Medigap Guaranteed Issue Rights in California

Trigger 1: Your Medicare Advantage plan ends or leaves your area

When a Medicare Advantage plan terminates its contract or stops serving your county, California law (Insurance Code section 10192.12) gives you the right to buy a Medigap policy with no health questions. The window runs from when you receive the plan's termination notice until 63 days after your coverage ends. For a plan that ends December 31, that deadline is in early March, but apply before your coverage ends if you want Medigap to start the day after, with no gap.

California reads the federal letter list for this trigger generously for newer beneficiaries: people who became eligible after 2020 use the substitute letters, so Plan G stands in for Plan F, Plan N is available on this trigger in California, and High Deductible Plan G stands in for High Deductible Plan F.

• Keep the termination letter. It is your proof, and the new carrier will ask for it.
• You must return to Original Medicare to use this right. Enrolling in a different Medicare Advantage plan instead spends the moment; the guaranteed issue right is for buying Medigap.
• Pair the Medigap policy with a standalone Part D drug plan. Losing a Medicare Advantage plan that included drugs also opens a Part D enrollment window, and going without creditable drug coverage risks a late enrollment penalty.
• Tell us about your doctors freely: Medigap has no network, so there is no directory check standing between you and keeping them, as long as they accept Original Medicare patients.

The standing right: your six month Medigap Open Enrollment Period

Separate from the event triggers, every Californian gets one six month window that starts the month they are both 65 or older and enrolled in Part B. In that window, carriers must sell you any Medigap policy they offer, at their best available price for your age, with no health questions. It is the easiest Medigap purchase of your life, and it does not come back. People who delay Part B because they are still working get this window when they do enroll in Part B at 65 or later.

Other guaranteed issue triggers

Each trigger has its own deadline, usually 63 days after the event or notice, and its own list of letters you may buy. The details decide real cases, so bring your notice letter to the call and we will match it to the exact right before anyone applies.

• Your employer or retiree group health plan that supplements Medicare ends, through no fault of yours.
• You move out of your Medicare Advantage plan's service area.
• Your Medicare Advantage plan misled you or failed to meet its obligations, or your Medigap insurance company goes bankrupt or ends your policy through no fault of yours.
• The trial right: you joined a Medicare Advantage plan when you first became eligible at 65 and you leave it within the first 12 months. You may then buy any Medigap policy sold in California, with no health questions.
• A second trial right: you dropped a Medigap policy to try Medicare Advantage for the first time and leave within 12 months. You may return to the same Medigap policy if the carrier still sells it, or to a defined set of letters if it does not.

Compare the plans

A Medigap policy never includes drug coverage, so pair it with a standalone Part D plan. See the 2027 California Part D plans, all 10 with premiums and deductibles.

Back to the full comparison: Medicare Supplement plans in California.

Questions and answers