The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has set the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration to end, with the program expiring at the close of calendar year 2026. CMS announced the “planned discontinuation in 2027” in its September 28 release on 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D plans. The release puts no dollar effect on the ending, so the size of any change for an individual enrollee is not in the public record the agency has issued.
How CMS words the end of the demonstration
The CMS release mentions the demonstration twice. In one passage it says “there are encouraging signs that, as expected, the Part D program is returning to normal market conditions following the narrowing of the voluntary Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration for CY 2026 and its planned discontinuation in 2027.” In the other it refers to “the appropriate sunsetting of the Part D Stabilization Demonstration Project.”
Two features of that language matter. CMS calls the demonstration voluntary, a word that points to participation as an option rather than a feature built into every Part D plan. And the phrase “narrowing … for CY 2026” shows that the program was already smaller in the current year than before, with the final step coming at the end of 2026. The release does not define the narrowing, list the plans affected or say how many sponsors took part.
The words “as expected” carry weight too. CMS presents the discontinuation as an anticipated step, not a reversal, and ties it to a market it describes as “returning to normal market conditions.” That sentence is the agency’s own assessment of Part D as a whole. It is a statement about the market’s direction and about the demonstration’s place in it, and the release offers no table, chart or dollar comparison to show how far 2026 sits from the normal conditions it describes.
CMS’s framing of “speculation and misleading reports”
The release does more than announce the end. It answers criticism of it. “Despite speculation and misleading reports related to the appropriate sunsetting of the Part D Stabilization Demonstration Project, there is broad pricing stability across the Part D market,” the release states. CMS thereby treats the ending as planned and describes the market as steady, and it does so without conceding any enrollee-level consequence.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the CMS Administrator, is quoted in the release on the overall announcement: “CMS is fighting to keep high-quality care options affordable and accessible for the millions of beneficiaries who rely on Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans.” The quotation concerns the 2027 plan landscape as a whole. It does not mention the demonstration by name, and the release attributes no statement about the demonstration to any individual official.
What the release does not put a number on
The same release carries averages for 2027 premiums, and every one of them is labeled by CMS as projected. The agency describes a weighted average monthly premium across Medicare Advantage plans and a total average monthly premium for stand-alone prescription drug plans, each given as a projected 2027 figure. These are averages across the market. They are not a premium for any named plan, they do not describe any one county, and the release does not link them to the end of the demonstration.
For that reason this article does not use them. A projected average across all stand-alone plans cannot show what a single plan will charge a single member for a given drug list, and the CMS page does not say what share of any average, high or low, came from the demonstration ending. The one settled fact about the program is the one in the headline: it is scheduled to stop after 2026.
Where the open choice falls on the calendar
The release gives the Open Enrollment period for 2027 coverage as October 15 through December 7, 2026. During those weeks, beneficiaries can change Medicare health and drug plans for the coming year, and CMS directs them to Medicare.gov and the Medicare Plan Finder, which, in the release’s words, “allows beneficiaries to compare Medicare health and drug plans, including premiums, costs, benefits, and other coverage information.”
Because the demonstration ends with the calendar year, 2027 is the first year in which Part D plans operate without it. Whether a particular plan’s 2027 premium differs from its 2026 premium for that reason is not stated by CMS and is not available from the release. The plan’s own 2027 listing is where any such difference would appear, as a premium on the Plan Finder, and the release does not say that any given plan will be higher or lower.
What the CMS release settles and what it leaves to each plan
As of October 5, 2026, the CMS record settles the schedule: narrowed for 2026, planned discontinuation in 2027, with Open Enrollment running October 15 to December 7. The CMS release leaves the effect to the plans’ own 2027 filings, which carry the premium and drug coverage each member will actually be offered.
Part D plan choice when a premium program leaves
The release says what program is ending but gives no per-plan result, which leaves each member to find out what the change means for one plan and one drug list. A premium that looks higher or lower on a plan listing says little until it is set against what the member’s own prescriptions cost under that plan.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit pairs a prescription-by-plan comparison with a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, and it includes the Open Enrollment calendar for the weeks ahead.
Compare Part D plans drug by drug as the Premium Stabilization Demonstration ends →
Drafted with AI assistance from the CMS press release, then checked against that source before publication.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
