Medigap vs Medicare Open Enrollment: What's the Difference?
Article written by Kathryn Pomroy, Kiplinger.com
Medicare open enrollment runs Oct 15–Dec 7, 2026. Medigap’s 6-month enrollment window starts at age 65+ once enrolled in Medicare Part B.
Medicare provides health insurance to over 70 million Americans. During Medicare open enrollment, which runs from October 15 to December 7 this year, people can enroll in the program or change plans.
You can also switch from original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan (or vice versa), and weigh your Part D prescription drug plan coverage against other options.
If you choose original Medicare (Part A and Part B), you can also buy a Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) policy from a private insurance company to cover services and out-of-pocket costs not covered by original Medicare.
Note: You can only buy Medigap if you have original Medicare. That means you must sign up for Medicare Part A and Part B before you can buy a Medigap policy.
Medigap open enrollment
According to Medicare, the Medigap open enrollment period is a six-month window that starts on the first day of the first month you or you and your spouse are both age 65 or older and enrolled in Medicare Part B (medical insurance). During these six months, you can enroll in any Medigap policy an insurance company sells, and you can’t be denied coverage for any pre-existing health problems.
After the six months, that special protection ends. In most states, you can still apply later, but insurers can then use medical underwriting (they can deny you or charge higher premiums based on your health).
After six months, you might not be able to buy a Medigap policy, and if you can, it may cost more. The Medigap open enrollment period only happens once and doesn’t repeat yearly like Medicare open enrollment.
What is Medigap?
Most states offer 10 different Medigap plans sold by private insurance companies. They’re named A-D, F, G, and K-N, and the price is the difference between the plans.
Medigap Plan G provides the most comprehensive coverage available to newly eligible beneficiaries and continues to be the most popular plan, accounting for 46% of all policyholders in 2025 (2026 data for the full year is not yet available), according to KFF. Plan F came in second, roughly 30–36%.
You might also be able to buy another type of Medigap policy called Medicare SELECT, which is only available in some states. If you choose a SELECT policy, you have the right to change your mind and switch to a standard Medigap policy within 12 months.
If you live in Massachusetts, Minnesota or Wisconsin, Medigap policies are standardized differently. Medigap must follow federal and state laws meant to protect you, but illegal practices by insurance companies can happen, so do your research when shopping for a Medigap policy.
What does Medigap cover?
Medigap policies help cover out-of-pocket costs, such as co-insurance, copayments and deductibles associated with original Medicare — nationwide. Some Medigap policies might also cover foreign travel emergency care, which gives you an extra layer of well-being when you travel outside the U.S.
Note: Although plans E, H, I and J are no longer sold, they still cover foreign travel emergency care if you’re enrolled in one of these plans. If you want prescription drug coverage, you can enroll in a separate Medicare drug plan (Part D).
What does Medigap not cover?
Although Medigap plans cover all or part of original Medicare’s additional fees, they don’t cover everything, such as long-term care, elective surgeries, hearing aids, eyeglasses, vision and dental care and private-duty nursing.
Besides that, not all plans cover Part B deductibles. Also, Medigap plans sold after 2005 don’t include prescription drug coverage.
Pros and cons of Medigap insurance
Medigap covers items and services not covered by original Medicare and significantly extends hospital, skilled nursing and travel coverage. But there are a few disadvantages worth looking at before you sign up.
Medigap Pros | Medigap Cons |
Nationwide coverage | Policies can only cover the Part B deductible in limited circumstances |
All plans offer an additional 365 days in the hospital | Monthly Medigap premiums can be expensive |
It’s easy to compare plans | Does not include drug coverage |
Plans cover all or part of original Medicare additional fees | Might be difficult to switch once enrolled |
Guaranteed six-month enrollment period when eligible | Might not be able to enroll after initial enrollment period |
Some plans offer additional coverage, foreign travel and Silver Sneakers program | Only covers emergencies |
Medigap and Medicare have different open enrollment windows and policies
The initial enrollment period for Medicare is a seven-month window that starts three months before your 65th birthday, includes the month you turn 65 and the three-month period after your birth month.
If you fail to enroll in original Medicare during the initial enrollment period, you’ll get another chance during Medicare open enrollment, which runs from October 15 through December 7, 2026.
You have a six-month Medigap open enrollment period, which starts the first month you have Medicare Part B (medical insurance) and you’re 65 or older. During these six months, you can enroll in any Medigap policy, but after the six months, you might not be able to buy a Medigap policy, or it might cost more if you do.
The Medigap open enrollment period only happens once and doesn’t repeat every year, unlike Medicare open enrollment, so time is of the essence.
Criminals Pose as Friends to Get You to Click on Fake Party Invitations
Article written by Matt Alderton, AARP.org
Bogus invites appear to come through popular email invitation services and aim to steal your money, contacts or personal information.
