The first thing to know about an AARP Medicare Supplement plan is that AARP does not sell insurance. Every policy in this block is issued by UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut. AARP licenses its name to UnitedHealthcare, collects a royalty, and requires you to be a dues-paying member before you can buy.
The second thing to know is that this block is priced differently from almost every other Medigap carrier in the country, and the difference is not obvious from a quote. In several states the plan is community rated, meaning there is one base premium for everyone age 65 and older. That sounds like a promise your rate will not climb with age. It is not, because the discount layered on top of the base rate shrinks every year until it disappears at 81. Everything below comes from state regulators’ own filed-rate charts, pulled September 7, 2026.
What an AARP Medicare Supplement Plan Actually Is
It is a standard Medigap policy with AARP’s brand on the envelope. Federal law standardizes the benefits by letter, so an AARP Plan G pays exactly what any other company’s Plan G pays. What varies is price, rating method, and service.
UnitedHealthcare’s own disclosure is blunt about the relationship. UnitedHealthcare pays royalty fees to AARP for the use of its intellectual property, those fees go to AARP’s general purposes, and AARP and its affiliates are not insurers. AARP’s own benefit page says the same thing from the other direction: member benefits are provided by third parties, and providers pay a royalty fee for the use of AARP’s intellectual property.
Membership is a hard gate. The AARP Medicare Supplement shopping site states you must be an AARP member to enroll and puts dues at $20.00 a year, while AARP advertises $15 for a first year with automatic renewal. Maryland’s regulator lists the marketing method for this entire block as “AARP Members Only.” Budget the dues as part of the cost.
Scale is the reason this page exists. UnitedHealth Group’s 2025 Form 10-K reports 4,285,000 people in standardized Medicare Supplement coverage as of December 31, 2025, and says the segment served 4.3 million seniors through Medicare Supplement products. Set that against AHIP’s count of more than 14 million Medicare Supplement enrollees nationally, and roughly three in ten Medigap policies in the United States sit in this one block. No other Medigap carrier is close.
How AARP Prices Its Plans
Here is where the AARP block stops looking like its competitors.
The base rate does not vary by age in community-rated states. The Maryland Insurance Administration classifies the UnitedHealthcare AARP filing as “Group Market, Community Rated” and publishes a single base rate for “Age 65 and Older” instead of the age-65/70/75/80/85 grid it prints for every attained-age carrier. Washington’s insurance commissioner does the same, because Washington law requires community rating.
But the early enrollment discount does vary by age, and it decays. Per the Maryland guide, the discount is 39% at ages 65 through 68, 36% at 69, 33% at 70, and then drops 3 percentage points every 12 months until it hits 0% at 81, after which you pay the full base rate. That is the mechanism that makes a “community rated” plan get more expensive every single birthday.
Enroll late and you land in a higher tier. Maryland’s guide describes three positions. Enroll within six months of turning 65 or of your Part B effective date and you get the full early-enrollment discount. Enroll between six months and ten years later and you get the base rate reduced by the discount, provided your acceptance is guaranteed or your health answers are clean. Enroll more than ten years later and you pay the Tier I rate, which in Maryland is about 10% above the base rate before any discount at all.
There is a household discount. Maryland’s chart lists a 10% multi-insured discount when two or more insured people on one account hold at least one eligible plan under the AARP group master policy.
Tobacco costs more. Maryland prints a separate, higher tobacco table, though it cannot be used during your six-month Medigap open enrollment period, during a guaranteed-issue period, or during the state’s 30-day birthday window.
What AARP Medicare Supplement Costs in 2026
The table below is the Maryland Insurance Administration’s filed monthly premiums as of July 1, 2026, male non-tobacco. The effective column applies the guide’s own 39% early-enrollment discount to the guide’s own base rate.
| Plan letter | Base rate | Effective at 65 to 68 (39% off) | Tier I rate (late enrollee) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan A | $736 | $449 | $809 |
| Plan B | $417 | $254 | $458 |
| Plan C (pre-2020 eligibility only) | $738 | $450 | $811 |
| Plan F (pre-2020 eligibility only) | $498 | $304 | $548 |
| Plan G | $423 | $258 | $465 |
| Plan K | $185 | $113 | $204 |
| Plan L | $303 | $185 | $334 |
| Plan N | $352 | $215 | $387 |
Female base rates in the same guide are roughly 11% lower, so a 65-year-old woman’s Plan G works out to about $229 a month against $258 for a man. For a second state, Washington’s insurance commissioner lists the AARP block at $324 a month for Plan G at every age 65 and older, $265 for Plan N and $225 for Plan A, with rates effective 6/1/2026. Washington is one of nine states KFF identifies as requiring community rating, so those numbers cannot be read as national pricing.
