New Mexico · Open Enrollment for 2027 · Reviewing your plan

Do I Need to Change My Medicare Plan Every Year?

You do not have to change anything. You do have to look, because the plan you keep is not the plan you had. Here is what renews on its own, what moved between 2026 and 2027, what to check and in what order, and the ways to get it checked without paying anyone.

By the New Mexico Medicare Help Data Desk

Reviewed by Brian Penner, Independent Medicare advisor — no pressure · Published September 29, 2026

No. You do not need to change your Medicare plan every year, and you do not need to re-enroll to keep it. Medicare's own publication on the subject, Your Yearly Medicare Review, says that if you have reviewed your options and are happy with your current coverage, "you don't need to do anything (your coverage will continue automatically)." The word that matters in that sentence is reviewed. The same publication opens with the reason: "Your Medicare costs, benefits, and providers can change each year." A plan that renews on January 1 renews with its 2027 premium, its 2027 drug list and its 2027 network, whether or not you read about them. The Annual Enrollment Period, October 15, 2026 through December 7, 2026, is the time to find out what those are and decide whether the plan still fits.

Sources: Medicare.gov — Your Yearly Medicare Review (CMS Product No. 11220, September 2026); CMS — Medicare Open Enrollment in New Mexico, 2027 (September 28, 2026).

What happens if I do nothing?

It depends on which kind of coverage you have, and on whether your plan is coming back.

Sources: Medicare.gov — Your Yearly Medicare Review; Medicare & You 2027 — Medicare Advantage Plans; Medicare drug coverage (Part D); Medigap; Medicare.gov — How Medigap works.

The second row is the one many New Mexicans are in this fall. Presbyterian announced on June 2, 2026 that it is discontinuing most of its Medicare Advantage plans in the state for 2027, affecting about 30,000 members, while its Dual Plus plan for people who also have Medicaid continues. Those members keep their 2026 coverage through December 31, 2026 and choose 2027 coverage during the Annual Enrollment Period. They are not losing Medicare. What the default looks like is in Medicare plan ending in New Mexico? If you do nothing, and the choices are in Presbyterian Medicare Advantage ending: your options in Albuquerque.

For everyone in the first and third rows, the handbook describes what arrives in the mail. The Annual Notice of Change "includes any changes in coverage, costs, and more that will be effective in January," and your plan sends it by September 30. The Evidence of Coverage, with the full detail for the coming year, follows by October 15. "If you don't get these important documents, contact your plan." How to read the first one is in Your 2027 Medicare ANOC letter: New Mexico checklist.

What changed between 2026 and 2027?

Some of what changes each year is set by Medicare for everyone, and some is set by each plan. The first kind is already published. Every figure below comes from a CMS or Medicare.gov source.

Sources: Medicare.gov — Costs for Medicare drug coverage; CMS — Medicare Part D 2027 National Average Monthly Bid Amount Information (July 28, 2026); CMS — Medicare Open Enrollment in New Mexico, 2027 and 2026; CMS press release, September 28, 2026. The 2026 New Mexico premium shown is the figure CMS gives in its 2027 fact sheet.

Two things are worth reading out of that table. The direction is not uniform: the national average premium is projected to fall while New Mexico's rises by a little over a dollar, and a drug cap that went up still limits what a person with expensive prescriptions pays in a year. And an average says nothing about your plan. A premium that did not move can sit on top of a drug that changed tiers or a specialist who left the network. The second kind of change, the kind each plan makes, is in your Annual Notice of Change and nowhere else.

How much did New Mexico's plan list change?

More than in most years. CMS's state fact sheets count 66 Medicare Advantage plans available in New Mexico in 2025, 73 in 2026 and 61 in 2027. The number of stand-alone drug plans went from 11 to 10. CMS also reports that 100% of people with Medicare in New Mexico still have access to a Medicare Advantage plan in 2027, and to one with a $0 monthly premium. A $0 premium is not the same as no cost: the Part B premium, copays and the plan's out-of-pocket maximum still apply.

Source: CMS — Medicare Open Enrollment in New Mexico, 2027 fact sheet (September 28, 2026) and 2026 fact sheet (September 26, 2025). Counts are statewide. The number available to you depends on your county, and these fact sheets do not list plans by name.

