Start here, because it saves most readers the rest of the page: you probably cannot buy Plan F. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 barred Medigap plans sold to people newly eligible for Medicare from covering the Part B deductible. Plans C and F both cover it, so both closed to new buyers on January 1, 2020.
CMS defines “new to Medicare” for this purpose as turning 65 on or after January 1, 2020 and getting Part A on or after that date. The CMS and NAIC guide Choosing a Medigap Policy adds one exception worth knowing: if you were eligible for Medicare before January 1, 2020 but never enrolled, you may still be able to buy Plan C or Plan F.
Everyone else gets Plans A, B, D, G, K, L, M and N. The Texas Department of Insurance states the split plainly in its consumer guide: people first eligible before January 1, 2020 have guaranteed issue rights to Plans A, B, C, F (including high-deductible F), K and L, while people first eligible on or after that date get A, B, D, G (including high-deductible G), K and L.
All figures below were pulled on September 6, 2026 from CMS, KFF and state insurance department rate filings.
Why Plan F Costs More Than It Should
Plan F is the most complete Medigap plan ever standardized. It covers the Part A hospital deductible ($1,736 per benefit period in 2026), Part A and Part B coinsurance, skilled nursing coinsurance ($217 a day for days 21 to 100), hospice coinsurance, blood, Part B excess charges, 80% of foreign travel emergency care, and the annual Part B deductible, which CMS set at $283 for 2026.
That last item is the only benefit Plan G lacks. Spread over 12 months, it is worth $23.58.
So a rational Plan F premium should sit about $24 a month above Plan G. It does not, and the gap is widening. This is the single most useful thing to understand about Plan F, so here is the mechanism.
Plan F is a closed block. No one new can buy it. That means no healthy 65-year-olds are entering the pool to dilute the claims of the people already in it. Every year, the average Plan F policyholder gets one year older and files more claims, while the pool shrinks as members die or switch out. The people healthy enough to pass medical underwriting are exactly the ones who leave for a cheaper plan, which leaves a sicker remainder behind. Actuaries call this a closed-block rate spiral, and it is a one-way ratchet.
Plan G, meanwhile, is open. It takes in newly eligible 65-year-olds every month, and those younger entrants hold the average claim cost of the pool down.
The numbers show it. KFF’s analysis of 2023 National Association of Insurance Commissioners data found the average monthly premium among current Plan F policyholders was $274, against $164 for Plan G. That is a $110 monthly gap to deliver $23.58 of monthly benefit. Plan F’s state range ran from $214 in Vermont to $313 in New York.
Part of that gap reflects the age mix rather than pure pricing, since Plan F’s pool is older. But the effect on your bill is the same either way, and it does not reverse.
Plan F vs Plan G at the Same Age, Same Carrier
The cleanest test strips out the age mix by comparing the two plans inside a single carrier’s filed rate table. Maryland’s Insurance Administration publishes exactly that. Here is CareFirst MedPlus, Level 1 male rates for the Baltimore Metro, D.C. Metro and Western Maryland region, as of July 1, 2026.
| Age | Plan F monthly | Plan G monthly | Extra you pay per year for Plan F | Value of the Part B deductible it covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65 | $282 | $249 | $396 | $283 |
| 70 | $356 | $315 | $492 | $283 |
| 75 | $432 | $382 | $600 | $283 |
| 80 | $512 | $453 | $708 | $283 |
| 85 | $579 | $512 | $804 | $283 |
Maryland Insurance Administration filed monthly premiums as of July 1, 2026. The Part B deductible figure is the 2026 amount from the CMS fact sheet published November 14, 2025.
Read the last two columns together. At 65 you hand the insurer $396 a year so it can pay a $283 bill on your behalf. You are down $113 before anything else happens. At 85 you are down $521. And that assumes you actually hit the full deductible every year, which not everyone does.
Aetna’s Maryland filing tells the same story with slightly different numbers: $328 for Plan F against $300 for Plan G at 65, a $336 annual gap. The gap widens with age at both carriers, from $28 a month at 65 to $47 at 85 at Aetna.
New Jersey’s Division of Aging Services makes the point another way. Its January 2026 Medigap premium chart for people aging into Medicare has columns for Plans A, B, D, G, high-deductible G, K, L, M and N. Plan F is not on the chart at all, because nobody arriving on Medicare now can buy it.
Should You Switch From Plan F to Plan G?
If you already hold Plan F, the arithmetic usually favors switching, and it is easy to check. Pull your renewal notice, get a quote for the same carrier’s Plan G, and compare the monthly difference to $23.58. If your Plan F costs more than that above Plan G, you save money by moving, even in a year you use the entire Part B deductible.
The obstacle is not the math, it is access. There is no federal guaranteed issue right that lets you change Medigap plans just because you want a better price. Outside your original Medigap open enrollment period or a qualifying event, most states let insurers medically underwrite the application, charge you a higher rate, or turn you down.
State rules vary a lot, and they are the whole ballgame here:
- Washington lets anyone enrolled in a Medigap plan B through N switch to any other plan B through N at any time with no written health screening, per the state Office of the Insurance Commissioner.
- Maryland created a birthday rule effective July 1, 2023 giving policyholders an annual open enrollment period that includes their birthday and the 30 days after it, during which they can move to a policy of equal or lesser benefits without underwriting. Moving from Plan F to Plan G qualifies as lesser benefits.
- Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and New York require Medigap insurers to offer policies either continuously or once a year without regard to medical conditions, per KFF’s review of state rules.
Everywhere else, call your State Health Insurance Assistance Program before you apply. Do not cancel the Plan F policy until the new one is issued.
Two situations argue for staying put. If you have a condition that would fail underwriting and you live in a state without an annual switching right, the $400 or $500 a year is the price of keeping coverage you are guaranteed to keep. All Medigap policies issued since 1992 are guaranteed renewable, so your insurer cannot drop you. And if you are on an issue-age or community-rated Plan F bought years ago at a low age, your premium may not have the same age escalation the attained-age tables show.
High-Deductible Plan F
There is a cheap-premium version. High-Deductible Plan F covers the same benefits but only after you pay the first $2,950 of Medicare-covered deductibles, copayments and coinsurance in 2026, plus a separate $250 annual deductible for foreign travel emergency care. CMS announced the 2026 figure in October 2025, calculated by indexing a 1998 base of $1,500 to the CPI.
It is available only to the same pre-2020 group that can buy standard Plan F. High-deductible Plan G is the equivalent for everyone else, and it carries the identical $2,950 deductible.
In Maryland’s July 2026 filings, CareFirst MedPlus charges $73 a month for high-deductible F and $72 for high-deductible G at age 65. The two are priced within a dollar of each other, which tells you how little the Part B deductible matters once a $2,950 deductible sits in front of it. If you are weighing the high-deductible route, the fuller breakdown lives in the Plan G cost guide.
The Bottom Line
Plan F was the right answer in 2015 and it is a legacy product in 2026. If you cannot buy it, nothing is lost: Plan G gives you identical protection minus a $283 bill you can plan for. If you can buy it, buy Plan G instead unless the premiums in your state are unusually close. If you already own it, price the switch and check your state’s underwriting rules before you do anything.
For a lower monthly premium with copays at the point of care, look at Plan N. For the broader landscape of what supplemental coverage costs, see the Medigap cost guide, and if you are still deciding between supplement and network coverage, Medicare Advantage vs Medigap lays out the tradeoff. If premiums are the barrier rather than the plan design, check whether you qualify for a Medicare Savings Program, and if a bill has already landed, our guide to negotiating medical bills covers what to ask for.