Notice which plans are missing. Neither the Maryland nor the Washington chart shows Plan D, Plan M, or a high-deductible F or G in the AARP block, and UnitedHealthcare’s own shopping page lists only A, B, C, F, G, K, L and N. If you want the cheap high-deductible route, our Medigap Plan G cost breakdown covers it, and you will be shopping Mutual of Omaha or Cigna rather than AARP.
The Discount Decay, Year by Year
This is the number nobody quotes you. Same Maryland Plan G base rate of $423, same policy, different ages at enrollment.
| Your age | Early enrollment discount | Monthly Plan G premium |
|---|---|---|
| 65 to 68 | 39% | $258 |
| 69 | 36% | $271 |
| 70 | 33% | $283 |
| 75 | 18% | $347 |
| 80 | 3% | $410 |
| 81 and older | 0% | $423 |
| Enrolled 10+ years late | none, Tier I applies | $465 |
Your premium rises about 64% between 65 and 81 without a single rate increase being filed. Any actual rate increase stacks on top. That is not a criticism of the design, it is just the design, and it is why comparing an AARP quote against an attained-age carrier’s quote at 65 tells you very little. Our Medigap cost page walks through the three rating methods in general.
Who It Is Good For and Who Should Skip It
Good if you are 65 and enrolling on time in a state where the plan is community rated. You get the deepest version of the discount and a base rate that does not step up with age on its own.
Good if you want the largest, most stable block. Four million policyholders and a single national administrator means the plan is unlikely to be closed out from under you, and Maryland shows AARP selling eight plan letters, more than most competitors in the same guide.
Good if two of you can enroll together. The 10% multi-insured discount is real money on two policies.
Think twice if you are shopping purely on today’s price. In Maryland’s July 2026 guide, a 65-year-old man pays $258 for an AARP Plan G against $215 at USAA, $224 at State Farm, $241 at HealthSpring (the former Cigna block) and $278 at Mutual of Omaha. AARP is mid-pack at 65, not cheapest.
Think twice if you are enrolling well after 65. The Tier I rate at $465 is 80% above what a timely 65-year-old pays for the identical policy.
Skip it if you will not join AARP. There is no non-member path into this block.
AARP vs. Other Medigap Carriers, Same State, Same Month
Every figure below is Plan G for a 65-year-old from the Maryland Insurance Administration’s July 1, 2026 guide, so the comparison is apples to apples.
| Carrier (Maryland filing) | Plan G at 65 | Rating method | Household discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| USAA Life | $215 (unisex non-smoker) | Attained age | 5% |
| State Farm Mutual Automobile | $224 (male non-tobacco) | Attained age | not listed |
| HealthSpring National (former Cigna block) | $241 (male preferred) | Attained age | 6%, plus 14% more with an affiliate policy |
| UnitedHealthcare / AARP | $258 after the 39% discount ($423 base) | Community rated | 10% multi-insured |
| Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company | $278 (male non-tobacco) | Attained age | 12% |
| United American | $281 (male preferred) | Issue age / attained age | not listed |
The attained-age carriers win at 65 and lose later, because their price is tied to your current age and steps up every year. AARP wins later and loses at 65. Which is cheaper over twenty years depends on how long you keep the policy and how each carrier’s block ages, which nobody can tell you in advance.
The Bottom Line
Buy on the mechanics, not the brand. Three things decide what an AARP Medicare Supplement plan will cost you: whether your state’s filing is community rated, how soon after 65 you enroll, and whether a second person in your household enrolls too.
Then do the arithmetic your quote will not show you. Take the base rate from your state’s insurance department rate guide, apply the early-enrollment discount for your age, and project it forward to 81 when the discount is gone. Compare that curve against an attained-age carrier’s curve, not against its price at 65.
And remember what Medigap does not touch. You keep paying the standard Medicare Part B premium of $202.90 a month in 2026, plus the $283 Part B deductible on Plan G, and you still need a separate Part D drug plan. If those premiums are a stretch, check Medicare Savings Programs before you shop letters at all. And if you are still deciding between a supplement and a network plan, our Medicare Advantage vs. Medigap comparison covers the one-way door in that decision, while UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage covers the same insurer’s other product. Other carriers worth pricing in your ZIP code: Humana, Blue Cross, USAA, State Farm and United American.