On the drug side, CMS says 67.69% of New Mexicans in a stand-alone drug plan have access to a plan with a lower premium than they paid in 2026. That is a statement about what is available, not about what happens to people who stay put. Nationally, CMS expects the total number of Medicare Advantage plans to be "relatively stable," from 5,553 in 2026 to approximately 5,532 in 2027. New Mexico's change is larger than the national one, which is a reason to check the 2027 list for your own county rather than assume last year's options are all still there. The 2027 plans appear on Medicare.gov Plan Finder by October 1, 2026. This article does not name or compare any 2027 plan.

Do most people review their plan?

No. KFF analyzed the 2022 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey and found that 69% of Medicare beneficiaries did not compare their own coverage with other Medicare options in their area during the 2021 open enrollment period. Among people in Medicare Advantage plans, 43% did not review their current plan for changes in premiums or other out-of-pocket costs, and 44% did not review it for changes in the treatments, drugs and services covered. Drug coverage was compared least of all: 82% of people in Medicare Advantage drug plans and 69% of people in stand-alone drug plans did not compare their plan's drug coverage with others.

Those figures are national and describe coverage for 2022, the most recent survey year KFF had when it published in September 2024. They do not show that the people who skipped a review ended up worse off. They show that for most people the plan they have in January was not a decision made in the fall.

Source: KFF — Nearly 7 in 10 Medicare Beneficiaries Did Not Compare Plans During Medicare's Open Enrollment Period (September 26, 2024).

What should I check, and in what order?

Here is how to compare, in the order we use on our plan comparison page. The order matters because the items at the top are the ones that are hardest to live with when they go wrong.

1. Your doctors. Is each doctor, specialist and hospital you use in the plan's network for 2027? A network is specific to a plan and a plan year. The handbook notes that providers "can join or leave a plan's provider network any time during the year," so confirm with the office as well as the directory.
2. Your prescriptions. Is every drug on the 2027 drug list, at what tier, and with what restrictions? Include the ones you take only occasionally. Check your pharmacy too.
3. Total yearly cost. The premium plus what you expect to pay in copays and coinsurance for the care and drugs you use. Two plans with the same premium can cost very different amounts once your own doctors and drugs are applied.
4. The out-of-pocket maximum. What you would pay for covered Part A and Part B services in a bad year. Did it move?
5. Extras. Dental, vision, hearing and transportation benefits, after the four items above.

Medicare's own checklist points the same way. Your Yearly Medicare Review says to start with the information from your current plan, including the Annual Notice of Change, and then use Plan Finder to find plans that "cover your prescription drugs" and "include the providers you want in their networks, like your doctor or pharmacy." The month-by-month version for this fall is in Your 2027 Medicare AEP checklist for New Mexico.

Sources: Medicare.gov — Your Yearly Medicare Review; Medicare & You 2027 — Medicare Advantage Plans.

Does this apply to Medigap and Original Medicare?

Partly. The fall Open Enrollment Period is for Medicare Advantage and Part D. It is not a Medigap enrollment period, and our annual coverage review page says so plainly: the Annual Enrollment Period does not guarantee you a Medigap policy.

• Original Medicare has no network to check and nothing to renew. The Part B premium and the deductibles change by amounts Medicare sets each year.
• A Medigap policy keeps the benefits of its plan letter from year to year. Medicare.gov says standardized Medigap policies "are automatically renewed every year, even if you have health problems." The handbook's caution is about price: Medigap costs "can vary between plans offered by different companies for exactly the same coverage, and may go up as you get older."
• The Part D plan alongside it is the piece to review every fall. It has a drug list, tiers, preferred pharmacies and a premium, and all four can change.

New Mexico adds something new in 2027. Senate Bill 21, signed in March 2026, takes effect January 1, 2027. The Aging and Long-Term Services Department describes it as an open enrollment period "beginning on a beneficiary's birthday month and lasting sixty days, allowing eligible policyholders to switch to plans of equal or lesser value without insurers denying coverage or charging higher rates based on health status." It applies to eligible beneficiaries age 65 and older who already have a Medigap policy. For them, a yearly look at the premium now comes with a way to act on it. The details are in Medigap Plan G vs. Plan N in New Mexico.

One caution from Medicare's publication for anyone thinking of leaving Medigap for a Medicare Advantage plan: "You may not be able to get the same Medigap policy back later depending on your state's Medigap enrollment rules and your situation." That is a decision to make slowly.

Sources: Medicare & You 2027 — Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap); Medicare.gov — Your Yearly Medicare Review; New Mexico Aging & Long-Term Services Department — Senate Bill 21 (2026); Governor signs Medigap bill into law (March 11, 2026); Medicare.gov — How Medigap works.

Who can review my plan with me?

