Medicare Part D 2027: $700 Deductible, $2,400 Out-of-Pocket Cap and the Dec. 7 Deadline

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sets the 2027 Medicare Part D standard deductible at $700 and the out-of-pocket threshold at $2,400, up from $615 and $2,100 in 2026, according to its April 6, 2026 rate announcement. Medicare open enrollment, when people can change drug plans for those costs, ends Monday, Dec. 7, 2026, which is 33 days from Nov. 4. The sections below put 2025, 2026 and 2027 side by side, show what the cap means in a simple example and cover the end of a CMS premium program.

Part D costs for 2025, 2026 and 2027

CMS publishes the standard Part D benefit amounts in its annual rate announcement and the national base premium in a July memo. The table combines them. Extra Help is the Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) for people with limited income and resources; its copays are maximums up to the out-of-pocket threshold, in two bands of the federal poverty level (FPL).

Item	2025	2026	2027	Change, 2026 to 2027
Standard deductible	$590	$615	$700	+$85
Out-of-pocket threshold	$2,000	$2,100	$2,400	+$300
National base beneficiary premium	Not shown	$38.99	$41.33	+$2.34
Extra Help generic copay, up to 100% FPL	Not shown	$1.60	$1.65	+$0.05
Extra Help other-drug copay, up to 100% FPL	Not shown	$4.90	$5.00	+$0.10
Extra Help generic copay, 100% to 150% FPL	Not shown	$5.10	$5.80	+$0.70
Extra Help other-drug copay, 100% to 150% FPL	Not shown	$12.65	$14.40	+$1.75

The 2025 deductible and threshold come from the CMS 2026 announcement (April 7, 2025); the 2026 and 2027 figures come from the 2027 announcement. The “Change” column is our subtraction. CMS says the 2027 deductible is the 2026 amount of $615 multiplied by the 2027 annual percentage increase and rounded to the nearest multiple of $5. Medicare.gov repeats the limit: “No Medicare drug plan may have a deductible more than $700 in 2027 ($615 in 2026), and some plans have no deductible.”

What is the Part D base premium for 2027?

CMS says the 2027 Part D national average monthly bid amount is $296.05 and the Part D base beneficiary premium is $41.33, in its July 28, 2026 memo. The memo’s calculation is the 2026 base premium times 1.06: $38.99 x 1.06 = $41.33.

The base premium is a national figure CMS uses to compute premiums. It is not what any one plan charges, and plan premiums differ. This story does not list plan premiums because the sources above do not give them.

What happens to the premium stabilization demonstration?

CMS says it “will discontinue the demonstration at the end of CY 2026 to return the program to operating under traditional market conditions in CY 2027.” The memo does not say what any plan will charge as a result, so check the premium in your plan’s own 2027 notice.

When do you reach the $2,400 cap? A worked example

This example is hypothetical and simplified. Suppose a person’s own payments for covered Part D drugs add up to $400 every month, and every one of those dollars counts toward the cap.

• 2026, cap $2,100: after five months the total is $2,000, so the cap is reached in the sixth month, when $100 more brings the total to $2,100.
• 2027, cap $2,400: six months at $400 add up to $2,400, so the cap is reached at the end of the sixth month.

Both years land in June in this example, but the 2027 cap lets $300 more of a person’s yearly payments count before the limit applies. The real timing depends on the drugs, the plan’s deductible and how the plan splits costs. Under the standard benefit CMS lists, a person pays 100% of costs in the deductible phase and 25% in the initial coverage phase until the threshold.

Insulin and the Prescription Payment Plan

Medicare.gov says “the cost of a one-month supply of each Part B- and Part D-covered insulin product is no more than $35” and “you don’t have to pay a deductible for insulin.”

For spreading costs, Medicare.gov describes the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which spreads drug costs across the calendar year (January to December). It says “all plans offer this payment option, and participation is voluntary.”

Dec. 7 deadline for changing your Part D plan

CMS says people with Medicare can review coverage choices and make changes “from October 15, 2026 through December 7, 2026.” Medicare.gov says the changes made during open enrollment “are effective January 1 of next year.” Our Medicare open enrollment story has the countdown, the list of what you can change and the one-time $90 Part B rebate. The 2027 Part B premium has not been announced; see the Part B premium story for the projection and last year’s release dates. Social Security payment dates for the 2027 increase are in the COLA story.

Mark Dec. 7 on the December 2026 printable calendar and Jan. 1 on the January 2027 printable calendar.

What to compare before Dec. 7

• Find your drugs on each plan’s 2027 list and note the plan’s deductible, which cannot be more than $700.
• Check each plan’s own 2027 premium, since the $41.33 base premium is not a plan price.
• If you get Extra Help, compare your copays with the table above.
• Note whether you want the Prescription Payment Plan, which every plan offers.