Everyone likes to feel included, especially when an invitation lands in their inbox with a clickable envelope. But before you open it to check out the details, pause: That virtual invite may not be what it seems.
Authorities are warning the public about an increase in reports of invitation scams, or “bogus party invitations,” as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Chicago and Northern Illinois put it in a recent alert about this new form of phishing. The Federal Trade Commission has also issued a consumer alert about this scam.
Sent by email or text message, fake invites often impersonate real invitations delivered via legitimate online invitation platforms like Evite, Paperless Post and Punchbowl, says Steve Bernas, the Chicago and Northern Illinois BBB’s president and CEO. The messages appear to come from friends, family members, colleagues and others whom the recipient knows personally, “and that’s why these scams work,” he says. “If you receive an invitation to a party from your friend Sue, you probably won’t think it’s a scam because you know Sue.”
How invitation scams work
In a typical phishing scam, criminals impersonate a trusted person, company or government agency with hopes of eliciting personal information that they can use to steal your money or identity.
Invitation scams are a new spin on the same recipe, says Lenny Gusel, head of fraud solutions at Feedzai in North America, which uses artificial intelligence to help banks and other financial institutions detect and prevent fraud.
“Criminals send invitations from an email domain that looks similar to an Evite or Paperless Post, and in the exact same format,” which is easy to do with AI tools, Gusel explains. “If you click on it, it asks you to log in to your Evite or Paperless Post account.”
Although there’s no legitimate site to log in to, scammers can capture your username — typically your email address — and password. With that information, they can access not only your Evite or Paperless Post account but also any other account that uses the same username and password, such as your email account.
“Oftentimes, you’ve uploaded all your contacts to your Evite account, so the scammers can immediately go and send similar fake invites to your entire contact list,” Gusel says. “And if they can then use the same password to access your email account, they can wreak all kinds of havoc. Many financial institutions, for example, will send a one-time passcode to your email address that you can use to access your bank account. So, your email address is a very effective way for scammers to start taking over many aspects of your life — financial and otherwise — that they can then monetize.”
In some cases, Bernas notes, clicking on a fake invitation might also enable scammers to infect your phone, tablet or computer with malware, including viruses that give scammers access to your camera and keystrokes or ransomware that locks you out of your device or your files until you pay a ransom.
How to spot fake invitations
Thanks to AI, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell fake invitations apart from genuine ones. If you know what to look for, however, there are usually some telltale signs. The next time you receive an online invitation, taking the following steps can help you authenticate it:
- Check the sender. Before you click an invitation, look at the sender’s email address to determine where it came from (you may have to hover your cursor over the sender’s address to see the whole thing), advises Mike Scheumack, chief marketing and innovation officer at identity theft protection company IDIQ. “E-invitation platforms always send invites from their own domain,” Scheumack says. “They don’t send invites from an obscure domain that doesn’t make sense.” Legitimate invitations from Evite, Punchbowl and Paperless Post will come from email addresses that end in evite.com, punchbowl.com and paperlesspost.com, respectively.
- Check the invitation link. Even legit invites include a link that you can click to view the full invitation. Before you click it, look to see where it points, Bernas suggests. You can do this on a computer by hovering your cursor over the link; on a mobile device, press and hold the link for a few seconds until the URL appears in a small box. “If the link is going to a third-party site — some random website that you never heard of — don’t open it,” Bernas says. “That’s what we call ‘the tipoff to the ripoff.’ ”
- Visit the website. Instead of clicking an invitation link, Gusel suggests going directly to the invitation platform’s website. “If you go to their legitimate website and log in, it’ll show you all of your legitimate invitations,” he says.
- Contact the host. If you’re surprised to receive an invitation, Scheumack advises reaching out to the host to verify it. “If you’re receiving an invite … and you weren’t expecting it, give them a quick call or a text message to ask, ‘Are you sending out invites?’ ” he says.
- Avoid sign-ins and downloads. A legitimate invitation “will never ask you to log in or download anything” just to view the invite or RSVP to the event, Paperless Post tells AARP.
- Beware vague invitations. “The best way to tell the difference is that a scam is generic, but a real gathering today is highly specific,” Evite advises. “Real hosts are overcommunicating — sharing everything from parking instructions and dress codes to very specific themes like ‘strawberry’ or ‘western.’ That level of detail is what makes a modern invite harder to fake.”
5 Common Myths About Senior Living
Written By Geoff Williams, USnews.com
We all have our own theories about senior living, but we just might be wrong about some of them.
