Benton County Medicare Plan Leaving in 2027: What to Do

Benton County's Medicare count, July 2026

CMS counted 41,839 people with Medicare in Benton County in July 2026. Most of them, 28,322, are on Original Medicare. The other 13,517 are enrolled in Medicare Advantage and other health plans; when a plan stops renewing or drops the county, letters go to some of them. Those figures count people, not plans.

CMS counts, July 2026	Benton County	Washington
Everyone with Medicare	41,839	1,586,306
Original Medicare	28,322 (67.7%)	797,700 (50.3%)
Medicare Advantage and other health plans	13,517 (32.3%)	788,606 (49.7%)
Under 65, on Medicare because of a disability	3,948	127,500
Dual-eligible (Medicare plus Apple Health)	5,839	239,101
Drug coverage through a stand-alone Part D plan	20,758	503,353
Drug coverage built into a Medicare Advantage plan	12,743	752,773

Source: CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment, July 2026, county and state rows. Benton County had 38,301 residents 65 and older (OFM, April 1, 2025) out of 223,200 people in all (OFM, April 1, 2026).

How I read those numbers for the Tri-Cities

Across Washington, Medicare splits almost evenly between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage and other health plans. Benton County tilts hard toward Original Medicare: about two of every three beneficiaries here use it.

The drug figures point the same way. 20,758 county residents get Part D from a stand-alone plan, the type you pair with Original Medicare, versus 12,743 whose drug coverage sits inside a Medicare Advantage plan. Stand-alone drug plans paired with Original Medicare are the more common setup in this county.

That does not make it the right path for you. Plenty of people like the yearly out-of-pocket limit and single card a Medicare Advantage plan gives them. My point is narrower: a plan-ending letter is the rare moment when you get to choose fresh with extra legal protection behind you. Use it on purpose.

Two smaller groups should read closely. 3,948 people in the county have Medicare before 65 because of a disability, and 5,839 have both Medicare and Apple Health. Each group has a few rules that work differently, covered below.

Dates for a plan that ends December 31, 2026

Federal rules make a departing plan mail its notice 90 or more days before the end date, so if yours ends with the calendar year, the letter should have been mailed by early October. Look at the end date printed on it. If it reads December 31, 2026:

Today through December 7: Medicare Open Enrollment is running. A change made now starts January 1, 2027.
November 1: OIC's earliest date to send a Medigap application under guaranteed issue.
December 8, 2026 to February 28, 2027: your special enrollment period because the plan is ending. Pick in December and coverage starts January 1; in January, February 1; in February, March 1.
December 31, 2026: the old plan's final day of coverage, and the last day to choose for a January 1 start with no gap.
March 4, 2027: your Washington Medigap guaranteed issue right expires, 63 days after the plan ends.

Use December 31 as your real deadline and think of February as a backstop. Our Washington statewide guide lays out the whole calendar, including who can and can't use the January to March Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period.

Care across the river in Oregon, or out toward Prosser

Benton County shares a border with two Oregon counties, Morrow and Umatilla. If any doctor, specialist or pharmacy you use is on the Oregon side, check that provider by name before you choose a 2027 plan. A Medicare Advantage plan sold in Benton County works through a network and a service area, and being twenty minutes away does not put a provider in or out. Original Medicare doesn't use networks: a provider who takes Medicare can bill it from Pasco or Pendleton or Boston alike.

Inside the county, the hospitals on the state and CMS lists are Trios Health in Kennewick, a large acute-care hospital in Richland, Lourdes Behavioral Health (a psychiatric hospital) in Richland, and Prosser Memorial Health, a critical access hospital in Prosser, the county seat. People living around Prosser or Benton City should ask whether a new plan's network includes the hospital they would realistically end up in, not just the big ones in Richland and Kennewick.

Moving back to Original Medicare: your Medigap right

Because the plan is ending, Washington law (RCW 48.66.055) lets you buy certain Medigap policies without answering health questions, provided you move to Original Medicare. During that window the insurer has to issue the policy, has to cover conditions you already have, and may not raise the price over your health.

Which policies are covered depends on when you were first eligible for Medicare. Before 2020: Plans A through F (high-deductible F included), K or L. On or after January 1, 2020: Plans A, B, D, G (high-deductible G included), K or L. An issuer has to offer only what it is selling to new buyers right now.

