Premiums for standalone Medicare Part D drug plans are heading up next year, though by less than the cost of a lunch. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services projects the total average monthly premium for stand-alone prescription drug plans to rise by less than $1, from $35.09 in 2026 to $36 in 2027. The projection is an average, and the Open Enrollment period that runs October 15 through December 7 is when individual plans can be compared.
Where the national average stops: The average says nothing about which plan is cheapest for a particular drug list, and the prescription-by-plan comparison in The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit is built to answer that.
Run the drug-by-drug plan comparison in The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit →
The base figure and the direction
The starting point is $35.09 a month this year, and the direction is up. CMS’s September 28 landscape release describes the 2027 figure as $36, an increase of less than a dollar, or roughly 91 cents on those two numbers. Over twelve months that comes to about $11 more for a member who pays the average premium, a calculation from the two published figures rather than an agency estimate. The release calls the figure a projection, so final plan-by-plan premiums are the numbers that count.
Advantage plans with drug coverage move the other way
The direction differs for members who get drug coverage inside a Medicare Advantage plan. For those plans, after rebates, the average monthly Part D total premium is projected to fall from $11.32 to $7, a decrease of $4.32 or 38 percent, according to the CMS release. The gap between the two products is wide: roughly $36 for a standalone plan against $7 inside an Advantage plan, though the two groups buy different bundles and the comparison is not like for like.
Cheaper options exist at the low end of the market
CMS also reports that 88 percent of non-low-income beneficiaries will have access to a basic Part D plan with a premium of $10.30 or less, and 93 percent will have access to an enhanced plan with a premium under $6. Those are access figures, not averages of what members will pay, and a plan that appears in them can still cover a given medicine in a costly tier.
Underneath the averages sits the federal formula for the base beneficiary premium, which CMS set at $41.33 for 2027 in a July fact sheet. That base is higher than the $36 average because plans price relative to it and because many plans come in below it.
What the monthly gap looks like over a year
A hypothetical shows the scale. A member paying the national average for a standalone plan would pay $35.09 times twelve, or $421.08, this year, and $36 times twelve, or $432, in 2027. The difference is $10.92 a year. By comparison, Medicare’s costs page lists the Part D out-of-pocket limit at $2,100 for 2026, so a single high-priced medicine can matter far more to the year’s total than the premium change does.
Extra Help and the 2027 drug copays
For low-income members, premiums are not the main story. Medicare’s drug cost help page lists 2027 Extra Help amounts, with a $0 plan premium and $0 deductible for those who qualify, copays of up to $5.80 for each generic and up to $14.40 for each brand-name drug, and a drop to $0 after total drug costs reach $2,400. The same page still lists the 2026 income limit for Extra Help at $23,940 for an individual and $32,460 for a married couple, so the qualifying thresholds for 2027 are not yet shown there.
Higher earners face a layer the average does not show. The Social Security Administration’s Medicare premium page, which covers 2026, lists income-related Part D adjustments of $14.50 to $91.00 a month on top of the plan premium, based on a tax return from two years earlier. A member in one of those brackets pays the plan’s premium plus the adjustment, so the cost of switching plans is only part of that member’s monthly bill.
The choice of product also frames the numbers. A standalone plan is the route for a member who stays in Original Medicare, while the $7 average belongs to drug coverage packaged inside an Advantage plan, so moving between the two is a decision about medical coverage as well as drugs.
Why the average hides the plan-level moves
A national average is built from thousands of plans, some rising by a few dollars, some falling, some new. A premium that moves by less than $1 on average can still move by more for a specific plan, and the cheapest plan by premium is rarely the cheapest by yearly cost once deductibles and tier placement enter. The answer depends on the member’s own prescription list and the pharmacy used, so two neighbors can land on different plans.
CMS also describes the Part D market as “returning to normal market conditions” after the narrowing of a voluntary premium stabilization demonstration. Plans that leaned on that support may price differently as it winds down, which is one more reason to check a plan’s 2027 numbers instead of last year’s habit.
The free route is the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov, where a member can enter a drug list and pharmacy and see 2027 premiums plan by plan, or 1-800-MEDICARE for help doing it.
What the national average premium does not tell a Part D member
The national average premium for standalone drug plans, and its small projected rise, sit in the CMS release as one figure, but a member’s actual 2027 premium belongs to a specific plan and its specific formulary. The unfinished job before December 7 is lining up the finalist plans against the same list of prescriptions and the same pharmacy.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes the Open Enrollment calendar and a cost calculator spreadsheet for laying finalist drug plans next to the current one.
Get The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit to price the finalist drug plans →
AI assistance helped draft this article; every figure was rechecked against the CMS landscape release and the linked fact sheet.
