Medicare in Nevada: Plans and Coverage (2026)

Medicare in Nevada runs on federal rules, with the same Part A and Part B costs as every other state. What Nevada adds is free Medicare Assistance Program (MAP/SHIP) counseling through the Aging and Disability Services Division.1 The other Nevada-specific piece is plan choice: the Las Vegas area offers far more Medicare Advantage plans than the state's rural counties, so where you live changes your options.

This guide covers Medicare in Nevada for 2026: what Parts A, B, C, and D cost, which plan types are available across the Las Vegas, Reno, and rural markets, and how to get help paying.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• Original Medicare in Nevada: Parts A and B
• Medicare Advantage in Nevada (Part C)
• Medicare Part D: Prescription Drugs
• Medigap in Nevada
• Help Paying for Medicare in Nevada
• Medicare Enrollment Periods in Nevada
• Free Medicare Help: Nevada MAP/SHIP
• Frequently Asked Questions

About these numbers: The premiums and deductibles below come from CMS for calendar year 2026, effective January 1.2 Medicare costs change every year, so check that CMS fact sheet or medicare.gov for the current year's figures. To reach a person about your own coverage, call 1-800-MEDICARE at 1-800-633-4227 (TTY 1-877-486-2048), which is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.5 For free one-on-one help in Nevada, call MAP/SHIP at 1-800-307-4444.1

Original Medicare in Nevada: Parts A and B

Original Medicare is administered directly by the federal government and covers all Nevada residents identically to every other state. The costs below are set by CMS and effective January 1, 2026.

Part A (Hospital Insurance)

Part A covers inpatient hospital stays, limited skilled nursing facility care, hospice, and some home health.2

The hospital deductible rose $60 from 2025, to $1,736 per benefit period.2 A benefit period starts the day you're 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 gap and the deductible applies again.

Part B (Medical Insurance)

Part B covers doctor visits, outpatient care, preventive services, durable medical equipment, and mental health. Part B doesn't cover routine dental, vision, or hearing.6 Most Medicare Advantage plans offer routine dental, vision, and hearing benefits instead, so check what a specific plan actually covers before you count on it.7

• Monthly premium: $202.90 (higher if your 2024 income exceeded $109,000 single or $218,000 married, under the income-related adjustment)2
• Annual deductible: $2832
• After the deductible: you pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount for most services2

Part B is technically optional, but nearly everyone enrolls. Delay past your enrollment window without qualifying for a Special Enrollment Period or a Medicare Savings Program and you owe a late penalty of 10% for every 12 months you could have had it, for as long as you hold Part B.8

Medicare Advantage in Nevada (Part C)

Medicare Advantage plans are offered by private insurers as an alternative to Original Medicare. They cover everything Parts A and B do, except hospice, which Original Medicare keeps covering. Most bundle Part D drug coverage with extras like dental, vision, and hearing.7

Nevada's Medicare Advantage market is uneven by geography. The Las Vegas and Henderson metro area (Clark County) typically has the widest selection in the state, with plans from multiple carriers. Reno and northern Nevada have moderate plan availability. Rural Nevada counties, particularly in the east and central portions of the state, tend to have very few plans or none at all. Check what's available at your specific address before you decide.

How These Plans Work

• You keep paying your Part B premium ($202.90) on top of any plan premium. CMS estimates the average Medicare Advantage premium in 2026 is about $14 a month, and many plans charge $0 extra. CMS notes that some plans may have a $0 premium and may help pay all or part of your Part B premium, so check that on the plan's benefit summary.7
• 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.7
• Plans usually require prior authorization for certain services, which Original Medicare generally does not.7
• 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 of its own, and CMS's full sentence is that 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.7

Use the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov to compare plans by ZIP code. Nevada MAP/SHIP counselors will go through the results with you for free if you want help reading the options.

Medicare Part D: Prescription Drugs

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

The Inflation Reduction Act eliminated the coverage gap, the old donut hole, so that higher-cost middle stage is gone.3 Part D now runs 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.3

The $2,100 cap is the number that matters most. It was $2,000 for 2025, and CMS sets the figure for each calendar year.3 The average standalone Part D premium for 2026 is about $34.50 a month, though actual plan premiums vary widely.2 Every plan also offers 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.3 People who qualify for Extra Help typically pay much less, sometimes nothing.

Medigap in Nevada

Medigap policies are sold by private insurers to fill the gaps in Original Medicare: the deductibles, coinsurance, and copays. They work with Original Medicare only: a Medigap policy can't pay a Medicare Advantage plan's copays, coinsurance, deductibles, or premiums.7

Nevada offers the federally standardized plans, letters A-D, F, G, and K-N. Plans C and F are closed to anyone who became Medicare-eligible on or after January 1, 2020.10 Plan G is the most common 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.11,2

Your first 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 at the standard rate, regardless of health.11 Outside that window, Nevada insurers may apply medical underwriting for some purchases.