I have two daughters, 22 and 24, and I’ve told them that if I ever need to be placed in assisted living or a nursing home, even if I object, go ahead, put me away, don’t give it a second thought. After all, they will need to live their lives. Also: I may enjoy it. You really can’t know what senior living is going to be like until you’re a senior and living it.
But maybe I feel that way because my grandparents had pretty great experiences (my parents, in their 80s, still live in their home). My paternal grandparents moved into a senior living community in the late 1980s; it had condos, sidewalks and a lake. I thought it was the coolest place ever. And when my maternal grandmother moved into a nursing home, I feared she would sink into a morass of depression. But she was thriving until the day she died. After a lifetime of cooking for kids and siblings – she came from a large Italian American family – I think she really dug being waited on hand and foot.
So we’ve all got our own theories about senior living, and U.S. News has a search tool to help you find the best senior living communities near you. But we’re often wrong, according to some experts. These are some of the more common misconceptions that people have.
Senior Living Communities Will Take Care of Everything
“When considering living options, older adults and their families often consider a senior living facility as a total solution for someone’s care. After all, there is an apartment home, usually, care services are built in and communities offer activities and other amenities,” said Nina Pflumm Herndon, president of the Aging Life Care Association and executive director of Sage Eldercare Solutions.
She added that the hefty price you pay for many communities is why everybody assumes that once you move in, life will be stress-free. But sometimes that’s not true. There may be circumstances, like a resident needing a higher level of care than the facility provides, for example, that make it less than smooth sailing.
Herndon says that it’s nonetheless a good idea to not be completely dazzled by the senior living community’s marketing message. She recommends working with an aging life care manager. But even if you don’t work with a professional, somebody should be looking out for their loved one’s interests, in case there are frustrations with staff or money or health issues that the senior or facility can’t manage.
You’re Giving Up Independence
Kelsey Simasko, an elder law attorney at Simasko Law in Mount Clemens, Michigan, said that her clients generally find out that they have far more freedom after moving into senior living.
“You’re not actually giving up independence, you are gaining more because you’re not bogged down by all the household tasks that used to take up all your time,” she said. “Furthermore, you are gaining a larger community of people your own age who want to spend time with each other. You go from only seeing your friends once a week for cards to now seeing them every day for cards, book club, knitting, meals, etc.”
You Have to Leave Everything Behind
“You do need to downsize,” Simasko said, though she said that depending on where you’re moving, you may be able to bring more than you would think, including furniture. “Some facilities will even allow you to bring your pets,” she said.
The Price You Pay at the Start Is the Price You Will Always Pay
“So many people enter into these facilities thinking they’ll be able to live there forever at the current price,” Simasko said. “What seniors don’t realize is that as they age and need more help, the monthly rate increases.”
She explained that you may enter a facility and not need help, “so you’re paying around $4,000 a month. However, when you need help taking your medications, the price increases. Also, when you need help dressing and getting in and out of bed, the price increases. All of a sudden you’re paying $7,000 a month because you need extra help.” So you’ll need to plan for possibly a few price increases.
You’re Going to Have to Live Like an “Old Person”
Not necessarily. “I think of senior living communities like awesome college dorm rooms,” Simasko said. “You can be as social and part of the community as you want, or you can be by yourself and keep your apartment door closed. You can go down to the dining hall for every meal, or you can cook food in your apartment – at some facilities. You can participate in every activity, or you can participate in none.”
Simasko said that senior living often gives you more social options than you’d get elsewhere.
“I saw a client at an independent living and assisted living facility one afternoon, and I asked her what she was doing after our meeting. She said, ‘I’m going to happy hour at 4 p.m. for margaritas with the girls, and after that, my crochet group is meeting to show off our projects.’”
So if you’re lucky and if all goes well, senior living may simply be – living.
We Asked 5 Retirement Pros for the Best Wellness Destination for Seniors
Article written by Dobrina Zhekova, Travel + Leisure
According to more than half a dozen travel, retirement, and wellness experts that we interviewed, Costa Rica is the best wellness destination for senior travelers.
As senior travelers increasingly seek vacations that support healthy aging and longevity beyond the four walls of a spa, resorts, tour operators, and destinations are embracing a more holistic approach to wellness. The emphasis for many is no longer on pushing physical limits, but on slowing down and reducing stress, connecting with nature and community, and making active exploration feel less rushed. And no destination delivers on all fronts quite like Costa Rica, according to more than half a dozen travel, retirement, and wellness experts that we interviewed.
“Costa Rica has this wonderful way of getting people to slow down without feeling like they’re missing out,” says Leigh Barnes, president of Intrepid Travel, North America. “For travelers over 50, that’s a real draw. You can be active every day—walking through rainforests, spotting wildlife, soaking in hot springs—but you’re doing it at your own pace.”
