The Medicare & You handbook for 2027 is arriving in mailboxes now, and the numbers most people turn to first are not in it. According to the handbook itself, the 2027 premiums, drug costs and income limits were not available when it went to print. The figures inside are for 2026.
Some of what changes on January 1 is already known. The deductible for drug coverage can be as high as $700 in 2027, up from $615, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The yearly cap on out-of-pocket spending for covered drugs rises to $2,400, from $2,100.
Premiums for stand-alone drug plans may climb faster than usual. For two years, a temporary federal program paid those plans extra to hold premiums down. CMS ended it after 2026 to return the program to what it calls traditional market conditions.
Some prices fall. Medicare negotiated lower prices on 15 drugs, effective January 1, among them Ozempic, Wegovy, Trelegy Ellipta, Breo Ellipta, Janumet and Linzess. What Medicare pays for a month of Ozempic drops from a list price of $959 to $274. What a patient pays still depends on the plan, but CMS estimates the new prices will save people on Medicare $685 million out of pocket in 2027.
The handbook does carry news of its own. Telehealth visits stay covered through December 31, 2027, and the Diabetes Prevention Program now offers online and self-paced versions.
Medicare is also using artificial intelligence to catch improper payments early, and it still asks for help from the people it covers. Every Medicare Summary Notice lists each service billed in the patient's name. A charge for a visit that never happened is the first thing to look for.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.