Medicare Supplement Plan Statistics in US 2026 | Best Plans G vs N & Key Facts

What is Medicare Supplement Insurance?

Medicare Supplement insurance — universally known as Medigap — is private health insurance that works alongside Original Medicare (Parts A and B) to cover the out-of-pocket costs that Medicare does not pay. In 2026, those gaps are significant: the Medicare Part A hospital deductible is $1,736 per benefit period, the Part B deductible is $283 per year, and Original Medicare leaves beneficiaries responsible for 20% coinsurance on all Part B services with no cap on total annual out-of-pocket spending. Medigap fills exactly those gaps — covering deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments depending on which of the 10 standardized plans (A through N) a beneficiary chooses. All Medigap policies are federally standardized, meaning a Plan G from Humana covers the exact same benefits as a Plan G from Mutual of Omaha — only the premium differs. That price is set by private insurers using one of three rating methods: attained-age, issue-age, or community rating.

What makes Medicare Supplement statistics in 2026 particularly important is the context they sit within. Over 68 million Americans are enrolled in Medicare, and the market for supplemental coverage is at a genuine inflection point. Medicare Advantage plans — which replace Original Medicare entirely — have grown aggressively, reaching 35 million enrollees as of February 2026. Medigap enrollment, by contrast, peaked at 14 million in 2020 and has been in a modest decline since, sitting at 13.54 million as of December 2024. Yet the two most recent data points suggest a floor is forming: AHIP reported a 1.3% enrollment increase in 2024, while the total number of beneficiaries choosing to stay on Original Medicare plus a Medigap plan remains a meaningful share of the market — particularly among higher-income beneficiaries who prioritize unrestricted provider access, cost predictability, and the ability to see any Medicare-accepting physician nationwide without referrals or prior authorizations.

Medicare Supplement Plan Statistics 2026 | Key Interesting Facts

  Medicare Supplement Key Facts 2026 — At a Glance
  ══════════════════════════════════════════════════

  Total Medigap Enrollees (Dec 2024, NAIC)
  ████████████████████████████████████████  13.54 Million

  Plan G Market Share (2024 — most popular plan)
  ████████████████████████████████████████  43% of all Medigap enrollees

  Plan F Market Share (2024 — legacy, closing)
  █████████████████████████████████         33% of all Medigap enrollees

  Plan N Market Share (2024 — fastest growing)
  ██████████████                            10% of all Medigap enrollees (+5% YoY)

  Original Medicare enrollees with ANY supplemental coverage
  ████████████████████████████████████████  80% have some form of supplement

  UnitedHealth/AARP market share of Medigap
  ████████████████████████████████          32% — single largest insurer

Source: AHIP 2026 Medicare Supplement Report; NAIC; Mark Farrah Associates 2024; KFF Key Facts About Medigap (Sep 2025); Britannica Money (Apr 2026); Medicare.gov; Kiplinger; TheBig65.com — 2023–2026

The Medigap market in 2026 is undergoing a quiet but meaningful structural shift that the headline enrollment number of 13.54 million does not fully capture. The gradual exit of Plan F — closed to new enrollees since January 2020 — is slowly reshaping the competitive landscape. Plan F’s share is eroding not through cancellations but through natural attrition: existing holders age through the market while new enrollees, ineligible for Plan F, migrate overwhelmingly to Plan G, which now claims 43% of all Medigap enrollment. The data confirms this: by 2023, Plan G had overtaken Plan F as the dominant plan type, and its share has continued to climb. The affordability advantage of Medigap is validated by the bill-paying data — Medigap holders are more than twice as likely to report no trouble paying medical bills compared to their uninsured Original Medicare counterparts, underscoring the financial protection these policies provide.

The Plan N growth story deserves particular attention in 2026. A 5% year-over-year enrollment increase in 2024, alongside an expansion in carrier availability from 70% to 71% of all providers, signals that more beneficiaries are accepting modest cost-sharing — up to $20 copay for office visits and $50 for ER visits not resulting in admission — in exchange for meaningfully lower monthly premiums than Plan G. For healthier, lower-utilization beneficiaries, this trade-off makes strong financial sense. The overall picture shows a Medigap market that is stabilizing, not collapsing — a market where the combination of an aging US population, a growing cohort of Medicare Advantage plan refugees returning to Original Medicare, and escalating Medicare Advantage cost-sharing is quietly building the case for the predictability and freedom that a Medigap supplement provides.

