Medicare in Alaska runs on the same federal rules as everywhere else, but Alaska's Medicare Savings Program income limits sit above the lower-48 standard. Medicare's own eligibility tables footnote that the limits are slightly higher in Alaska and Hawaii. So a household that would be turned away in another state can qualify here for help paying premiums, and free one-on-one counseling through the Alaska Medicare Information Office can walk you through it.

In This Guide

About these numbers: The premiums and deductibles below come from CMS for calendar year 2026, effective January 1. Medicare costs change every year, and each year's figures are published on medicare.gov. To reach a person, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except some federal holidays; TTY users call 1-877-486-2048. For free one-on-one help in Alaska, call the Alaska Medicare Information Office at 1-800-478-6065.

What Do Parts A and B Cost in Alaska?

Original Medicare is run directly by the federal government and comes in two parts. The costs and mechanics are identical in Alaska and every other state.

Part A (Hospital Insurance)

Part A covers inpatient hospital stays, limited skilled nursing facility care, hospice, and some home health care.

Cost Amount
Monthly premium $0 for most people (40+ quarters of work history)
Hospital deductible $1,736 per benefit period
Hospital coinsurance, days 61-90 $434 per day
Lifetime reserve days $868 per day
SNF coinsurance, days 21-100 $217 per day

The hospital deductible rose $60 from 2025. A benefit period starts the day you're admitted and ends once you've gone 60 days in a row without inpatient hospital care or skilled care in a nursing facility. Get readmitted after that, and the deductible applies again.

Part B (Medical Insurance)

Part B covers doctor visits, outpatient care, preventive services, durable medical equipment, and mental health care. Original Medicare doesn't cover routine dental, vision, or hearing.,

  • Monthly premium: $202.90 (higher if your 2024 income was above $109,000 single or $218,000 married, under the income-related adjustment)
  • Annual deductible: $283
  • After the deductible: you pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount for most services

Part B is technically optional, but nearly everyone signs up. Delay past your enrollment window without qualifying for a Special Enrollment Period or a Medicare Savings Program and you'll owe a late penalty of 10% for every 12 months you could have had it, for as long as you keep Part B.

Medicare Advantage in Alaska (Part C)

Medicare Advantage plans are an alternative to Original Medicare, sold by private insurers. They cover everything Parts A and B do, except hospice, which Original Medicare keeps covering. Most bundle in Part D drug coverage along with extras like dental, vision, and hearing.

Alaska's Medicare Advantage market is shaped by the state's geography. Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau have some plan choices available. Rural Alaska, which covers most of the state's land mass, has very few Medicare Advantage plans and many areas have none at all. If you live outside a major hub, Original Medicare plus a Medigap policy may be your only practical option. Plan availability changes every year, so check what's actually available at your address using the Medicare Plan Finder.

How These Plans Work

Use the Medicare Plan Finder to compare plans by ZIP code. If you want help reading the results, the Alaska Medicare Information Office will go through them with you for free.

How Does Medicare Part D Work in Alaska?

Part D covers outpatient prescription drugs. You can get it as a standalone plan paired with Original Medicare, or built into a Medicare Advantage plan.

The Inflation Reduction Act eliminated the old coverage gap, the donut hole, so that higher-cost middle stage is gone. Part D now moves through three phases:

  1. Deductible: you pay full price until you meet your plan's deductible (up to $615 in 2026).
  2. Initial coverage: you pay copays or coinsurance while your plan and drug makers cover the rest.
  3. Catastrophic: once your out-of-pocket spending reaches $2,100, you pay $0 for covered drugs the rest of the year.

That $2,100 cap is the number that matters most in Part D. It was $2,000 in 2025, and CMS set the 2026 figure in its CY 2026 Rate Announcement. Every plan also has to offer the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which lets you spread your out-of-pocket drug costs into capped monthly payments across the year rather than paying in full at the pharmacy. People who qualify for Extra Help often pay much less, sometimes nothing.

Not sure which Part D plan fits your prescriptions? Chat with Brevy's care navigator at brevy.com.

Should You Buy Medigap in Alaska?

