What it is, and what lands in your mailbox
Medicare & You is the official government handbook, mailed by CMS to every Medicare household each fall — the new edition arrives in September or October, timed so you have it before Annual Enrollment opens October 15. It is the one piece of fall Medicare mail that is not trying to sell you anything.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. Between September and December your mailbox fills with plan marketing designed to look official. The handbook is the reference the marketing gets measured against.
The fifteen minutes worth spending
It runs well over a hundred pages, and most of it is reference material you will never need to read straight through. Three parts earn actual attention:
- **The "What's New" pages at the front.** Two or three pages listing what changed for the coming year — new covered services, rule changes, cost structure changes. This is the fastest legitimate summary of the year's changes that exists.
- **The enrollment periods section.** The clearest official explanation of which window applies to your situation, which is the thing people get wrong most often.
- **The covered services list.** An A-to-Z of what Original Medicare covers and what you pay. Useful all year — this is the part to keep the handbook around for.
What the handbook is not
It is not personalized. The plan listings in the back show plans by state, but they cannot know your drugs, your doctors, or your pharmacy — so they cannot tell you what a plan will actually cost you. For that, enter your real prescriptions into Medicare's Plan Finder, which prices plans against your specific situation.
And it is not a substitute for your plan's own Annual Notice of Change. The handbook tells you what is changing in Medicare generally; the ANOC tells you what is changing in *your* plan. You need both, and they answer different questions.
Paper, digital, Spanish, audio
You can switch to the electronic version — sign into your account at medicare.gov and opt for the eHandbook, and the paper copy stops coming. The digital edition is searchable, which the paper one obviously is not.
It is also published in Spanish (Medicare y Usted), large print, audio, and braille. The Spanish edition can be requested through medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE, and if you set your language preference once, future mailings follow it. If the handbook never arrived, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or read it free at medicare.gov — every edition is posted there.
The three-document fall routine
Used together, the fall paperwork sorts itself into a short routine: the handbook's What's New pages tell you what Medicare changed, your plan's ANOC tells you what your plan changed, and Plan Finder tells you whether some other plan now beats yours. In that order, that is a one-evening review.
The rest of the calendar — every date between now and January — is on our Open Enrollment 2027 page, with one-click reminders you can add to your own calendar.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the Medicare & You handbook arrive?
CMS mails the new edition each fall, typically landing in September or October — before Annual Enrollment opens on October 15. One copy goes to each Medicare household.
Is Medicare & You available in Spanish?
Yes — Medicare y Usted. Request it through your medicare.gov account or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE, and set your language preference so future editions arrive in Spanish automatically. Large print, audio, and braille editions also exist.
Do the plan listings in the handbook tell me what I would pay?
No. They list plans by state but know nothing about your prescriptions, doctors, or pharmacy. Use Medicare's Plan Finder at medicare.gov/plan-compare with your actual drug list for real cost estimates.
My handbook never came. What do I do?
Call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) to request one, or read it online at medicare.gov, where every edition is posted free. If you opted into the electronic version previously, the paper copy stops by design.
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