Medicare Supplement Statistics 2026 | Plan G vs Plan N — Side-by-Side Comparison

  Plan G vs Plan N 2026 — Coverage Comparison at a Glance
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  Coverage Category                     Plan G     Plan N
  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Part A hospital deductible ($1,736)   ✔ 100%     ✔ 100%
  Part A coinsurance (days 61–90)       ✔ 100%     ✔ 100%
  Part A hospice coinsurance            ✔ 100%     ✔ 100%
  Skilled nursing facility coinsurance  ✔ 100%     ✔ 100%
  Part B coinsurance / copayment        ✔ 100%     ✔ 100% (with copays)
  Part B deductible ($283)              ✔ NO       ✔ NO
  Part B excess charges (up to 15%)     ✔ YES      ✗ NOT COVERED
  ER visit copay (non-admission)        ✔ NONE     ✗ Up to $50
  Doctor office visit copay             ✔ NONE     ✗ Up to $20
  Foreign travel emergency (80%)        ✔ YES      ✔ YES
  Monthly premium (approx., age 65)     $120–$200  $70–$150

Source: Medicare.gov Compare Plan Benefits; Kiplinger (May 1, 2026); TheBig65.com (Apr 2026); Policyguide.com (Apr 2026); KFF Key Facts About Medigap (Sep 2025); MediGap Advisors — 2025–2026

The Plan G vs Plan N decision is the most important coverage choice most new Medicare enrollees face in 2026, and the data makes the trade-offs sharper than ever. Plan G’s 43% market share reflects its position as the default comprehensive choice for anyone who values complete cost predictability beyond a single annual deductible. With Part G, a beneficiary’s maximum out-of-pocket exposure on Medicare-covered services in any given year is exactly $283 — the Part B deductible — after which the plan pays everything. That includes the Part A hospital deductible of $1,736, skilled nursing facility coinsurance, and critically, Part B excess charges that physicians who do not accept Medicare assignment can legally charge above the Medicare-approved rate. In 8 states that have banned excess charges — including New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts — this protection is moot, making Plan N substantially more attractive by closing the primary coverage gap between the two plans.

Plan N’s 5% enrollment growth in 2024 is not an accident. For a healthy 65-year-old in a state that bans excess charges, the practical difference between Plan G and Plan N narrows to copayments: up to $20 for most doctor visits and up to $50 for ER visits that do not result in admission. A beneficiary who makes 10 doctor visits per year and no ER visits pays a maximum of $200 more annually in Plan N copays — a figure that is very likely smaller than the annual premium difference between Plan G and Plan N at most carriers. The monthly premium gap is typically $30 to $60 in most markets, meaning Plan N saves $360 to $720 annually in premiums vs. Plan G. For the right beneficiary, that math consistently favors Plan N. The growing carrier availability — now at 71% of Medigap providers — signals that the industry is following demand.

Medicare Supplement Plan Statistics 2026 | Enrollment Trends, Carriers & Market Dynamics

  Medigap Total Enrollment Trend (NAIC data, all years)
  ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  2011   9.9M   ██████████████████████████████
  2015  ~12.5M  ████████████████████████████████████
  2018  ~13.4M  ████████████████████████████████████████████
  2020  ~14.0M  ██████████████████████████████████████████████  ← PEAK
  2021  ~13.8M  █████████████████████████████████████████████
  2022  ~13.8M  █████████████████████████████████████████████
  2023  13.582M ████████████████████████████████████████████
  2024  13.541M ████████████████████████████████████████████

  Plan Type Shift (share of enrollees):
  Plan F: 46% (2020) → 33% (2024)    ▼ Declining (closed to new)
  Plan G: 27% (2020) → 43% (2024)    ▲ Fast growing (now #1)
  Plan N:  ~7% (2020) → ~10% (2024)  ▲ Growing steadily

Source: Mark Farrah Associates NAIC Briefs (May 2024, May 2025); AHIP 2026 Medicare Supplement Report via Becker’s Payer (Apr 2026); KFF Medicare Advantage Enrollment Feb 2026 (Feb 23, 2026); KFF Key Facts About Medigap (Sep 2025) — 2023–2026