Medigap policies are sold by private insurers to fill the gaps in Original Medicare: the deductibles, coinsurance, and copays. They work with Original Medicare, and a Medigap policy can't pay a Medicare Advantage plan's copays, coinsurance, deductibles, or premiums. In Alaska, these policies are sold and overseen through the Alaska Division of Insurance, which is where to take a question or complaint about a Medigap carrier.

Alaska offers the federally standardized plans, labeled A-D, F, G, and K-N. Plans C and F are closed to anyone who became Medicare-eligible on or after January 1, 2020. Plan G covers everything Plan F does except the annual Part B deductible: the Part A deductible, Part A and Part B coinsurance, skilled nursing coinsurance, and Part B excess charges. With Plan F closed to anyone newly eligible, Plan G is the most comprehensive policy still open to you, and it leaves only the $283 Part B deductible on your side of the ledger.,

Given the limited Medicare Advantage market in much of Alaska, Medigap may be particularly worth considering for Alaskans outside the major metro areas. Original Medicare plus a Medigap policy gives you access to any provider who accepts Medicare, which matters when your nearest specialist may be in a different city.

Your One Guaranteed Window

Your strongest opening is the federal Medigap Open Enrollment Period, the six months that begin when you're 65 and enrolled in Part B. During that window an insurer must sell you any plan it offers at the standard rate, regardless of your health.

Alaska has no annual birthday rule or other recurring window to change Medigap plans without health screening. Once your six-month window closes, an insurer can use medical underwriting, meaning it can charge more or decline you based on your health, unless a federal guaranteed-issue right applies.

Medigap or Medicare Advantage?

That's a fork in the road, but it isn't locked in forever. If this is your first Medicare Advantage plan and you aren't happy with it, federal law gives you a trial right to buy a Medigap policy and a separate drug plan as long as you return to Original Medicare within 12 months of joining; if you dropped a Medigap policy to join, you may be able to get that same policy back if the company still sells it. Wait past that window and in most cases you can't get the old policy back, and you may not be able to get any Medigap policy. Choose Medigap and you stay on Original Medicare with the freedom to see any provider who accepts Medicare nationwide. Choose Medicare Advantage and you trade some of that flexibility for a network, which in rural Alaska may be thin or nonexistent. For a full comparison, see our guide to Original Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage.

Help Paying for Medicare in Alaska

If you're on a fixed income, two programs can cut your Medicare costs sharply. Alaska's version of these programs runs on income limits set higher than the ones that apply in the contiguous 48 states.

Alaska's Medicare Savings Programs

Alaska's Medicare Savings Programs are run by the Alaska Department of Health. You apply through your local State of Alaska Public Assistance Office or online through Alaska Connect, and the Alaska Medicare Information Office gives you free counseling along the way. The programs pay some or all of your Medicare premiums and cost-sharing based on income and assets; you have to be eligible for Medicare Part A to apply.

Alaska's income limits are higher than the lower-48 standard. Medicare's own eligibility tables footnote that the limits are slightly higher in Alaska and Hawaii. Effective April 1, 2026, Alaska publishes a Medicare Savings Program income limit of $2,265 a month for an individual and $3,064 a month for a couple, which is the top of the three-tier ladder, and the calculation includes a $20 monthly income disregard. Confirm current limits with the Alaska Medicare Information Office before applying.

The program has three benefit tiers set at ascending income bands. QMB (the lowest band) is the most generous; SLMB and QI sit at higher income limits and pay less. Alaska gets its own row in the Social Security Administration's 2026 limits tables, separate from the row for the other 48 states, so each tier has an Alaska figure.

Program Individual Couple What it pays
QMB (Qualified Medicare Beneficiary) $1,683 $2,275 Part B premiums, plus the Part A premium if you don't have premium-free Part A, plus deductibles, coinsurance, and copays (providers can't balance-bill)
SLMB (Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary) $2,015 $2,725 Part B premium only
QI (Qualifying Individual) $2,265 $3,064 Part B premium only; you must apply again every year to stay in QI

Those are the 2026 Alaska figures the Social Security Administration publishes, and each already includes the $20 monthly general income exclusion. For comparison, the QMB income limit in the contiguous 48 states and the District of Columbia is about $1,350 a month for an individual and $1,824 for a couple, so an Alaskan on $1,600 a month who would be over the line in Ohio is under Alaska's QMB limit of $1,683. Don't rule yourself out on a national number.,

