AARP Medicare Supplement Plans: Comparing Plan F, G and N

What an AARP Medicare Supplement actually is

The plans sold under the AARP name are Medicare Supplement policies insured by UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company. AARP is a membership organisation, not an insurer; it licenses its name and receives a fee for doing so, which it discloses.

The practical consequence is that you generally need to be an AARP member to buy an AARP Medicare Supplement, and membership carries a small annual fee. That is a genuine cost of the product and should be counted when comparing premiums.

Everything else about the policy is standard Medigap. The benefits are fixed by federal law, not by AARP or UnitedHealthcare.

The plan letters are identical everywhere

This is the fact that changes how you shop. Medigap plans are standardised by letter, so an AARP Medicare Supplement Plan G covers exactly the same gaps as a Plan G from any other carrier in your state. The benefits cannot differ.

What differs is the premium, how that premium behaves as you age, the household discount, the service you get, and the carrier’s history of rate increases.

So the question is never “is an AARP Medicare Supplement good?” It is “which letter do I want, and is this the best-priced reliable carrier selling that letter at my age in my ZIP code this year?”

Plan F, Plan G and Plan N compared

Plan F covers everything Medigap is allowed to cover, including the Part B deductible. It is closed to anyone who became eligible for Medicare on or after 1 January 2020. If you were eligible before that date you may still be able to buy it.

Plan G is identical to Plan F in every respect except that you pay the annual Part B deductible yourself. For most new enrollees it is the most comprehensive plan available, and it is the one we quote most often.

Plan N costs less each month. In exchange you pay the Part B deductible, small copays at some office and emergency-department visits, and Plan N does not cover Part B excess charges.

Deciding between G and N is arithmetic, not preference. Estimate your annual office visits, compare the premium saving against the copays you would pay, and check whether providers in your state commonly charge excess amounts. For someone who rarely sees a doctor, an AARP Medicare Supplement Plan N can be cheaper across a year. For someone with frequent specialist appointments it usually is not.

How the premium is rated, and why it matters more than the first quote

Medigap premiums are set one of three ways, and AARP Medicare Supplement policies use a method that varies by state.

Community-rated — everyone pays the same regardless of age. Premiums still rise with inflation and claims, but not because you got older.

Issue-age rated — the price is set by your age when you buy and does not increase because of ageing.

Attained-age rated — the price rises as you age, usually every year or in bands. A quote that looks cheapest at 65 can be the most expensive at 78.

Ask which method applies to the policy you are being offered in your state. Comparing an attained-age quote with an issue-age quote on today’s price alone will mislead you.

Ask about the household discount too. Where offered, it can be a meaningful reduction when two people in the same home both hold policies, and it is not always volunteered.

When you can buy without health questions

Your Medigap Open Enrollment Period runs six months from the month you turn 65 and are enrolled in Part B. During it, a carrier must sell you any AARP Medicare Supplement plan it offers at its standard rate, whatever your health history.

Outside that window, and outside a guaranteed-issue right, the insurer may ask health questions, charge more, or decline you altogether. That is the same for every carrier; it is federal and state law rather than company policy.

A handful of states add their own protections. Nevada, for instance, gives existing Medigap policyholders a birthday window each year to switch carriers without underwriting; Illinois has a narrower version; Mississippi has none at all. Ask what applies where you live before assuming you can change later.

What no AARP Medicare Supplement covers

No Medigap policy of any letter includes prescription drug coverage. If you take an AARP Medicare Supplement you will also need a standalone Part D plan, and that is a separate decision with separate consequences.

Medigap also does not cover routine dental, vision, hearing aids or long-term custodial care. Those are the extras Medicare Advantage plans advertise, and they are a real difference between the two routes.

And you cannot hold Medigap and Medicare Advantage at the same time. Choosing one closes the other for as long as you keep it.

How to compare an AARP Medicare Supplement quote properly

Because the benefits inside each letter are fixed by law, a fair comparison comes down to five things and nothing else.

The plan letter. Decide on G or N first. Comparing a Plan G quote from one carrier against a Plan N quote from another tells you nothing.

The rating method. Attained-age, issue-age or community-rated, as described above. Ask for it in writing.

The carrier’s rate-increase history. Past increases are not a promise about the future, but a carrier that has raised rates sharply every year is telling you something. Your state insurance department publishes filed increases.

Discounts you actually qualify for. Household discounts, electronic-payment discounts and enrollment discounts vary between carriers and are frequently the difference between two otherwise identical quotes.

The total first-year cost. For an AARP Medicare Supplement that means premium plus the AARP membership fee. For a competitor it may mean a one-time policy fee instead. Add them up rather than comparing monthly figures.

Run those five checks across every carrier licensed in your state and the decision usually makes itself. That comparison is what we do, at no cost to you, and we are paid the same by every carrier we represent.

Questions we are asked about AARP Medicare Supplement plans

Do I have to join AARP first? You generally need to be a member to hold the policy, but you can usually join as part of the application rather than beforehand. The membership fee is annual and modest, and it is not part of the insurance premium.

Is an AARP Medicare Supplement better than another carrier’s Plan G? The coverage is identical by law. Better means cheaper, more stable, or better serviced — and which carrier wins changes by state, by age and by year.

Can I switch later if I find something cheaper? Sometimes. Outside your Medigap Open Enrollment Period or a guaranteed-issue right, the new carrier may ask health questions and can decline you. Nevada’s annual birthday window is one of the exceptions. Never cancel an existing policy until the replacement is approved in writing.