The Medigap enrollment trend in 2026 reflects a market in a state of structural recalibration rather than terminal decline. The trajectory from 9.9 million enrollees in 2011 to a peak of 14 million in 2020 — and the modest post-2020 contraction to 13.54 million — maps almost exactly onto the arc of Medicare Advantage growth. As Medicare Advantage expanded its offer of zero-premium plans with dental, vision, and hearing benefits, it drew many new Medicare beneficiaries who might previously have chosen Original Medicare plus Medigap. But there is a countervailing force building in 2026: Medicare Advantage’s own trajectory is showing cracks. Its growth has slowed to 3% year-over-year — the lowest pace since 2007 — as major insurers cut benefits, raised cost-sharing, and in several cases exited markets entirely. Blue Cross Vermont exited Vermont’s Medicare Advantage market entirely in 2026. United and Aetna significantly pulled back in Maryland, forcing thousands of beneficiaries to choose between alternative plans or return to Original Medicare. Every beneficiary who returns to Original Medicare from a Medicare Advantage plan becomes a potential new Medigap customer.

The Plan G ascendancy tells the clearest story of how the Medigap market is reorganizing around the post-2020 reality. With Plan F permanently closed to new enrollees, Plan G is now the most comprehensive Medigap option available and accounts for nearly 5.3 million of the ~13.5 million enrollees. Its growth from 27% to 43% market share in just four years is the fastest structural shift in the Medigap market since standardization. The parallel growth of Plan N — now the third-most-popular plan at roughly 10% market share, with 5% year-over-year growth — confirms that the market is bifurcating between premium-sensitive buyers (Plan N) and cost-certainty seekers (Plan G), with the moribund legacy plans slowly fading. For anyone turning 65 in 2026 and entering Medicare, the practical choice is now almost binary: Plan G for maximum coverage or Plan N for lower premiums with modest cost-sharing.

Medicare Supplement Plan Statistics 2026 | Premiums, Costs & Enrollment Timing

  Medigap Plan G Average Monthly Premiums by Age (2026 — national range)
  ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  Age 65  $120–$200/mo  ████████████████████████████████████████
  Age 70  $150–$245/mo  ████████████████████████████████████████████████
  Age 75  $185–$300/mo  ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

  Plan N premiums typically run $30–$60/month lower at each age band.

  Annual Medigap Cost at Average Premium ($217/mo, 2023 KFF figure):
  Monthly:  $217   Premium alone
  Yearly:   $2,604 Premium alone
  + Part B: $2,434.80 standard Part B premium 2026 ($202.90/mo)
  Total annual coverage cost (Plan G, age 65 example): ~$3,875–$4,834

Source: KFF Key Facts About Medigap (Sep 2025); Medicare.gov Medigap Costs page; Kiplinger (May 2026); Britannica Money (Apr 2026); Humana Medigap 2026 product page; Policyguide.com (Apr 2026); MoneyGeek 2026 Medigap cost analysis (16,954 quotes)

Medigap premium costs in 2026 are the single biggest practical barrier to enrollment, and understanding how those costs are structured is as important as understanding what a plan covers. The average monthly premium of $217 across all active Medigap holders, calculated by KFF from NAIC data, is a composite figure that includes older policyholders in attained-age-rated plans paying significantly more — and younger, recently enrolled Plan G holders at age 65 paying considerably less. The typical Plan G range of $120 to $200+ per month at age 65 means a new enrollee might pay between $1,440 and $2,400 annually in Medigap premiums alone, on top of the standard $202.90 monthly Part B premium ($2,434.80 annually). The total annual Medicare coverage cost for a typical 65-year-old on Plan G lands in the range of $3,875 to $4,834 per year — before any prescription drug plan. For many retirees on fixed incomes, this math makes Plan N’s lower premium highly attractive, particularly when the annual savings of $360 to $720 in premiums are weighed against the realistic out-of-pocket exposure from Plan N copays.

The Medigap Open Enrollment Period remains the single most strategically important window in a Medicare enrollee’s life. During those six guaranteed-issue months beginning at age 65 with Part B enrollment, an insurer legally cannot deny coverage, impose waiting periods, or charge more due to any health condition — even serious pre-existing ones. Outside that window, medical underwriting is the norm in most states, and a beneficiary with diabetes, heart disease, or a prior cancer diagnosis may be declined or priced prohibitively. The consequence is a market where timing of enrollment is as important as plan selection. Those who miss their OEP and experience a health event often find themselves locked into Original Medicare’s uncapped cost exposure indefinitely. For every American turning 65 in 2026, the data is unambiguous: enroll in Medigap during your OEP, compare Plan G and Plan N premiums from multiple carriers for your ZIP code, and lock in guaranteed coverage while you still have the legal right to do so.

Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.