A Medicare Advantage plan does not have to survive into the next calendar year for its members to keep coverage without a gap. When Medicare and an insurer part ways on a plan’s contract, federal rules give affected members their own enrollment window separate from the standard Open Enrollment calendar, running from December 8 through the last day of February. That window exists specifically for people whose plan choice was made for them by a business decision, not by anything they did. Insurers routinely restructure their Medicare Advantage lineups from one plan year to the next, dropping some plans, merging others and closing certain plans in certain counties, and Medicare’s non-renewal rule is the mechanism that applies whenever that restructuring reaches a member’s own plan.
The Non-Renewal Special Enrollment Period: December 8 to the Last Day of February
Medicare’s rules on special enrollment periods spell out the scenario directly: when a “Medicare Advantage Plan, Medicare drug plan, or Medicare Cost Plan’s contract with Medicare isn’t renewed,” an affected member gets a special enrollment period “between December 8 and the last day in February of the following year” to pick a new plan. Anyone who does not actively choose another Medicare Advantage plan during that stretch is automatically enrolled in Original Medicare instead of being left without any coverage at all once the old plan’s contract ends.
What a non-renewal notice does not walk through: the letter that announces a plan is not being renewed states the December 8 window exists, but it does not compare that plan’s replacement options on cost, drug coverage or which doctors stay reachable. Work through that comparison with The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit.
Switching to Original Medicare Unlocks Guaranteed-Issue Medigap Rights
The December 8 window carries an added benefit for anyone who uses it to move to Original Medicare rather than another Medicare Advantage plan. Medicare’s guaranteed-issue rules say a person in that position must apply for a Medigap policy “60 days before the date your Medicare Advantage Plan coverage ends. No more than 63 days after your Medicare Advantage Plan coverage ends” to be guaranteed acceptance regardless of health history, into Medigap Plan A, B, C, D, F, G, K, or L as sold in the member’s state. Medicare is explicit that this protection applies “only if you switch to Original Medicare (rather than joining another Medicare Advantage Plan)”, so a member who instead moves to a new Medicare Advantage plan during the same window does not get the same guaranteed-issue Medigap protection. That distinction carries a real cost consequence: outside a guaranteed-issue window, a Medigap insurer can generally use medical underwriting to deny an application or charge more based on health history, while a member who applies inside the 60-day-before-to-63-day-after window cannot be turned away or charged extra on that basis.
Three Different Windows Depending on How a Plan Exits
Medicare treats a non-renewal as distinct from two related but different scenarios, and each carries its own timing. A plan that is not renewed gives members the December 8 through end-of-February window described above. A plan that Medicare itself terminates for cause instead gives members a special enrollment period that “starts 1 month before the plan’s contract with Medicare ends, and ends 2 full months after the contract ends.” A plan that voluntarily exits mid-year, rather than simply declining to renew for the following year, triggers a third window that “starts 2 months before the plan’s contract with Medicare ends, and ends 1 full month after the contract ends.” A member who assumes the wrong one of these three windows applies risks missing the deadline that actually governs their own situation, and Medicare’s page does not merge the three into a single combined rule; each is listed and timed separately, and the window a member falls into depends on exactly how their plan is exiting, not just that it is exiting.
Humana’s Upcoming Nonrenewal Notices Show the Rule in Practice
The rule is not abstract this fall. Reporting on Humana’s 2027 plan lineup found the insurer is preparing to send nonrenewal notices to roughly 600,000 Medicare Advantage members, with the notices required to go out by October 2, 2026 under federal rules for contracts ending December 31. Celeste Mellet, Humana’s chief financial officer, said the company plans to “remove or cut off the lower tail of profitability and returns” as part of the decision, a business rationale that has nothing to do with any individual member’s health status but still triggers the same December 8 special enrollment period for everyone whose plan is affected. Members getting one of those notices this October are the population the non-renewal window was built for, and the timing lines up: a notice required by October 2 gives members over two months of lead time before their December 8 window even opens. Members in that position who intend to buy a Medigap policy still need to track their own plan’s exact end date, since the 60-day-before and 63-day-after guaranteed-issue clock runs off that date rather than off October 2 or December 8. A member who waits until the December 8 window opens to start comparing options is still inside both the non-renewal special enrollment period and the Medigap guaranteed-issue window, since both are measured from the plan’s actual end date rather than from the notice date itself.
Filling the December 8 Window With an Actual Plan Comparison
A non-renewal notice opens the December 8 special enrollment period and, for anyone moving to Original Medicare, the guaranteed-issue Medigap window described above, but neither notice compares what a replacement Medicare Advantage plan or Medigap policy would actually cost against the plan being lost.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit walks through Original Medicare versus Medicare Advantage and includes the Open Enrollment calendar alongside a cost calculator spreadsheet for lining up replacement options.
Open the calendar and cost comparison before the non-renewal window closes in The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit.
This article was produced with AI assistance and checked against the primary sources linked above.
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.
