Free Medicare Counseling: Is SHIP Actually Unbiased? (2026)

The State Health Insurance Assistance Program, or SHIP, gives free Medicare counseling, and federal law requires its counselors, volunteers included, to have no conflict of interest. It's federally funded. Most states don't call it SHIP, so searching your state plus "SHIP" may turn up nothing.1,2,3

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What Free Medicare Counseling From SHIP Actually Is
• Why It's Free, and What Makes It Unbiased
• What SHIP Can Help You With
• Who Runs SHIP and Where the Money Comes From
• How to Find Free Medicare Counseling in Your State
• When a Broker Is the Better Call
• Learn More

What Free Medicare Counseling From SHIP Actually Is

SHIP gives free, personalized, and unbiased health insurance counseling to people with Medicare, their families, and their caregivers. Medicare's own handbook is where that comes from. Medicare & You 2026 tells beneficiaries they can get "free, personalized, and unbiased health insurance counseling" from their SHIP, and separately says SHIPs "provide free, personalized counseling to you and your family or caregiver".1,3

The counseling is personalized. You bring your situation, your drug list, and whatever coverage you already have. A trained counselor works through it with you.

SHIPs are state programs that get money from the federal government to give local health insurance counseling to people with Medicare. Medicare & You 2026 states it flatly: SHIPs aren't connected to any insurance company or health plan.1

ACL, which runs SHIP, describes the job the same way. ACL puts the SHIP mission as educating and assisting Medicare-eligible people through objective outreach and counseling, and says SHIP team members are tasked with providing unbiased, objective information on health insurance options.1

Why It's Free, and What Makes It Unbiased

Free is the easy half. ACL funds the state SHIP programs through grants, so there's no bill to send you.3

Unbiased is the half that deserves proof.

What does federal law actually require?

Federal law requires a state applying for SHIP grant money to submit a plan whose program provides assurances that staff members, including volunteer staff members, have no conflict of interest in providing the counseling. The SHIP no-conflict-of-interest assurance sits at 42 U.S.C. 1395b-4(b)(2)(D), enacted as Section 4360(b)(2)(D) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990.2

Two details matter. The SHIP assurance names volunteers explicitly, so it doesn't stop at paid staff. And the assurance isn't optional garnish: a state has to put it in the SHIP grant application to get the money at all.2

Can an insurance agent be a SHIP counselor?

ACL draws a harder line. ACL's conflict-of-interest guidance states that no individual may be a licensed insurance agent and a SHIP team member at the same time, and identifies that combination as a violation of the SHIP statute.4

ACL's remedy is removal, one way or the other. Either the insurance license goes before the person is accepted as a SHIP team member, or team-member status goes. ACL's stated reason is that the program can't ensure a team member holding an active insurance license would perform their program duties in an unbiased manner.4

So the license is the line. A retired insurance agent who has given up the license can be accepted as a SHIP team member; someone holding an active insurance license cannot be a SHIP team member.4

Be clear about what that document is. ACL's conflict-of-interest document is guidance, not a regulation. But ACL attributes the prohibition to the SHIP statute, and the statute is right there in the U.S. Code.4,2

What SHIP Can Help You With

Medicare & You 2026 lists the topics SHIP counseling covers:3

• Your Medicare rights
• Billing problems
• Complaints about your medical care or treatment
• Plan comparison and enrollment
• How Medicare works with other insurance
• Finding help paying for health care costs3

Plan comparison is only half of the fourth item. SHIP counselors help you enroll, too. ACL states that SHIP team members are highly trained and certified to assist people in obtaining coverage through Original Medicare (Parts A and B), Medicare Advantage (Part C), Part D drug coverage, and Medigap.3

SHIP also helps people with limited income apply for Medicaid, the Medicare Savings Programs, and Extra Help, the Part D low-income subsidy.3 If you want the income and resource limits in front of you before you call, read our guides to Extra Help and the Medicare Savings Programs first.

Who Runs SHIP and Where the Money Comes From

SHIP is administered by ACL, an operating division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ACL's Office of Healthcare Information and Counseling manages SHIP and funds the state programs through grants. SHIP state funding is set annually by a formula that weighs several factors, including Medicare population.3

SHIP's funding moved once, and the history matters. SHIPs were created under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, which authorized the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to make the grants. Authorized in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014, SHIP transferred from CMS to ACL in 2014. So anything that describes SHIP as CMS-funded is describing the arrangement before 2014.3

Delivery is a state job. SHIP services are delivered by state units on aging or state departments of insurance, working with local area agencies on aging and other community-based partners. That's why the program has a different address from state to state. Delaware's SHIP, the Delaware Medicare Assistance Bureau, runs out of the state Department of Insurance and is funded in part by an ACL grant.3

SHIP isn't staffed only by volunteers. ACL describes the national SHIP network's team members as staff, in-kind professionals, and volunteers, and says SHIP recruits and trains both volunteer and in-kind team members. ACL also states that SHIP team members are highly trained and certified.3

How to Find Free Medicare Counseling in Your State

Two routes, both official.

1. Go to shiphelp.org and use the "Find Local Medicare Help" locator at the top of the page. shiphelp.org also tells consumers they can call the SHIP National Technical Assistance Center at 1-877-839-2675.1
2. Open Medicare & You 2026 to pages 114-117. That's the handbook's per-state SHIP phone directory, and the handbook tells beneficiaries to go there for the phone number of their local SHIP.1

Use the locator rather than a search engine. Most state programs don't use the name "SHIP." Search your state plus "SHIP" and you may turn up nothing, then reasonably conclude the program doesn't operate where you live. Check the locator before you conclude that. shiphelp.org notes your SHIP may go by a different name or acronym, and lists HICAP, SHICK, SHINE, and VICAP as examples of those state program names. Each is a state's own SHIP operating under a local name, not a separate program.1

shiphelp.org is the SHIP National Technical Assistance Center's site, and Medicare's own handbook points beneficiaries to it by name.1

When a Broker Is the Better Call

SHIP is the right first call when you want a neutral read on your options. It isn't the right call for everything.

Judge SHIP and a broker by what each is built to do.

SHIP is built to inform. SHIP team members are certified across Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Part D, and Medigap, and if money is tight they'll look at Medicaid, the Medicare Savings Programs, and Extra Help alongside the plans.3 SHIP isn't connected to any insurance company or health plan. That's the point of it, and it's also the boundary: SHIP has no product to sell you.1

A broker is built to transact. A licensed insurance agent can sell you a policy; a SHIP team member cannot, because ACL's conflict-of-interest guidance bars anyone holding an active insurance license from SHIP team-member status. SHIP's independence is exactly what stops SHIP from doing that work, and ACL's guidance keeps the two roles in separate people.4

Call SHIP first if you want your options laid out by someone with no stake in which one you pick, if money is tight and the assistance programs need weighing alongside the plans, or if you're deciding between Medigap and Medicare Advantage and don't want that conversation to be a sales conversation.

Call a broker when you know what you want and need a licensed agent to place the policy itself. That is the part SHIP cannot do for you.

Get the neutral read first. Then transact with whoever you like.

Learn More

Find personalized help getting free, unbiased Medicare counseling in your state 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.