Drug prices & Part D
Why your drug-plan premium has felt steady
A temporary federal program has been cushioning stand-alone Part D premiums since 2025. It is built to fade out, so the cushion is thinner for 2027.
By the Goodsurance editorial teamJune 28, 2026
If you buy a stand-alone Part D drug plan and your premium has felt unusually steady the past couple of years, there is a reason that is easy to miss, and worth understanding before you shop this fall. Since 2025, Medicare has run a voluntary Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration. In plain terms, the government has been paying to soften how much stand-alone drug-plan premiums can swing from one year to the next, so the market did not lurch as the big Inflation Reduction Act drug changes took effect. Nearly every drug-plan sponsor signed up. The catch is in the design: the cushion is deliberately shrinking each year. For 2025, the program lowered the base beneficiary premium by up to $15 and capped how much any single plan's premium could rise at $35. For 2026, that base reduction was trimmed from $15 to $10 and the cap on premium increases was loosened from $35 to $50. The demonstration was planned to run three years, through 2027, which is its final scheduled year, with the support continuing to taper. None of this is cause for alarm, and it is not a reason to switch plans on its own. It is a reason to actually read your plan's Annual Notice of Change when it arrives in the fall and to compare, rather than assume your premium will hold simply because it did last year. The number that has been partly propped up is allowed to move more as the program winds down, and that can vary a lot from one plan to the next. The same advice that always applies applies here with a little more force this year: at Annual Enrollment, look at the full picture, the premium, the deductible, and what your specific drugs cost under each plan, not just the premium line.
A fading federal program has quietly steadied stand-alone Part D premiums since 2025, and because it is built to shrink, the cushion is thinner heading into 2027.
In plain words
If you have a stand-alone Part D drug plan, your premium may have felt steady the last two years. There is a reason. Since 2025, the government has run a program that helps keep drug-plan premiums from jumping too much in one year. Almost every plan joined. But the help was built to shrink each year. In 2025 it cut the base premium by up to $15 and limited how much a plan could raise its premium to $35. In 2026 the cut dropped to $10 and the limit rose to $50. The program is set to end after 2027, so the help is getting smaller. This is not a reason to panic or to switch plans. It is a reason to read your plan's Annual Notice of Change in the fall and compare plans. Do not assume your premium will stay the same just because it did last year. When you shop, look at the whole cost: the premium, the deductible, and what your own drugs cost under each plan.
Understand the basics first
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office
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