New York Medigap: Year-Round Guaranteed Issue (2026)

New York is one of a few states where you can buy or switch a Medicare Supplement (Medigap) policy at any time of year, with no medical underwriting and no health screening. Any New Yorker enrolled in both Medicare Part A and Part B gets year-round guaranteed issue, including people who have Medicare because of a disability or end-stage renal disease rather than age, and community rating means your premium cannot vary by your age, gender, or health. This guide explains what year-round guaranteed issue and community rating mean in practice, the tradeoff of higher upfront premiums, the Plan G versus Plan N choice, which plans are closed to people new to Medicare, and who regulates Medigap in New York.

How New York Medigap works

A Medigap policy is private insurance that pays the deductibles and coinsurance Original Medicare leaves to you. Medigap (Medicare Supplement Insurance) works only alongside Original Medicare, not with a Medicare Advantage plan, and each policy covers one person. A married couple who both want coverage need two policies.

New York uses the federal standardized framework. Medigap is sold as lettered plans, A-D, F, G, and K-N, and the benefits inside each letter are fixed by federal rule. Plans E, H, I, and J are no longer sold, though anyone who already holds one can generally keep it.1 A Plan G from one New York insurer covers exactly what a Plan G from another covers, per the Medicare.gov plan-benefit comparison. Insurers compete on price, service, and rate stability, not on what the plan pays.

The gaps Medigap closes are real. After the Part B deductible ($283 in 2026), Original Medicare pays 80% of the approved amount for most outpatient care and leaves you the other 20%, with no annual cap. Part A adds a hospital deductible of $1,736 per benefit period in 2026, and that deductible can apply more than once in a year. Medigap caps that exposure.2

Year-round guaranteed issue and community rating

New York's standout protection is that you are never locked out. Per the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS), any insurer writing Medigap coverage in the state must accept a Medicare enrollee's application at any time of year. Insurers may not deny you a policy or make any premium distinction because of health status, claims experience, medical condition, or whether you're receiving care. New York also requires community rating, which means premiums cannot vary by the applicant's age, gender, or health.3

DFS says these open-enrollment protections apply whether you're on Medicare because of age or disability, and to people with end-stage renal disease, so a New Yorker who has Medicare because of a disability or end-stage renal disease, rather than age, has the same year-round right. Two limits apply: you must be enrolled in both Part A and Part B to buy Medigap at all, and a group policy is open only to members of that group. Health can still affect when coverage starts paying. A policy may impose a waiting period of up to six months before it covers a pre-existing condition, meaning one you got medical advice or treatment for in the six months before coverage began. The insurer must shorten that wait by each day you had creditable coverage, as long as you had no break in coverage longer than 63 days, and New York regulation can reduce or waive it depending on your circumstances. A group health plan, other health insurance, Medicaid, TRICARE, FEHB, and another Medigap or Medicare Advantage plan all count, but time on Original Medicare itself counts only if you apply during the federal six-month Medigap open enrollment period. If Original Medicare was your only coverage and you apply later, you may still face a wait of up to six months.3

For most of the country, the protection that lets you buy any Medigap plan regardless of health is a one-time, six-month window that starts the first month you are both 65 or older and enrolled in Medicare Part B. Miss it, and insurers can underwrite, charge more, or decline you.3 New York removes that cliff entirely. A 78-year-old New Yorker with several health conditions can apply for Plan G today and pay the same community-rated premium as a healthy 65-year-old buying the same plan from the same insurer in the same region, though a pre-existing-condition wait may still apply.3

What year-round guaranteed issue means for your choices

The practical effect is freedom to change your mind. In an underwriting state, the safe move is to lock in your most generous plan at 65, because switching up later can trigger a health review. In New York, that pressure is gone: because insurers may not underwrite or make any premium-rate distinction by health at any point, you can move between plans and carriers year-round without a health review.3

• You can start on a lower-cost plan, such as Plan N, and move up to Plan G in a later year without underwriting.
• You can shop your premium every year and switch carriers if a competitor's community-rated price is lower for the same letter.
• Waiting or a change in your health never affects your eligibility or your rate. The one cost of waiting is a possible pre-existing-condition wait if Original Medicare was your only coverage.

