Medicare's Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) for 2025 coverage runs from October 15 through December 15, 2024. Medicare beneficiaries may find this year's AEP especially challenging, for three reasons.

1) The Medicare market will see significant plan disruption in 2025. In response to new federal regulations and other market forces, most of the major Medicare insurance companies have signaled that plans in 2025 will have significant changes to costs and core and supplemental benefits. Some major insurers are reducing the number of Medicare Advantage of Medicare Part D plans they offer by 10 percent. Other major insurers are pulling out of certain geographical markets altogether.

2) The presidential election will prove a distraction for many. The first half of AEP will be crunch time for the presidential election and will likely prove a distraction for many Medicare beneficiaries when they could be reviewing their coverage options.

3) There’s a late Thanksgiving this year. The holiday falls on November 28th this year. After the Thanksgiving weekend there will only be a week left until the end of AEP (Dec 7). Unfortunately, this means many people will make rush decisions and have a harder time getting ahold of a licensed agent for personal help and advice.

To avoid unecessary stress and make it easier to get ahold of a licensed agent for help and advice, it's a good idea to review your coverage options early this AEP.