Medigap policies are normally sold with health questions attached. Outside a few protected windows, an insurer can ask about a person’s medical history, charge more because of it, or decline to sell at all. That is why a Medicare Advantage member who develops a serious condition often finds the door back to Original Medicare with a supplement effectively closed. A plan that leaves Medicare reopens it.
Sixty days before, sixty-three days after
When a Medicare Advantage plan is terminated or does not renew its contract, the affected member gets a guaranteed-issue right — a period in which an insurer must sell them a Medigap policy, cannot use medical underwriting, and cannot charge more because of health history. Medicare’s guidance on when to buy a Medigap policy sets the window on both sides of the coverage end date: an application can be filed as early as 60 days before Medicare Advantage coverage ends, and no later than 63 days after it ends.
The anchor is the date coverage ends, not the date the letter arrives. A member who receives a non-renewal notice in October for coverage ending December 31 has until early March. The Medigap policy itself cannot begin until the Medicare Advantage coverage is over, so applying early buys preparation time rather than an earlier start date.
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Eight plan letters, and one condition
The guaranteed-issue right is real but not unlimited, and two boundaries are worth knowing before making calls. It covers Medigap Plans A, B, C, D, F, G, K and L — not every plan an insurer sells. Plans C and F carry an additional restriction that applies to all buyers, not just this window: they are available only to people who became eligible for Medicare before January 1, 2020.
The condition attached is the more consequential one. This right applies only if the member moves to Original Medicare. Someone who responds to a non-renewal letter by enrolling in a different Medicare Advantage plan has made a reasonable choice, but they have used the window on a path where a Medigap policy is not part of the picture — Medigap does not work alongside Medicare Advantage. The decision between another Advantage plan and Original Medicare with a supplement therefore has to be made inside the window, not after it, because only one of those routes preserves the underwriting protection.
The enrollment window is a separate clock
Buying a Medigap policy and enrolling in Medicare coverage are two different transactions on two different timetables, and conflating them is a common way to run out of time on one while watching the other.
Medicare’s Special Enrollment Period rules set different windows depending on how a plan ends. When a plan does not renew its contract, the Special Enrollment Period runs from December 8 through the last day of the following February. When Medicare terminates a plan’s contract, the window starts one month before the contract ends and runs two full months after. When the plan itself ends its contract, the window starts two months before and ends one full month after. Those are three different sets of dates for three situations that all look like “my plan is going away” from the member’s side, which is a good reason to read the specific wording of the notice rather than relying on a remembered rule.
Running alongside all of it is the annual enrollment period, October 15 through December 7, which is open to everyone regardless of whether their plan is ending.
Keep the letter
Medicare’s guidance advises keeping any letters, notices, emails or claim denials showing that coverage ended, because a member may need to include copies when applying for a Medigap policy. The framing there is worth reproducing accurately: it is not a formal proof requirement that voids the right if the paperwork is lost, but an insurer processing a guaranteed-issue application generally wants documentation that the qualifying event occurred, and a member who cannot produce it is making an easy transaction into a slow one.
The CMS National Training Program publishes a module on Medigap enrollment and guaranteed-issue rights that walks through the qualifying events in more detail than the consumer pages do. It is written for counselors rather than beneficiaries, which makes it denser and more complete.
Why this matters more in some years than others
Guaranteed-issue rights are a standing part of federal law, not a new provision, and they exist year-round for anyone whose qualifying event occurs. What makes them worth revisiting in a particular fall is the volume of non-renewal notices going out — and consolidation among Medicare Advantage carriers has been producing plan exits and full withdrawals at a pace that puts a substantial number of members in exactly this position.
For a member holding one of those letters, the sequence that preserves every option is short. Confirm the date coverage actually ends, because every deadline runs from it. Decide between Original Medicare with a supplement and another Advantage plan while the underwriting protection is still live. If the answer is Original Medicare, apply for the Medigap policy inside the window rather than after the new coverage starts. And price the supplement before committing, since guaranteed issue removes health questions from the decision but does not standardize what different insurers charge for the same lettered plan.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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