Medicare in Mississippi: Plans and Coverage (2026)

Medicare in Mississippi runs on the same federal rules as everywhere else, with one local advantage worth knowing. Mississippi charges no asset test for its Medicare Savings Programs, so residents with limited income can get help paying their Part B premium even if they hold modest savings.1 Free, unbiased counseling through Mississippi SHIP can walk you through it.2

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What Do Parts A and B Cost in Mississippi?
• Medicare Advantage in Mississippi (Part C)
• How Does Medicare Part D Work in Mississippi?
• Should You Buy Medigap in Mississippi?
• Help Paying for Medicare in Mississippi
• Medicare Enrollment Periods
• Free Medicare Help: Mississippi SHIP
• Frequently Asked Questions

About these numbers: The premiums and deductibles below come from CMS for calendar year 2026, effective January 1. Medicare costs change every year, so check the current figures against that CMS fact sheet or medicare.gov.3 To talk it through with a person, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227, TTY 1-877-486-2048), staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except some federal holidays.5 Or reach Mississippi SHIP at 1-844-822-4622.2

What Do Parts A and B Cost in Mississippi?

Original Medicare is run directly by the federal government and comes in two parts. The mechanics and costs are identical in Mississippi 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.3

The hospital deductible rose $60 from 2025. A benefit period starts the day you are admitted and ends once you have gone 60 days in a row without inpatient hospital care or skilled care in a skilled nursing facility. Get readmitted after that, and the deductible applies again.3

Part B (Medical Insurance)

Part B covers doctor visits, outpatient care, preventive services, durable medical equipment, and mental health care. It does not cover routine dental, vision, or hearing.3,6

• Monthly premium: $202.90 (higher if your 2024 income was above $109,000 single or $218,000 married, under the income-related adjustment)3
• 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 will owe a late penalty of 10% for every 12 months you could have had it, for as long as you keep Part B.7

Medicare Advantage in Mississippi (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.8

Mississippi residents in the Jackson metro area and along the Gulf Coast (Biloxi and Gulfport) generally see the widest choice of plans. Rural areas in the Delta and Central Mississippi tend to have fewer options. Plan options, networks, and prices change every year and differ by county, so compare what is actually available at your address before you decide.

How These Plans Work

• You keep paying your Part B premium ($202.90) on top of any plan premium. The CMS estimate for the average Medicare Advantage premium in 2026 is about $14 a month, and many plans charge $0 extra. Some plans go further and may help pay part or all of your Part B premium.8,3
• Plans run on networks (HMO or PPO). Confirm your doctors and hospitals are in-network before you enroll. Emergency care, out-of-area urgent care, and temporary out-of-area dialysis are covered whether you get them in the plan's network or outside it.8
• Plans usually require prior authorization for certain services, which Original Medicare generally does not.8
• Every plan caps your annual in-network out-of-pocket spending (federally limited to $9,250 in 2026; many plans set it lower). Original Medicare has no such cap: CMS says there is no yearly limit on what you pay out of pocket unless you have supplemental coverage such as Medigap, Medicaid, employer, retiree, or union coverage.8

Use the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov to compare plans by ZIP code. Enter your doctors and prescriptions and it shows which plans cover them and your estimated cost. If you want help reading the results, a Mississippi SHIP counselor will go through them with you for free.

How Does Medicare Part D Work in Mississippi?

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.4 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).9
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.4

That $2,100 cap is the number that matters most in Part D. It was $2,000 in 2025 and rises with drug-spending growth. The average standalone Part D premium for 2026 runs roughly $34.50 a month, though actual plan premiums vary widely.3 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 instead of paying in full at the pharmacy.4 People who qualify for Extra Help often pay much less, sometimes nothing.

Should You Buy Medigap in Mississippi?

Medigap is extra insurance you buy from a private insurer to help pay your share of costs in Original Medicare. You can't use a Medigap policy to pay a Medicare Advantage plan's copayments, coinsurance, deductibles, or premiums.10

Medigap plans are standardized and lettered A-D, F, G, and K-N, and every insurer that sells Medigap must offer at least Plan A. Plans C and F are closed to people new to Medicare, meaning you turned 65 on or after January 1, 2020 and get Part A on or after that date.11 Our Mississippi Medigap guide covers the state's rules in detail. Plan G is the popular choice for people newly eligible: it covers the Part A deductible, Part A and Part B coinsurance, and skilled nursing coinsurance, leaving only the $283 Part B deductible on you.11,3

Your strongest opening is the federal Medigap Open Enrollment Period, the six months that begin when you are 65 and enrolled in Part B. During that window an insurer must sell you any plan at the standard rate regardless of your health.11

After that window, your main protection is a guaranteed issue right. Under Mississippi's Medigap rule, if certain coverage ends, such as when your Medicare Advantage plan stops serving your area or your employer plan that supplements Medicare ends, you generally have until 63 days after that coverage ends to apply. During that period an insurer can't deny you a policy the rule covers, price it higher because of your health, or impose a pre-existing condition exclusion.11

If you're under 65 and have Medicare because of a disability, Mississippi gives you a six-month Medigap open enrollment period starting the month you qualify for Medicare, and a new six-month open enrollment period when you turn 65. That second window matters because policies sold to people with disabilities are usually priced higher. Separately, if you're under 65 on disability and your Medicare managed care plan ends through cancellation, nonrenewal, or disenrollment, the state's rule guarantees your right to buy certain Medigap plans from any insurer within 63 days.11

Medigap or Medicare Advantage?