Does it cover me when I travel? Medigap follows Original Medicare, so any provider in the country that accepts Medicare accepts your policy. There is no network and no referral requirement. Plans F, G and N also include limited foreign travel emergency coverage.

Do I still need Part D? Yes. No AARP Medicare Supplement includes drug coverage, and delaying Part D without other creditable coverage creates a late-enrollment penalty that lasts as long as you keep the drug plan.

Who actually underwrites an AARP Medicare Supplement

AARP is not an insurance company and does not underwrite anything. It licenses its name. The plans are group policies insured by UnitedHealthcare, and AARP receives a royalty for the use of its intellectual property — an arrangement AARP discloses on its own site, describing the fees as used for its general purposes.

Which UnitedHealthcare company issues your policy depends on your state. UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, NAIC 79413, writes in most states. UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of America writes in a set of states including Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee. New York residents are covered by UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of New York, NAIC 60093.

That distinction is not pedantry. Each company files its own rates, so rate history and future increases follow the issuing entity rather than the brand on the envelope. Check the company name on the outline of coverage before comparing an AARP Medicare Supplement quote against anything else.

Membership is required, and it is not free

You must be an AARP member to enrol in and keep one of these policies. Membership currently runs about $20 a year at the standard rate, with a lower first-year promotional rate and multi-year options. It is a small number, but it is a real condition of coverage rather than a marketing suggestion, and it does not apply to AARP-branded Medicare Advantage plans in the same way.

How the premium is set, and why this is the real comparison

Medigap premiums are built one of three ways. Community-rated policies charge everyone the same regardless of age. Issue-age-rated policies lock the price to your age when you bought it. Attained-age-rated policies start cheapest and rise as you get older, which is why the lowest quote at 65 is often the most expensive policy by 80.

In the states where the insurance department publishes the rating basis, the AARP Medicare Supplement is listed as community-rated. Maryland’s rate guide names it as a group community-rated product; Washington’s approved-plan chart shows a single premium for everyone 65 and over, with no age bands. Connecticut and New York require community rating of every Medigap issuer by law.

Two cautions belong with that. Community-rated does not mean the premium never rises — it rises for everyone at once rather than because you had a birthday. And UnitedHealthcare applies an enrolment discount tied to the age at which you join, which produces a premium curve that behaves partly like age rating even on a community-rated base. The size of that discount and how it changes over time appear only in the state-specific outline of coverage, not in national marketing, so ask to see it in writing.

The wellness extras are not insurance

Policies come with a gym membership programme, a 24-hour nurse line, brain-health and driver-safety resources, and discount arrangements for vision, hearing and dental. These are worth having. They are also, in the carrier’s own words, additional member services apart from the plan benefits, not insurance programmes, subject to geographic availability and able to be discontinued at any time.

Filed insurance benefits cannot be withdrawn from a guaranteed-renewable policy. These extras can. Weigh them accordingly, and do not let them decide a comparison between two Medigap policies whose actual coverage is identical by federal standardisation.

The 2026 numbers behind Plan F, G and N

The differences between the letters are small and specific, and they are the same at every insurer. For 2026 the Part B deductible is $283 and the Part A hospital deductible is $1,736 per benefit period. Plan F covers the Part B deductible; Plans G and N do not. That is the entire difference between F and G.

Plan N differs from Plan G in exactly two ways. It leaves you a copayment of up to $20 for some office visits and up to $50 for emergency department visits that do not result in an inpatient admission — note both the words “up to” and the admission exception, which are routinely dropped in summaries. And it does not cover Part B excess charges.

An excess charge arises when a provider who has not accepted assignment bills above the Medicare-approved amount, up to a federal limiting charge. In practice this is uncommon: MedPAC reported that 98 percent of clinicians billing the physician fee schedule were participating providers in 2023, and that 99.7 percent of fee-schedule claims in 2024 were paid at Medicare’s standard rate. Uncommon is not the same as impossible, and behavioural health is the specialty where it turns up most.

You will often read that eight states prohibit excess charges outright. That list does not survive checking against the state statutes. Ohio and Minnesota have broad prohibitions; Massachusetts imposes one on physicians as a licensing condition. New York caps the charge rather than banning it and exempts office and home visits. Vermont’s ban has exceptions wide enough to cover most office visits. Connecticut’s own counselling programme tells beneficiaries that excess charges can be billed there. Before you treat Plan G’s excess-charge coverage as worthless where you live, check your state’s law rather than the list.

Plans C and F, including high-deductible F, are closed to anyone who first became eligible for Medicare on or after 1 January 2020 under a federal rule, which is why most people turning 65 now are choosing between G and N. High-deductible Plan G carries a $2,950 deductible for 2026. Whichever letter you land on, an AARP Medicare Supplement covers exactly what every other insurer’s policy of that letter covers, so the comparison comes down to premium, rating method, rate history and service.

Check any of this independently

We are an independent agency, not AARP and not UnitedHealthcare. Check everything here against the source.

• Medicare.gov — Medigap basics — the official explanation of what each plan letter covers
• Medicare.gov — compare Medigap benefits — the standardised benefit grid
• SHIP National Technical Assistance Center — free counselling in your state, from people who sell nothing
• NAIC consumer tools — carrier complaint records and agent licence lookup

Related guides on this site

• How Medigap works — every plan letter compared side by side
• UnitedHealthcare and AARP Medicare plans — the carrier behind these policies
• What Medicare Advantage costs — the alternative route
• The five Medicare deadlines that matter and book a no-cost appointment

Or call (877) 808-2900. We will price an AARP Medicare Supplement beside every other carrier selling the same plan letter at your age, and if another one is cheaper for identical benefits we will tell you so.