The country’s staggering natural richness—it is home to six percent of the world’s biodiversity across 12 distinct climatic zones—is a leading reason for many senior travelers to seek out its lush jungles, picture-perfect Caribbean and Pacific beaches, and hot springs as an antidote to daily stress. Arnaud Dieuteguard, the spa and wellness director at Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo, points out that, here, being immersed in nature “removes some of the pressure people associate with wellness.” Instead of following strict physical regimens, he explains, “movement becomes a walk, a swim, a surf lesson, or an outdoor yoga practice rather than another obligation. In Guanacaste [ed.note: where the resort is located], longevity does not feel like a program; it is naturally part of the environment and the rhythm of life.”
In fact, the country’s famous pura vida philosophy encourages experiencing wellness at a slower pace and appreciating the present, according to Simon Jones, the CEO of international tour company Trafalgar. But that, he says, is easy to do once travelers see the country’s dramatic mountain views and vibrant rainforests. “Natural hot springs offer a soothing way to unwind and ease any aches and pains, while flat, well-maintained walking trails make it easy to stay active without overexertion,” Jones adds. “Even wildlife encounters are low-impact, with options for leisurely boat tours and guided rainforest walks that bring travelers face-to-face with sloths, monkeys, and toucans with no strenuous hiking required.”
Diana Stobo, the founder of the adults-only The Retreat Costa Rica agrees and notes that it only takes a guided hike through the Costa Rican mountains to “remind people how restorative it is to simply walk, breathe fresh air, and slow down.”
“I’ve never believed wellness must be complicated,” she says, and continues: “Whether it’s nourishing food, yoga, mountain walks, bodywork, meditation, or simply giving yourself permission to rest, each experience works together to create the conditions where healing can begin.”
Food is another pillar of wellness in Costa Rica, experts point out, and here local communities focus on organically grown produce, along with sourcing seafood straight from the Caribbean or the Pacific. Many tour companies now go further and offer immersive experiences that allow travelers to have hands-on cooking experiences. Intrepid Travel, for example, has a tour that includes sharing a home-cooked meal with a local family in Santa Cruz and learning to make traditional tortillas, while with Trafalgar, travelers can learn more about the process of growing heart of palm by visiting a family-owned plantation. Other options include Explore Worldwide’s coffee-estate visits, cooking classes, and chocolate experiences.
Costa Rica continues to be synonymous with adventure, but its experiences are easy to customize for different interests and activity levels. Experts point to wildlife cruises at Tortuguero National Park, birdwatching in Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve, and hiking in Arenal National Park. Ward Luthi, the founder and president of Walking the World, an adventure travel program designed for senior adults, is also excited about the Camino de Costa Rica, a 174-mile cross-country hike connecting the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of the country.
And for those who prefer resort-style activities, at Peninsula Papagayo, “golf remains a perennial favorite,” says Dieuteguard. In addition to curated wellness stays, the 1,400-acre resort community recently added a new outdoor sports complex with a dozen courts for tennis, padel, and pickleball, a lap pool, an outdoor gym, and more. Meanwhile, at Palmares Outpost, Papagayo’s adventure hub, those craving an adrenaline rush can try mountain biking or outrigger canoeing.
“Healthy aging is not only about adding years, but about remaining active, curious, and connected,” Dieuteguard adds.
However, more than anything, everyone we interviewed emphasizes the mental and physical benefits of connecting with Costa Rica’s community and landscapes. “It’s a reminder that travel doesn’t have to be packed from dawn to dusk to be meaningful. Some of the best moments happen over lunch with a local family, learning from the Maleku Indigenous community about their traditions and reforestation work, or simply sitting quietly in the rainforest listening to the wildlife. That’s the kind of travel that stays with you,” Barnes explains.
Entertainment & Education
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On the Bright Side
Updated Retirement Insights Disclosure: This document is for informational purposes only. All information is assumed to be correct but the accuracy has not been confirmed and therefore is not guaranteed to be correct. Information is obtained from third party sources that may or may not be verified. The information presented should not be used in making any investment decisions. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell, implement, or change any securities or investment strategy, function, or process. Any financial and/or investment decision should be made only after considerable research, consideration, and involvement with an experienced professional engaged for the specific purpose. All comments and discussion presented are purely based on opinion and assumptions, not fact. These assumptions may or may not be correct based on foreseen and unforeseen events. Past performance is not an indication of future performance. Any financial and/or investment decision may incur losses.
Investment Advisory Services offered through Trek Financial LLC, an investment adviser registered with the Securities Exchange Commission. Information presented is for educational purposes only. It should not be considered specific investment advice, does not take into consideration your specific situation, and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any securities or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and are not guaranteed, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. For specific tax advice on any strategy, consult with a qualified tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein.
Trek 25-234
