Medicare enrollment periods in Florida

Quick answers

When can I first sign up for Medicare?

During your 7-month Initial Enrollment Period: the 3 months before your 65th birthday month, that month and the 3 months after.

When is open enrollment for 2027?

October 15 to December 7, 2026. Changes take effect January 1, 2027.

Can I change my Medicare Advantage plan after January 1?

Yes, once, from January 1 to March 31, 2027, during the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period.

I missed my Initial Enrollment Period. What now?

Sign up for Part B from January 1 to March 31 during the General Enrollment Period, unless you qualify for a special enrollment period. You may owe a late penalty.

Does Florida have a Medigap birthday rule?

No. You get a 6-month Medigap open enrollment once you're 65 and in Part B, and Florida adds a 2-month window after group health coverage ends. There's no yearly switching right.

How do Medicare enrollment periods work?

Medicare has fixed windows for signing up for Part A and Part B and for joining, switching or dropping Medicare Advantage and Part D plans. Outside them you usually have to wait, and signing up late can mean months without coverage and a penalty that lasts as long as you have Medicare. The windows are federal, so they're the same in Florida as anywhere. What's different here: Florida has no Medigap birthday rule but adds a 2-month Medigap right when group coverage ends; State Group Insurance retirees follow their own program's rules; hurricanes regularly open disaster special enrollment periods; people with Medicare and full Florida Medicaid can use monthly windows; and some Florida Medicare Advantage plans end in 2027.

Florida has 5,344,538 people with Medicare (CMS, July 2026), and only California has more residents 65 and older (Census Bureau, 2024 estimates).

Timeline at a glance

This year's key dates are also on What are the Medicare deadlines in Florida for 2027?

When is my Initial Enrollment Period?

Your Initial Enrollment Period is 7 months long: the 3 months before the month you turn 65, your birthday month, and the 3 months after. Sign up in the 3 months before your birthday month and coverage starts on the first day of your birthday month. Sign up during or after your birthday month and coverage starts the first day of the next month. (If your birthday is on the first of the month, everything moves a month earlier.)

If you already get Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits, you're enrolled in Part A and Part B automatically. If not, sign up with Social Security online, by phone at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778; press 7 for Spanish), or at a Social Security office. No Florida agency enrolls you in Medicare. See How do I sign up for Medicare in Florida?

People under 65 who get Social Security disability benefits are enrolled automatically after 24 months of benefits; people with ALS get Medicare the month disability benefits begin. See Can I get Medicare before 65 in Florida? and the turning 65 in Florida guide.

What is the General Enrollment Period?

If you missed your Initial Enrollment Period and don't qualify for a special enrollment period, you can sign up for Part B (or Part A, if you'd pay a premium for it) from January 1 to March 31 each year. Coverage starts the first day of the month after you sign up. You may owe a late enrollment penalty (see below). If you sign up in this period, you get 2 months after Part B starts to join a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan. See What happens if I miss my Medicare enrollment period?

Open Enrollment: October 15 to December 7

Each fall, anyone with Medicare can join, switch or drop a Medicare Advantage plan or a Part D drug plan, or move between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Your choice takes effect January 1. The window open now is for 2027 coverage. If you make more than one change, the last one you make by December 7 counts. See Medicare open enrollment in Florida.

Before it starts, your plan sends an Annual Notice of Change listing next year's changes. Read it even if you're happy with your plan: networks, drug lists and service areas can all change. CMS lists 297 Medicare Advantage plans open to everyone from 22 companies and 11 standalone Part D plans in Florida for 2027. Choice varies a lot by county, from 7 Medicare Advantage plans in Monroe County to 52 in Hillsborough County; the list for your county is on the county pages.

Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period: January 1 to March 31

If you're in a Medicare Advantage plan on January 1, you can make one change by March 31: switch to a different Medicare Advantage plan, or drop your plan, return to Original Medicare and join a Part D plan. If you're new to Medicare and joined a Medicare Advantage plan, you get the same one change during your first 3 months with Medicare. This period can't be used to move from Original Medicare into Medicare Advantage or to switch between standalone drug plans. In Florida, moving to Original Medicare doesn't guarantee you can buy Medigap; companies can ask health questions unless you have a guaranteed-issue right.

