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Plan and Thrive Beta

Medicare Advantage or Medigap: what would each really cost you?

Enter your ZIP code, age and health. You'll see one total for every plan, with premiums, doctor and hospital bills, and drugs added up, for 2026 and for the years ahead.

  1. Tell us about you. Your ZIP code, age and health, and your drugs (or typical ones for your health).
  2. See next year, plan by plan. What each plan costs you in a usual year, and in a bad one.
  3. See the years ahead. What each choice could add up to as your health and the plans change.

Your assumptions
Where and who
Help paying for Medicare?
Your health

Blood pressure, cholesterol, maybe thyroid or reflux: regular visits and four generics.

Not sure? Answer three questions

Do you have any of these?

Is anything planned for next year?

Your drugs

Add your own drugs below to price them instead.

  • atorvastatin 20 MG Oral Tablet
  • amlodipine 5 MG Oral Tablet
  • levothyroxine sodium 50 mcg Oral Tablet
  • omeprazole 20 MG Delayed Release Oral Capsule

Back to our assumptions (the advanced ones at the bottom of the page too), the typical year of care for your health, the default number of years and the high-cost last year. Your ZIP code, age, drugs and help paying for Medicare stay.

Medical care assumptions

Your year of care and the chances of something happening next year, typical for the health you chose. Change any of them to match your own.

Chances next year
Your year of care
Primary care visits
Specialist visits
Urgent care visits
Therapy and rehab sessions
Lab panels
Imaging (CT or MRI)
Mental health visits
Outpatient procedures (endoscopy, colonoscopy, cataract)

Turning 65? In most states, your first six months with Part B are the only time you can buy any Medigap policy with no health questions asked. The plan that's cheapest next year isn't always the cheapest over time.

This calculator is in beta. We're still testing it, so treat its numbers as estimates and check a plan's details with the plan or Medicare before you enroll. Tell us how it worked for you.

How we work it out
  • Your health and your drugs, plan by plan. Each plan's own copays, deductibles and drug prices, at Medicare's prices where you live.
  • The bad year counted in. An ER visit, a hospital stay or a year of cancer treatment, each at its chance, up to every plan's out-of-pocket limit.
  • The years ahead, not just next year. Your health changes with age and plans change every year. See what each choice could cost over the years you plan for, and what happens if a plan's money back ends.

Working out your costs…

We're comparing the plans sold in Bedford City, VA for your health and drugs, next year and over the years ahead. It takes a few seconds.

Plan and Thrive calculator (beta), version 0.10.4

  1. Planning for 22 years, to age 87: a typical 65-year-old woman in the U.S. lives about 20.7 more years, plus 1. The long view assumes you live every one of them. Source: CDC/NCHS, United States Life Tables, 2023 (NVSR vol. 74, no. 6, July 2025), Table 2, pp. 16-17 (men); Table 3, pp. 18-19 (women): life expectancy at each age.
  2. Plan and Thrive is a simulation for education only. It uses typical patterns of care and each plan's published costs, but your health, your doctors and your plan's rules will make your actual costs different, sometimes by a lot. Medicare Advantage and drug plans can change their premiums, benefits and networks every year. Medigap plans can't change their benefits, which are set by federal law, and they don't have networks: you can see any doctor or hospital that takes Medicare (a less common kind, Medicare SELECT, limits you to certain hospitals). Medigap premiums can still rise. The years ahead are estimates built on stated assumptions, not forecasts. This isn't insurance, legal, tax or financial advice. Check plan details with the plan or with Medicare (1-800-MEDICARE, Medicare Plan Finder). For free, unbiased help, talk with your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP). For decisions about the years ahead, consider talking with a licensed financial planner.
  3. Plan and Thrive calculator version 0.10.4 (2026-10-17). The appendix lists what changed in each version, so a saved or printed answer can be traced to the method and data behind it.

Send this to family

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The link carries the answers you gave here (your age, health and so on), so send it only to people you'd tell.

Advanced assumptions

How fast costs grow over the years ahead, in percent a year. Leave a box empty to use ours (shown in grey).

Discussion

Questions and experiences from other visitors. Comment guidelines

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