But Nevada also has a Medigap birthday rule under Assembly Bill 250 (in effect since 2022): each year, a current Medicare Supplement policyholder gets a new open enrollment period that starts on the first day of their birthday month and runs at least 60 days, during which they can switch to a same-or-lesser plan from their own or any carrier, guaranteed issue, with no medical underwriting and no health-based denial or surcharge.12

Medigap or Medicare Advantage?

You run one or the other. Choose Medigap and you stay on Original Medicare with the freedom to see any provider who takes Medicare nationwide, at a predictable monthly premium. Choose Medicare Advantage and you trade some of that freedom for a network and typically a lower upfront cost. 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. That isn't a permanent lock-out, though: if you join an Advantage plan for the first time and aren't happy with it, a federal trial right lets you buy Medigap and a separate drug plan when you return to Original Medicare within 12 months of joining, and if you had a Medigap policy before you joined and have been in the plan under a year, you may be able to get that same policy back if the company still sells it. Drop a Medigap policy outside that trial window and in most cases you may not be able to get it back.7 For a side-by-side comparison, see our guide to Original Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage.

Help Paying for Medicare in Nevada

Two programs can significantly reduce Medicare costs for Nevada residents with limited income.

Medicare Savings Programs (QMB, SLMB, QI)

Nevada's Medicare Savings Programs (QMB, SLMB, and QI) are governed by the Income Limit Charts and the Medical Assistance Manual (B-300) that the Division of Welfare and Supportive Services (DWSS) publishes, and it is state Medicaid agencies that decide who is eligible. Nevada uses the standard federal income tiers and applies a resource test, and you apply through DWSS.4 You can also get free help from Nevada MAP/SHIP, whose counselors screen for these programs and assist with the application.1

QMB is the most generous tier, covering your Part B premium plus all deductibles and coinsurance, and federal law bars providers from billing a QMB enrollee for that cost-sharing.4 QI has to be applied for again every year: being selected one year does not carry you into the next.4 Both tests are on countable amounts, not on everything you own or receive: Nevada's B-300 manual states the income test in terms of net countable income and the resource test in terms of countable resources, and DWSS calls its published chart a general guideline, adding that final eligibility is based on your gross monthly income and allowable expenses. That chart prints its bands $20 below the table above, topping QMB at $1,330 for an individual, because those are the Federal Poverty Level figures: add the federal $20 general income exclusion to each and you get the figures in the table, which is why you compare your gross monthly income to the table rather than subtracting the $20 yourself. On resources, the two published figures do not agree. SSA's 2026 federal standard is $9,950 for one person and $14,910 for a couple, while Nevada's own DWSS B-300 manual states $9,430 and $14,130, and nothing DWSS publishes settles which figure a Nevada eligibility worker applies today.4 Treat none of these figures as a hard cutoff: states can effectively raise both the income and the resource limits by disregarding certain income and resources, so if you are near or somewhat over any of them, apply through DWSS rather than rule yourself out.4 Enrolling in QMB, SLMB, or QI automatically qualifies you for Extra Help with Part D.4 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.4,13

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.13 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 are higher)13
• 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 expenses13
• If you qualify for QMB, SLMB, or QI, you're enrolled in Extra Help automatically4

Apply through Social Security at ssa.gov/medicare/part-d-extra-help or call 1-800-772-1213. Extra Help isn't available in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, or American Samoa, where residents apply through their local Medicaid office instead.13

Medicare Enrollment Periods in Nevada

Miss a deadline and you may face coverage gaps or permanent penalties. These windows are set by federal law and identical across all states.14

Changes made during Annual Open Enrollment take effect the following January 1. If you're already receiving Social Security before 65, you're enrolled in Parts A and B automatically; if not, sign up yourself through Social Security.14

If you're still working past 65 and covered by employer insurance, you can delay Part B without penalty. You get an 8-month Special Enrollment Period starting the month that job or coverage ends, whichever comes first. COBRA and retiree coverage do not count as current-employer coverage for this purpose and don't extend the window. 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).15

Free Medicare Help: Nevada MAP/SHIP

You don't have to figure this out alone, and you don't have to pay a broker. Nevada MAP/SHIP (Medicare Assistance Program) is Nevada's version of the federal State Health Insurance Assistance Program, run through the Aging and Disability Services Division (ADSD). Counselors are trained volunteers who provide free, confidential, and unbiased help on Medicare, supplemental insurance, and long-term care options. They don't sell anything.1

A Nevada MAP/SHIP counselor can help you:

• Understand what each part of Medicare covers and what it costs
• Compare Medicare Advantage, Part D, and Medigap plans side by side
• Apply for the QMB, SLMB, or QI Medicare Savings Programs and Extra Help
• Work through claims, denials, and billing problems

Nevada MAP/SHIP is reachable statewide, with regional community partners for in-person help:1

• Statewide (toll-free): 1-800-307-4444, or email NevadaMAP@adsd.nv.gov1
• Northern Nevada (Access to Healthcare Network): 775-284-1892
• Southern Nevada / Las Vegas (Dignity Health St. Rose Dominican): 702-616-4926

Key Nevada Medicare Contacts

Learn More

Find personalized help with Medicare in Nevada 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.