For a policy that starts January 1, apply between November 1 and December 31, 2026. Washington makes insurers take an early application, but the new policy only switches on once the Medicare Advantage plan is gone. Keep the plan's letter together with its postmarked envelope, because the Medigap company can want proof.

Choose a different Medicare Advantage plan and you simply don't use this right; after March 4, 2027 it is gone. Buying a Medigap policy in a later year generally means health questions.

If December 31 passes and you haven't chosen

You don't lose Medicare. On January 1, 2027 you are moved to Original Medicare, Parts A and B. What vanishes is the drug coverage your old plan carried. Medicare won't pick a drug plan on your behalf, with one exception: people getting Extra Help are placed in a stand-alone drug plan by CMS. Everyone else has to choose one. A stretch of 63 days or more without drug coverage can bring a late enrollment penalty that stays on your premium for as long as you have Medicare drug coverage.

For the 3,948 under 65 and the 5,839 with Apple Health

If you're on Medicare before 65 because of a disability, the Medigap road is narrower for you. OIC puts it plainly: options are more limited. Insurers generally aren't required by federal rules to sell Medigap below age 65, and the CMS guide's list of states that force them to doesn't include Washington. Talk to SHIBA before dropping anything.

If Apple Health is paying part of your Medicare, the plan-ending window through the end of February applies to you as well. On top of that, Medicaid or Extra Help lets you change stand-alone drug plans in any calendar month, effective the first of the next. People with full Medicaid can also move into an integrated dual plan, which HCA calls Apple Health Medicare Connect, in any month that one serves their area.

Help in Benton County

SHIBA. The county's SHIBA sponsor is Catholic Charities Serving Central Washington, listed at 2139 Van Giesen Street in Richland. On October 26, 2026, OIC's local office list read: "Currently not accepting appointments. For assistance, call Medicare at 1-800-633-4227." The statewide SHIBA line, 800-562-6900 (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday), was still listed on the OIC SHIBA page.
1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227, TTY 1-877-486-2048) picks up at any hour, every day, apart from some federal holidays. Medicare Plan Finder compares 2027 options against your drug list.
Southeast Washington Aging and Long Term Care is the Area Agency on Aging for Benton County. Its Kennewick office at 3311 W. Clearwater Ave., Suite D100 (509-735-0315) is the local Community Living Connections contact for help beyond insurance.
Rides to a new doctor. Ben Franklin Transit lets riders 65 and older use fixed-route buses and CONNECT at no charge with a Senior Pass; ask at Three Rivers Transit Center, 7109 W. Okanogan Place, Kennewick. Dial-A-Ride paratransit reservations: 509-735-0160.
Help with costs. A Medicare Savings Program can pay Medicare premiums and, at the QMB level, deductibles and copays. HCA does not apply an asset test to these programs; apply at washingtonconnection.org. Qualifying also makes you automatically eligible for Extra Help with drug costs.

Federal Medicare rules and Washington law decide how all of this works, the notice from your own plan sets your exact dates, and 1-800-MEDICARE, SHIBA or a licensed agent can confirm how it applies to you before you switch.

Benton County questions I hear about plan endings

I live near Prosser. Does the plan-ending letter cut me off from my hospital?

Not this year. Your current plan keeps covering you through December 31, 2026. For 2027, if you pick another Medicare Advantage plan, check that Prosser Memorial Health and your doctors are in its network. Original Medicare works at any hospital that accepts Medicare.

I see a doctor on the Oregon side of the river. What should I check?

Look that provider up by name in any Benton County Medicare Advantage plan you are considering, because networks do not follow distance or state lines. Under Original Medicare, a provider anywhere in the U.S. who accepts Medicare can bill it.

Is Original Medicare common in Benton County?

Yes. CMS counted 28,322 of the county's 41,839 Medicare beneficiaries on Original Medicare in July 2026, about 67.7%, compared with roughly half statewide.

When does my Medigap guaranteed issue right run out?

For a plan ending December 31, 2026, it ends March 4, 2027, which is 63 days later. OIC says to apply no earlier than November 1; apply by December 31 if you want the policy to start January 1.

Your Medicare Advantage plan is ending in Benton County. Start with the local numbers.