Medicare Advantage

Medicare in Cleveland: What Costs Look Like for 2027

People in Cleveland can choose from 99 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 112 this year. 31 of this year’s plans are gone, 18 are new to Cuyahoga County, and 37 that continue have changed their premium, deductible, plan type or name, 6 of them under a new name.

CLEVELAND — Some of Medicare's 2027 numbers are set, and for people turning 65 or reviewing coverage in Cleveland, the clearest way to plan ahead is to understand how the cost pieces fit together. Cleveland sits in Cuyahoga County, where 93 Medicare Advantage plans are available for 2027 — but the plan count is only part of the picture. What often matters more is how premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket limits stack up across the program itself.

The cost pieces that make up Medicare

Medicare is not one bill. It's a stack of smaller costs, and each part has its own rules.

• Part A (hospital) is premium-free for most people who paid Medicare taxes long enough while working. It still has a deductible when you're admitted.
• Part B (doctor and outpatient) has a monthly premium and an annual deductible. After that, Medicare generally pays 80% of approved costs and you pay the rest.
• Part D (prescription drugs) has its own premium, its own deductible (capped at $615 in 2026 and $700 in 2027), and — new in recent years — a hard ceiling on what you pay out of pocket.
• Medicare Advantage (Part C) bundles Parts A, B, and usually D through a private carrier. You still owe your Part B premium, plus whatever the plan charges.

Knowing which bucket a cost falls into is the first step to reading any plan document without getting lost.

The Part D out-of-pocket cap changes the math

For 2027, no one on a Medicare Part D plan will pay more than $2,400 out of pocket for covered prescriptions in a calendar year (up from $2,100 in 2026). Once you hit that ceiling, you pay $0 for covered drugs for the rest of the year.

This is a real shift from how Part D used to work. The old "donut hole" coverage gap was eliminated in 2025, so drug coverage now moves through just three phases: the deductible, the initial coverage phase, and the catastrophic phase where the cap kicks in.

For anyone taking expensive medications, that $2,400 ceiling is one of the most important numbers to know going into 2027.

Spreading drug costs over the year

Hitting a cap ($2,100 in 2026, $2,400 in 2027) is better than an unlimited bill, but $2,100 in January is still a lot of money at once. That's where the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan comes in.

This is an optional program. You can ask your Part D plan (or the drug portion of your Medicare Advantage plan) to bill you monthly instead of at the pharmacy counter. Your yearly total doesn't change — you just spread it out. It can be especially useful if you fill a costly prescription early in the year.

It's opt-in, not automatic. You have to sign up with your plan.

What Part B and IRMAA can add

Most people pay the standard Part B premium. Higher-income enrollees pay more through a surcharge called IRMAA (Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount). For 2026, IRMAA starts kicking in for single filers with income above $109,000 (based on tax returns from two years earlier). It applies to both Part B and Part D premiums.

If your income has dropped recently — because you retired, lost a spouse, or stopped working — you can ask Social Security to reconsider using a life-changing event form. A lot of people miss that step.

How the local plan landscape fits in

Cleveland is in Cuyahoga County, where 93 Medicare Advantage plans are on offer for 2027, spread across 16 carriers that provide MA-PD coverage. Compared with 2026, 75 plans are continuing, 18 are new, 31 are not returning, and 6 have been renamed; 31 continuing plans are changing something in their terms, and the details are in each plan's Annual Notice of Change. For drug coverage through Original Medicare, Ohio has 9 stand-alone Part D plans for 2027, sold statewide, and anyone in Cuyahoga County can join one of them.

The county's 65-and-older population is about 242,818, which is why so many carriers compete here. More options can be good — but it also means more paperwork to sort through. Focus on the cost structure first (premium, deductible, cost-sharing, and the drug cap), then compare.

Dates that drive your cost decisions

Two windows matter most:

• Annual Enrollment Period: Oct. 15 – Dec. 7, 2026. This is when anyone with Medicare can join, switch, or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan for 2027 coverage.
• Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment: Jan. 1 – March 31. If you're already in a Medicare Advantage plan, you get one chance to switch to a different MA plan or return to Original Medicare.

If you miss these windows without a qualifying reason, you're generally locked in until the next one.