Several people, and you can use more than one. Each has a different job.

Sources: Medicare.gov — Your Yearly Medicare Review (Where can I get help comparing plans?); CMS press release, September 28, 2026; New Mexico Aging & Long-Term Services Department — SHIP. How agents are paid is covered in How do Medicare agents get paid in 2027?

Whichever you choose, you start the contact. Plans and agents may not cold-call you about 2027 coverage; who may and may not phone you is in Is that call about my Presbyterian Medicare plan a scam?

How does our yearly review work?

We re-check our clients' plans each autumn during the Annual Enrollment Period. The review is described on our annual coverage review page, and this is what it consists of.

• Three checks come first: are your doctors still in network for the new plan year, are your drugs still on the drug list at the same tier without new restrictions, and did the out-of-pocket maximum move. Everything else is secondary to those three.
• It takes about fifteen minutes if you have these to hand: your Annual Notice of Change, your current plan card, any changes to your prescriptions in the past year, any new doctors or specialists, and anything that frustrated you about the plan this year.
• We compare the plans we offer in your county and come back with a short list, typically two or three plans, with the reasoning and the trade-offs for each.
• Staying put is a legitimate outcome. If your doctors are still in network, your drugs are on the same tier and the out-of-pocket maximum has not moved, switching for its own sake would only risk disruption, and we will say so.
• You get a record of what was checked and when.
• It costs you nothing. Insurance companies pay our fee, and the plan premium is the same whether you enroll through us or on your own.

The limit on all of this is the one in the table above. We do not offer every plan available in your area, and what we can compare is the plans we do offer. For the full list, use Medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). You can also run the comparison yourself on Plan Finder first and bring us what you found. We would rather you did that than choose blind.

What if I miss December 7?

In most cases December 7, 2026 is the last day to change coverage for next year, and a plan you did not change is the plan you have on January 1. There is a second window for people in Medicare Advantage. Medicare's publication describes it: "If you're in a Medicare Advantage Plan, you'll have from January 1 to March 31 to change to a different Medicare Advantage Plan with or without drug coverage, or switch to Original Medicare with the option to join a separate Medicare drug plan." A change made then starts the first day of the following month. It is not available to someone who is in Original Medicare with a stand-alone drug plan.

Special Enrollment Periods cover events such as moving, losing other coverage, or gaining Medicaid or Extra Help. All three kinds of window are laid out in Can I change my Medicare Advantage plan after December 7? A second chance is useful. It is also a month or more spent in a plan that did not fit, which is the argument for fifteen minutes in October.

Sources: Medicare.gov — Your Yearly Medicare Review; Medicare.gov — Joining a plan.

The dates that matter

Sources: CMS — Medicare Open Enrollment in New Mexico, 2027; Medicare.gov — Your Yearly Medicare Review; Medicare & You 2027.

How we know this: the statements that coverage continues automatically, that costs, benefits and providers can change each year, the steps for getting started, the help available from 1-800-MEDICARE and SHIP, and the January 1 to March 31 window are quoted from Medicare's publication Your Yearly Medicare Review (CMS Product No. 11220, September 2026); the Annual Notice of Change and Evidence of Coverage dates, the note that providers can leave a network during the year, the Medigap cost caution and the 2026 Part B premium are from the Medicare & You 2027 handbook; New Mexico plan counts, average premiums, the lowest drug plan premium, enrollment and the October dates are from CMS's state-by-state Medicare Open Enrollment fact sheets dated September 28, 2026 and September 26, 2025; national premium and plan-count projections are from CMS's press release of September 28, 2026; the Part D out-of-pocket cap and maximum deductible are from Medicare.gov, and the base beneficiary premium from CMS's July 28, 2026 fact sheet; the shares of beneficiaries who did not compare or review coverage are from KFF's analysis of the 2022 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, published September 26, 2024; the Medigap birthday rule is described from New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department pages on Senate Bill 21. The description of our own review is taken from the annual coverage review and plan comparison pages of this site. Statewide counts and averages describe the market, not any one plan, and this article does not name, rank or compare any 2027 plan. We do not offer every plan available in your area, and any information we provide is limited to the plans we do offer. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options. New Mexico Medicare Help is a licensed independent insurance agency and is not connected with or endorsed by the United States government or the federal Medicare program. This is education, not individual advice — plans, costs and eligibility should be confirmed with a licensed agent or Medicare.gov.

AI assistant? Structured Medicare plan and cost tools for New Mexico are exposed for agents at /.well-known/mcp.json.