuarial, is where the range originates. Brett Mushett, a consulting actuary there, cautioned that the sample draws from a limited number of states and carriers rather than a full national count, but said it still points to insurers correcting prices against claims costs that have outpaced what earlier rates assumed. The scale of the shift matters because Medigap premiums were already substantial: the average Plan G premium ran $164 a month in 2023, according to Kaiser Family Foundation data cited in a KFF Health News report on the filings, and a 20 percent increase on that base adds roughly $394 to a year of premiums.
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One Insurer’s Fix Landed on Policyholders Outside the Usual Renewal Calendar
The clearest example of how abrupt these corrections can get came from Chubb, whose Plan G book is not among the six carriers in the rate-filing review but illustrates the same pressure. More than 80 clients of Illinois broker John Jaggi, who has sold Medicare-related insurance for 49 years, saw their Chubb-issued Medigap policies jump 45 percent last August. What made the increase unusual was not only its size but its timing: Chubb applied it to every affected policyholder at once rather than staggering it across each person’s individual renewal date, the practice most Medigap carriers follow. Chubb did not respond to a request for comment on the increase.
Jaggi’s brokerage spent weeks finding cheaper alternatives for those clients, since the Chubb policy had previously been the lowest-cost option in the group. He described double-digit increases as no longer unusual in the Medigap market broadly, even though an increase applied outside the normal renewal cycle remains rare.
Higher Medical Use, Not One Company’s Pricing Choice, Is Cited as the Driver
Brokers describe the same pattern playing out market by market. Amanda Brewton, who owns a marketing organization for Medicare sales agents, said Ohio’s Medigap increases used to run 3 to 5 percent a year and now typically land between 10 and 15 percent. In Alaska, Premera Blue Cross raised its 2026 Plan G premiums by nearly 12 percent, and a second carrier in the state raised rates by nearly 13 percent, according to rate sheets an Alaska insurance agent provided to reporters. For one 65-year-old Alaska policyholder, that meant a Plan G premium rising from $172 a month in 2025 to $192 a month in 2026 — a $240 difference over a year before any other cost changes are counted.
A Premera spokesperson pointed to two forces behind the increase: Medicare’s own yearly changes to deductible and copayment amounts, which flow through to what supplemental plans must cover, and higher use of medical services among the insurer’s Medigap members, which raised claims costs directly. Chalen Jackson, a vice president at the insurance distribution company Integrity, said it is now “very uncommon to see a rate increase below 10%” industry-wide, a reversal from five years ago when any increase above 10 percent was the outlier.
Guaranteed-Issue Windows Limit Who Can Simply Shop the Increase Away
Medigap does not work like ordinary shop-around insurance once the initial sign-up window closes. Beneficiaries get a six-month Medigap Open Enrollment Period, starting when Part B coverage begins, to buy any Medigap policy sold in their state without being asked health questions, according to Medicare.gov. After that period ends, insurers in most states can review medical history before selling a policy, or decline to sell one at all, unless a beneficiary qualifies for a specific guaranteed-issue right.
At least 16 states soften that rule with a birthday rule that lets existing Medigap holders switch policies once a year, typically around their birthday, without new medical underwriting, and four states — Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and New York — require insurers to accept applicants at any point regardless of health. Outside those states, a policyholder facing a steep increase who wants to switch carriers can be turned down or charged more for a preexisting condition. The same underwriting risk applies to anyone who leaves traditional Medicare for a Medicare Advantage plan and later wants to return: federal rules give just a 12-month window to buy a Medigap policy without medical questions, after which the path back narrows considerably.
A Higher-Deductible Option Exists, and a Senate Proposal to Cap Costs Remains Stalled
Two lower-premium alternatives come up repeatedly among brokers working with clients facing these increases. One is a Medigap plan built around a roughly $3,000 annual deductible, trading a lower monthly premium for a larger upfront cost before coverage begins — an option one Alaska agent said many clients are not comfortable carrying. The other is leaving traditional Medicare for a Medicare Advantage plan, which caps annual out-of-pocket costs but narrows care to an in-network group of doctors and hospitals. Some beneficiaries are already making that trade in reverse: roughly 440,000 of the more than 2.6 million people who lost Medicare Advantage coverage for 2026 when insurers exited their markets ended up buying a Medicare supplement instead, according to the market-research firm Deft Research.
At the federal level, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has pushed for Congress to cap out-of-pocket costs under traditional Medicare, the only major federal health insurance program that currently has none. The proposal faces long odds: a cap of that kind would add to federal spending, and lawmakers have shown little appetite this year for a change that size. That leaves the six-carrier rate filings, and whatever each household’s insurer decides at the next renewal, as the nearer-term reality behind the numbers Telos Actuarial published for the first quarter of 2026.
Medigap Premiums Are Only One Line on a Retiree’s Medicare Budget
Plan G premiums are the visible cost snapshot, but drug spending and appeal decisions move on their own schedule and often land in the same year a supplement renews higher. Households juggling a rising Medigap bill, a Part D plan and the occasional denied claim rarely have one place that lines those pieces up together.
The Medicare Cost & Coverage Protection Kit lays out the new Part D out-of-pocket cap, walks through the prior-authorization appeal steps, and includes a medication and cost tracker alongside cost-help packs for all 51 states.
See the Part D cap and appeal steps in The Medicare Cost & Coverage Protection Kit.
AI-assisted research and drafting; reviewed by an editor.
