With Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period five weeks away, the federal government has not yet published a single 2027 premium a beneficiary could actually use to compare plans. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released technical bid data for prescription drug coverage, but no plan-specific Part D premium, no 2027 Part B premium or deductible, and no updated income-related surcharge bracket has posted as of today. For a retiree trying to budget ahead of open enrollment, the gap is real, and it traces directly back to CMS’s own release calendar rather than any delay or error.
What CMS Has Released So Far: An Average, Not a Premium
On July 28, 2026, CMS published a fact sheet setting the 2027 national average monthly bid amount, or NAMBA, at $296.05. That figure is an enrollment-weighted average of every Part D plan sponsor’s bid for basic drug coverage, and CMS uses it to calculate how much government subsidy each plan receives, not what any individual pays out of pocket.
The same fact sheet sets the 2027 base beneficiary premium, the starting point for calculating a plan-specific Part D premium, at $41.33, a figure capped by the Inflation Reduction Act’s premium-stabilization provision at no more than a 6 percent annual increase through 2029. CMS also used the fact sheet to announce that it will end the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration, a voluntary program that has offset standalone drug-plan premium volatility since 2025, when the current year closes, returning Part D to ordinary market conditions in 2027.
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Why a National Average Isn’t What Anyone Actually Pays
The NAMBA and base beneficiary premium function as inputs to a formula, not as numbers a beneficiary sees on a bill. Actual Part D premiums vary by the specific plan, the insurer and, in many cases, the county a beneficiary lives in, and those plan-by-plan figures are compiled separately into what CMS calls the Medicare Advantage and Part D landscape file. In the same July fact sheet, CMS committed to releasing that landscape file, along with final average MA and Part D premiums, “in mid-to-late September, once all offerings are finalized.” As of today, that landscape file has not posted, which means the only 2027 dollar figures currently public are the two actuarial inputs, not a premium any shopper could compare against this year’s plan.
Two CMS Pages, Two Different Release Windows
CMS gives two somewhat different answers to the question of exactly when beneficiaries can expect to see real numbers. The Part D fact sheet ties the landscape file and final average premiums to September. Separately, CMS’s own Medicare Open Enrollment resource page, aimed at the general public, states plainly that “information for next year’s plans will be available beginning in October,” and directs beneficiaries to Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE once it posts. Whichever window ends up applying to plan-specific numbers, the enrollment period itself does not move: it runs October 15 through December 7 every year, giving beneficiaries a fixed 53 days to compare whatever data has posted by the time it opens. The same consumer page also reminds beneficiaries to watch for two documents their current plan mails directly: the Evidence of Coverage and the Annual Notice of Change, which describe how that one plan is changing without requiring a beneficiary to wait for CMS’s broader market-wide release at all.
The distinction between the two CMS timelines is not simply bureaucratic. The landscape file is a technical dataset built for plan sponsors, agents and organizations that need the full market picture to finalize their own materials before open enrollment begins. The “beginning in October” language on the consumer page describes when that same underlying data becomes usable through Medicare.gov’s Plan Compare tool for an individual beneficiary typing in a ZIP code. Both descriptions can be accurate at once: the underlying figures may be finalized and shared with the industry before the public-facing comparison tool reflects them, which is a normal sequence for a government data release rather than evidence that either CMS page is wrong.
What’s Still Missing Beyond Part D Pricing
The July fact sheet addresses only the Part D bid figures and says nothing about the 2027 Medicare Part B premium, the Part B deductible, or the income-related monthly adjustment amount brackets that raise premiums for higher-income beneficiaries. Those figures are set through a separate CMS and Social Security Administration process and are not part of this release. A beneficiary trying to build a full 2027 budget this week is working with an actuarial average for drug-plan subsidies and a fixed enrollment calendar, but not yet the plan-specific premium, the medical-coverage premium, or the surcharge threshold that will ultimately determine what Medicare actually costs them next year. Until those figures post, the safest planning assumption is the current 2026 premium and deductible level, adjusted for the fact that the base Part D premium is capped at a 6 percent annual increase through 2029, rather than any unofficial estimate circulating before CMS’s own release.
What the plan letter does not do
An Annual Notice of Change lists what changed, but never compares the plan against the alternatives on cost, drugs and doctors.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a 42-page decision kit, a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors and a prescription-by-plan comparison.
Run the comparison in The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Financial Wire editorial team.
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.