A Medigap policy can't pay your Medicare Advantage copayments, coinsurance, deductibles, or premiums, and while you're in an Advantage plan it's illegal for anyone to sell you a Medigap policy unless you're switching back to Original Medicare.10 The choice isn't permanent. If you join an Advantage plan for the first time and go back to Original Medicare within 12 months, federal law gives you a trial right to buy a Medigap policy and a separate drug plan.10 For a side-by-side look at the trade-off, see our guide to Original Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage.

Help Paying for Medicare in Mississippi

If you live on a fixed income, two programs can cut your Medicare costs sharply, and Mississippi runs them with one feature that helps more residents qualify: no asset test.

Mississippi's Medicare Savings Programs

Mississippi runs its Medicare Savings Programs through the Mississippi Division of Medicaid as three tiers set by income: QMB, SLMB, and QI. What sets Mississippi apart is that the Division of Medicaid applies no resource (asset) test to any of the three, stating for each group that "it does not matter what your resources are in this group. There is no resource test." The federal asset limit for QMB, SLMB, and QI is $9,950 for one person or $14,910 for a married couple, and states are allowed to disregard resources to raise or drop it.1 In Mississippi, your savings and other countable assets do not factor in at all.1

Read that first column as a ceiling, because that is all the Division of Medicaid publishes. It states each group's income test only as a share of the poverty level your total monthly income cannot exceed, and it publishes no dollar figures and no lower bound of its own, so there is no minimum income you have to clear for SLMB or QI.1 The dollar amounts are Social Security's 2026 federal figures for the row covering Mississippi, effective February 26, 2026. Each of those tables is headed as the FPL percentage plus $20, the $20 being the monthly SSI general income exclusion, so the published figure already has that exclusion built in.1

QMB is the most generous tier: Medicaid pays your Medicare premiums, deductibles and coinsurance, and federal law prohibits Medicare providers and suppliers, including pharmacies, from billing a QMB enrollee for Medicare cost-sharing. A QMB has no legal obligation to pay Part A or Part B deductibles, coinsurance or copayments for any Medicare-covered items and services. CMS also reports that QMBs are still wrongly billed and that confusion around the billing rules continues, so treat a cost-sharing bill as an error to dispute rather than a charge you owe.1 SLMB and QI both pay only the Part B premium ($202.90 a month in 2026); neither one opens the door to full Medicaid.3,1 QI is funded by a limited federal allotment, and if those funds run out the group could be affected, so apply early in the year and ask the Division of Medicaid for the QI program by name.1 Federal rules give preference to people who received QI in the last month of the previous year, and QI has to be reapplied for every year; qualifying once does not carry you into the next year.1 Timing differs by tier: QMB eligibility begins one month after approval, while SLMB and QI eligibility begins with the month you are qualified, which may be up to three months before the month you applied.1 Enrolling in QMB, SLMB, or QI automatically qualifies you for Extra Help with Part D.1 QDWI, the fourth Medicare Savings Program, is the exception: it pays the Part A premium for certain working people with disabilities who lost premium-free Part A, and it does not confer Extra Help, so a QDWI enrollee who wants Extra Help has to apply through Social Security.1,12

These income figures are the federal standard, not a hard cutoff to screen yourself against. States can effectively raise the limits by disregarding certain income and resources, and Social Security instructs its staff to encourage people to apply even when income looks somewhat high, so a Mississippian above these amounts should apply and let the Division of Medicaid decide.1

How to Apply for a Medicare Savings Program in Mississippi

You apply through the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, and a Mississippi SHIP counselor can complete the application with you for free.1

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.12 Since 2024 the partial-subsidy tier is gone, so everyone who qualifies now gets the full subsidy.

• Income limit (2026): up to about $1,995 a month for an individual, $2,705 for a couple, in the 48 contiguous states and DC (Alaska and Hawaii run higher)12
• Resource limits: $16,590 for an individual, $33,100 for a married couple; those limits rise to $18,090 and $36,100 if you tell Social Security you expect to use some of your resources for burial expenses12
• If you qualify for QMB, SLMB, or QI, you are enrolled in Extra Help automatically1

Apply through Social Security at ssa.gov12 or call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778).13

Medicare Enrollment Periods

Miss a deadline and you can face coverage gaps or permanent penalties. These dates are federal and the same in Mississippi as everywhere else.14

Changes you make during Annual Open Enrollment take effect the following January 1. If you are already getting Social Security before 65, you are enrolled in Parts A and B automatically; if not, you sign up yourself through Social Security.14 If you work past 65 with group health coverage based on that current employment, you can delay Part B without penalty and have an 8-month Special Enrollment Period 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 are self-employed or your plan is not available to everyone at the company, ask your insurer whether it qualifies before you delay; if it does not, sign up at 65. This Special Enrollment Period does not apply if you are eligible for Medicare based on End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD).15

Free Medicare Help: Mississippi SHIP

You do not have to figure this out alone, and you do not have to pay a broker. Mississippi's State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) provides free, trained-counselor assistance to Medicare beneficiaries and their families. Mississippi SHIP is administered through the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) Division of Aging and Adult Services, in collaboration with local Area Agencies on Aging and the Mississippi Access to Care Network. Counselors give free and unbiased help and do not sell insurance.2

A Mississippi SHIP counselor 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 Medicare Savings Programs and Extra Help
• Sort out claims, denials, and appeals

Learn More

Find personalized help with Medicare in Mississippi 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.