Which special enrollment periods matter most in Florida?

Certain life events open a special enrollment period (SEP) outside the usual windows. These are the ones Floridians use most.

Your plan is ending or leaving your county

For 2027, four companies stop selling regular Medicare Advantage plans in some Florida counties, and others end some plans where they stay. Together, at least 302,773 Floridians in regular Medicare Advantage plans must choose new coverage. Every county still has regular Medicare Advantage plans in 2027. If your plan isn't renewing, you'll get a non-renewal letter. You can choose a new plan during Open Enrollment and then through February 28, 2027. Choose by December 31, 2026 so the new plan starts January 1 with no gap. If you don't choose, you'll be in Original Medicare on January 1 without drug coverage. You may also have a guaranteed right to buy a Medigap policy until 63 days after your plan coverage ends. See Florida plans ending in 2027.

Moving to, from or within Florida

• Moving your permanent home outside your plan's service area, whether into Florida from the Northeast or Midwest, out of the state, or to a Florida county your plan doesn't serve: you can switch plans or return to Original Medicare. If you tell your plan before you move, the window starts the month before the move; otherwise it starts the month you move. Either way it lasts 2 full months after the move. In CMS's own example, a Florida plan member who reports in May a move to Arizona on June 18 can choose a new plan from May 1 to August 31.
• Moving to a place with new plan options: you get the same kind of window, even within your plan's area.
• Snowbirds: a seasonal stay isn't a change of permanent residence and doesn't open this window. A Medicare Advantage plan must disenroll you after more than 6 months away from its service area (up to 12 months if the plan offers a visitor or traveler program), and a Part D plan after more than 12 months.
• Returning to the U.S. after living abroad, including moving from abroad to Florida, or moving into or out of a nursing home or other institution, also opens a window.

More on moving to Florida with Medicare and snowbirds and Medicare.

Losing employer or union coverage

When job-based coverage from your own or your spouse's current work ends, you have 8 months to sign up for Part B without a penalty, starting the month after the job or the coverage ends, whichever comes first. If you sign up while you still have the job coverage or in the first full month after it ends, you can pick a Part B start date of the first of that month or any of the next 3 months; later in the 8 months, Part B starts the month after you sign up. To join a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan, you have 2 full months after the month the coverage ends. COBRA and retiree coverage don't count as coverage from current work. Florida also gives you 2 months after group coverage ends to buy Medigap without health questions (see below). See working past 65.

Florida Medicaid, Medicare Savings Programs and Extra Help

• Once a month, if you have Medicare and Florida Medicaid, a Medicare Savings Program or Extra Help, you can join or switch to a standalone Part D plan, with the change starting the first of the next month.
• Once a month, if you have full Florida Medicaid, you can also join a fully or highly integrated dual eligible special needs plan (D-SNP) that's aligned with the Medicaid plan you're in or joining.
• Gaining, losing or changing Medicaid or Extra Help gives you 3 months from the change, or from when you're notified, whichever is later, to make one change.

Most people with full Florida Medicaid, including those who also have Medicare, get their Medicaid through a Statewide Medicaid Managed Care (SMMC) plan. Under Florida's contract with D-SNPs, a coordination-only D-SNP may enroll only people with partial help (QMB, SLMB, QI or QDWI), not full Medicaid. For 2027, CMS lists 127 D-SNPs in Florida, available in all 67 counties. More on Florida Medicaid and Medicare, D-SNPs in Florida and Medicare Savings Programs in Florida.

Hurricanes and other disasters

If a federal, state or local government declares an emergency or major disaster where you live (or where the person who helps you with health decisions lives), and it kept you from making a change during another enrollment period you were eligible for, you get a special enrollment period for Medicare Advantage and Part D. It lasts until 2 full calendar months after the incident period ends. It isn't an open season for everyone in the area: it replaces a choice the disaster kept you from making. To use it, call 1-800-MEDICARE.