The tradeoff is upfront cost. Community-rated premiums are often higher at age 65 than the age-rated premiums new enrollees see in other states, because a New York insurer charges everyone the same rate rather than starting younger buyers low. You pay more early in exchange for never facing underwriting and never paying an age-based increase. Over a long retirement, that protection can outweigh the higher starting premium, but the first-year quote will usually look higher than an attained-age plan elsewhere.

Plan G and Plan N: the common choices

The benefits inside each plan letter are fixed by federal rule, so a New York Plan G matches a Plan G sold in any other state that uses the lettered plans; Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Wisconsin standardize their plans differently.1 For most enrollees the practical choice narrows to two plans.

Plan G is available to people new to Medicare on or after January 1, 2020, the date Plans C and F closed to them. It covers the same benefits as Plan F except the annual Part B deductible: the Part A hospital deductible, Part A and Part B coinsurance, skilled nursing facility coinsurance, and Part B excess charges. After you pay that one Part B deductible for the year, a Plan G holder generally has no further cost-sharing on Medicare-covered services in the United States. Foreign travel emergency care is the exception: Plan G covers it at 80% up to plan limits.1,3

Plan N covers the same major gaps but shifts a little cost back to you. It pays the Part B coinsurance except for a copay of up to $20 for some office visits and up to $50 for emergency-room visits that don't lead to an inpatient admission, and it does not cover Part B excess charges. In exchange, Plan N premiums are usually lower than Plan G premiums. In New York, starting on Plan N and moving up to Plan G later carries no underwriting penalty, so the lower-premium plan is a safer starting point here than the federal rules alone would make it.1

Plans C and F are closed to people new to Medicare since 2020

Plans C and F once covered the annual Part B deductible on top of the other gaps, which made Plan F the most complete plan on the market. Under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), any Medigap plan that pays the Part B deductible can't be sold to people new to Medicare on or after January 1, 2020. Federal law makes that a two-part test: you count as new to Medicare only if you turned 65 on or after January 1, 2020 and you weren't already entitled to Medicare Part A before that date.4,1

The closure works by eligibility, not purchase date. If you were eligible for Medicare before January 1, 2020, you may still be able to buy Plan C or Plan F in New York, and you can keep one you already hold. That includes someone who turned 65 before 2020 but put off enrolling, and someone who already had Medicare Part A before 2020 because of a disability or end-stage renal disease and is only now turning 65.4 If you are new to Medicare under the two-part test, those two plans are off the table, which is why Plan G has become the default top-tier choice for newer enrollees: it's identical to Plan F except that you pay the one Part B deductible yourself.

What Medigap costs and how it's priced in New York

Medigap premiums vary by insurer, plan letter, and region of the state, but not by you. Because New York requires community rating, your age, gender, and health do not change your premium, and you won't see the attained-age increases that raise premiums year over year in many other states. Two New Yorkers in the same region buying the same Plan G from the same insurer pay the same rate whether one is 65 and healthy and the other is 80 with chronic conditions.3

What still varies is the carrier, the letter, and where in the state you live.3 Different insurers set different community-rated premiums for the same Plan G, so it pays to compare across carriers before you buy. The New York Department of Financial Services publishes the current list of insurers offering Medigap in New York and their community-rated rates, plan letter by plan letter, which is the authoritative place to see what each carrier charges this year. Note that Medigap does not include prescription drug coverage, so you add a separate Part D plan for that.

Who regulates New York Medigap

Medigap policies in New York are regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services, which oversees the insurers that sell these policies, enforces the year-round guaranteed-issue and community-rating rules, and publishes the approved insurers and their rates. If you have a complaint or a question about a specific policy, DFS is the agency to contact.

Learn More

Find personalized help comparing Medicare Supplement plans in New York 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.