QMB is the most generous program. It pays your Part B premium (plus your Part A premium, if you're one of the few people who has to buy Part A) along with deductibles, coinsurance, and copays, and federal law bars providers from billing you for Medicare's share. Alaska's 2026 asset limit is $9,950 for one person and $14,910 for a couple, and the home you live in and the car you drive aren't counted. Unlike the income limits, the asset limits are not raised for Alaska: that is the federal standard, unchanged from the figure the contiguous 48 use. It is a standard rather than an absolute cutoff, though: states can disregard some income and resources, so apply even if you're somewhat over rather than ruling yourself out. Confirm current figures with the Alaska Medicare Information Office at 1-800-478-6065. Enrolling in QMB, SLMB, or QI automatically qualifies you for Extra Help with Part D.

How to Apply for Alaska's Medicare Savings Programs

You apply through the Alaska Department of Health, and free help is one phone call away if you'd rather not do it alone.

1
Step 1

Gather your paperwork

Have your Medicare card and recent proof of income and assets ready, such as a Social Security award letter, pension or wage statements, and current bank balances.

2
Step 2

Apply through the Division of Public Assistance

File your Medicare Savings Program application with your local State of Alaska Public Assistance Office, or apply online through Alaska Connect.

3
Step 3

Or let a counselor do it with you

Call the Alaska Medicare Information Office at 1-800-478-6065 and a SHIP counselor will help you complete the application and weigh your income against Alaska's higher limits, at no cost.

4
Step 4

Confirm this year's limits first

Alaska revises its Medicare Savings Program figures periodically, and the current ones took effect April 1, 2026, so verify them with the office before you file. You'll know whether you qualify before you spend the time.

Extra Help for Part D

Extra Help, also called the Low-Income Subsidy, pays Part D premiums, deductibles, and copays for people with limited income and resources. Since 2024, the partial-subsidy tier is gone, so everyone who qualifies now gets the full subsidy.

  • Income limit (2026): about $1,995 a month for an individual and $2,705 for a couple. Those are the figures for the 48 contiguous states and DC, not for Alaska. Alaska's Extra Help limits are higher, because Alaska's 2026 poverty guideline for one person is $19,950 against $15,960 in the lower 48. Check the Alaska figure with medicare.gov or Social Security rather than ruling yourself out on the numbers above.
  • Resource limits: $16,590 for an individual, $33,100 for a married couple, rising to $18,090 and $36,100 if you tell Social Security you expect to use some of your resources for burial expenses
  • If you qualify for QMB, SLMB, or QI, you're enrolled in Extra Help automatically
  • QDWI, the Medicare Savings Program for people who lost premium-free Part A after returning to work, pays the Part A premium but does not carry Extra Help with it, so a QDWI enrollee has to apply to Social Security for Extra Help separately,

Apply through Social Security at ssa.gov. Social Security's national line is 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778).

Medicare Enrollment Periods

Miss a deadline and you can face coverage gaps or permanent penalties. These dates are federal and the same in Alaska as everywhere else.

Period Dates What you can do
Initial Enrollment 7 months around your 65th birthday Sign up for Parts A, B, and D; pick MA or Medigap
Annual Open Enrollment Oct 15 - Dec 7 Switch MA plans, move between MA and Original Medicare, change Part D
MA Open Enrollment Jan 1 - Mar 31 Switch MA plans or drop MA for Original Medicare (if already in MA)
General Enrollment Jan 1 - Mar 31 Sign up for Part B if you missed your initial window
Medigap Open Enrollment 6 months from age 65 + Part B Buy any Medigap plan at the standard rate, no health screening

Changes you make during Annual Open Enrollment take effect January 1. If you're already receiving Social Security before 65, you're enrolled in Parts A and B automatically; if not, you sign up through Social Security. If you're still working past 65 with group health coverage based on that current employment, you can delay Part B without penalty and use an eight-month Special Enrollment Period to sign up, counted from the month that job or coverage ends, whichever comes first. COBRA and retiree coverage do not count as coverage based on current employment, and if you're self-employed or your plan isn't available to everyone at the company, ask your insurer whether it counts as employer group health plan coverage before you delay; if it doesn't, sign up at 65. This Special Enrollment Period does not apply if you're eligible for Medicare based on End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD).