The most recent Florida example is Hurricane Isaias (FEMA DR-4955-FL, declared October 27, 2026; incident period October 6 to 12, 2026). Counted from FEMA's incident period, that window runs through December 31, 2026, unless a state or local declaration sets different dates. Earlier storms, such as Hurricane Milton (DR-4834-FL, incident period October 5 to November 2, 2024), opened windows that have since closed. See hurricanes and Medicare in Florida.

Other situations

Other special enrollment periods include losing creditable drug coverage through no fault of your own, joining or leaving PACE, and switching once a year into a plan with an overall 5-star rating where one is offered. If something unusual kept you from enrolling, such as wrong information from a government or employer representative, call 1-800-MEDICARE or Social Security to ask whether an exceptional-circumstance period applies. People who gain an eligible immigration status also get a special period; see Medicare eligibility changes for immigrants.

When can I buy Medigap in Florida?

Your one-time Medigap open enrollment period lasts 6 months, starting the first month you're both 65 or older and enrolled in Part B. During it, companies selling Medigap in Florida must sell you a policy regardless of your health. Florida law (s. 627.6741, Florida Statutes) adds two rights federal law doesn't:

• 2 months after group coverage ends: if you're in Part B and your group health coverage ends, you have 2 months to buy a Medigap policy without health questions.
• Under 65: if you have Medicare because of a disability or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), you get a 6-month Medigap open enrollment once you're in Part B. Premiums are usually higher before 65, and you get a new open enrollment at 65.

Florida has no birthday rule or yearly right to switch Medigap plans. Outside these windows and federal guaranteed-issue rights (such as your Medicare Advantage plan ending), a company can ask health questions. Florida doesn't allow Medigap premiums that rise automatically because you get older (attained-age pricing), and every new policy has a 30-day free look (s. 627.674). Details on Medigap in Florida.

What are the late enrollment penalties?

Estimate a penalty with the late enrollment penalty calculator.

Where can I get help?

During an open window, you can see plans for your ZIP code. To check which enrollment period applies to you and go over plans from the companies they work with, you can request a call from a licensed insurance agent.

For Part A and Part B sign-up, contact Social Security at ssa.gov or 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778). For general Medicare questions, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227, TTY 1-877-486-2048), or use Medicare.gov's Spanish site, es.medicare.gov. See Florida Medicare contacts.

Sources

• Medicare.gov — When does Medicare coverage start?
• Medicare.gov — Special enrollment periods
• Medicare.gov — Avoid late enrollment penalties
• Medicare.gov — Getting care in a disaster or emergency
• Social Security — Sign up for Medicare
• Social Security — Inscríbase en Medicare (Spanish)
• CMS — Medicare Advantage and Part D Enrollment and Disenrollment Guidance, contract year 2027
• eCFR — 42 CFR Part 407, Part B enrollment (including the General Enrollment Period)
• eCFR — 42 CFR 422.62, Medicare Advantage election periods (including the disaster SEP)
• eCFR — 42 CFR 423.38, Part D enrollment periods
• eCFR — 42 CFR 422.74, disenrollment after 6 months out of the service area
• Florida Statutes — s. 627.6741, Medigap open enrollment, group-coverage and under-65 rights
• Florida Statutes — s. 627.674, Medigap minimum standards (30-day free look)
• Florida Division of State Group Insurance — Retirees
• Florida Division of State Group Insurance — Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug plans
• Florida AHCA — D-SNP contract, Attachment I-B (coordination-only D-SNP enrollment)
• FEMA — Florida Hurricane Isaias (DR-4955-FL)
• FEMA — Florida Hurricane Milton (DR-4834-FL)
• Congressional Research Service — Social Security Coverage of State and Local Government Employees (R46961)
• CMS — CY2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D Landscape files

Every question in this guide

• How do I sign up for Medicare in Florida?
• Can I get Medicare before 65 in Florida?
• What are the Medicare deadlines in Florida for 2027?
• Will some immigrants lose Medicare because of the 2025 federal law?
• Can I get Medicare as a permanent resident (green card holder) in Florida?
• What happens if I miss my Medicare enrollment period in Florida?
• When should I sign up for Medicare if I'm turning 65 in Florida?

Frequently asked questions

Medicare in your Florida county

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