Free Medicare Help: Alaska Medicare Information Office

You don't have to work through this alone, and you don't need to pay a broker. The Alaska Medicare Information Office at the Alaska Department of Health operates the state's SHIP program, along with the Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) and MIPPA outreach. Counselors provide free, one-on-one, unbiased Medicare guidance and don't sell insurance.

The Alaska Medicare Information Office can help you:

  • Understand your Medicare options and what each part covers
  • Compare Medicare Advantage, Part D, and Medigap plans side by side
  • Apply for Alaska's Medicare Savings Programs and Extra Help
  • Sort out billing problems, denials, and appeals
  • Spot and report Medicare fraud through the Senior Medicare Patrol

Call 1-800-478-6065 (statewide) or 907-269-3680 (Anchorage) to reach a counselor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Alaska's Medicare Savings Program income limits higher than other states?

Yes, the income limits are. Medicare's own eligibility tables footnote that Medicare Savings Program income limits are slightly higher in Alaska and Hawaii than in the contiguous states. For 2026 the Alaska monthly limits are $1,683 for an individual and $2,275 for a couple under QMB, $2,015 and $2,725 under SLMB, and $2,265 and $3,064 under QI, against $1,350 and $1,824 for QMB in the contiguous 48 states and DC. The asset limits are not: Alaska applies the federal $9,950 and $14,910 standard, unchanged from the figure the contiguous 48 use. Confirm current limits with the Alaska Medicare Information Office at 1-800-478-6065 before applying.

Does Medicare Advantage work the same way in rural Alaska as it does in cities?

Often not, and it depends heavily on where in Alaska you live. Medicare Advantage plans run on provider networks, and in remote parts of the state those networks may simply not exist, so plan choice can be very limited or absent. Rather than take a general claim on trust, put your ZIP code into the Medicare Plan Finder and see what is actually offered where you live. If you live outside a major hub, Original Medicare plus a Medigap policy typically gives you broader access to providers. Use the Medicare Plan Finder (medicare.gov/plan-compare) to see exactly what's available at your address.

What does Medicare cost in Alaska in 2026?

Most people pay $0 for Part A. The standard Part B premium is $202.90 a month with a $283 annual deductible. Part D premiums vary by plan (deductible up to $615, out-of-pocket capped at $2,100 for the year), and many Medicare Advantage plans charge no extra premium., Your total depends on the plan you choose and the care you use.

How do I apply for Alaska's Medicare Savings Program?

Contact the Alaska Medicare Information Office at 1-800-478-6065 or apply through the Alaska Division of Public Assistance. Alaska's published limits took effect April 1, 2026 and are revised periodically, so confirm current figures before applying. Enrolling in QMB, SLMB, or QI automatically qualifies you for Extra Help with Part D costs.

Learn More

MedicareMedicare Plans by State: What Varies and What Doesn'tOriginal Medicare is the same in all 50 states. Medicare Advantage, Part D, and Medigap rules are not. See what changes by state, then open your state guide. MedicareMedicare: The National GuideWhat is Medicare? A plain guide to Parts A, B, C, and D, who qualifies, 2026 costs, when to enroll, and what it doesn't cover, with help-paying options. MedicareOriginal Medicare vs. Medicare AdvantageCompare original Medicare vs Medicare Advantage on cost, networks, the $9,250 cap, and switching back. A neutral 2026 side-by-side to help you choose. MedicareHow Medigap WorksMedigap (Medicare Supplement) explained: how the standardized A-N plans work, Plan G vs Plan N, closed C and F plans, and the 6-month guaranteed-issue window. MedicareMedicare Part D Drug CoverageMedicare Part D in 2026: a $2,100 out-of-pocket cap, no donut hole, three benefit phases, the $615 deductible, premiums, the late penalty, and Extra Help. MedicareMedicare Enrollment PeriodsWhen to sign up for Medicare without a lifelong penalty: the 7-month Initial Enrollment Period, working past 65, the GEP, and what each late penalty costs.

Find personalized help with Medicare in Alaska at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.

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