Medicare’s official documents are accurate and almost unreadable. The rules sit across CMS notices, Medicare.gov pages and each insurer’s own plan documents, and the figures change every year. Most people meet all of it for the first time in the weeks before a deadline.
This site does one thing: it reads those documents and sets out what they say in plain English, with the figures for the current year.
Who writes it
Medicare Plan Compass is written and edited by Unai Sampedro. I am not a licensed insurance agent or broker, and I have no professional background in insurance or healthcare. You should know that before you read anything else here, because it shapes how the site works.
So this site does not ask you to trust my judgment. It asks you to check my work, and it is built so that you can.
Why I started it
I find the way health coverage works in the United States genuinely interesting, and Medicare is the part of it where people most need help and least often get it in plain language. I started this site for two groups in particular: people who already live in the U.S. and are approaching Medicare, and people who have moved to the country, or are about to, and are meeting the system for the first time. Both face the same documents with little time to read them. My aim is to make that easier, and to show my work so that you never have to take my word for it.
What the work actually is
Most of what you read here is not a summary of other people’s articles. It is counted directly from the files CMS publishes:
- The plan file. Every Medicare Advantage plan on sale for 2027 — 5,522 of them across 3,131 counties — with its premium, out-of-pocket limit and drug deductible, counted alongside the same file for 2026.
- The star ratings. Each plan matched to the 2027 rating of its contract, from the data tables CMS published on October 8, 2026.
- The benefit filings. What each plan says it covers beyond the basics — over-the-counter allowances, glasses, hearing aids, meals, transportation — read from the filings plans submit to CMS.
Every figure links to the document it comes from, every calculation is labeled as ours, and the editorial methodology page lists the exact files, their versions and the counting rules. Where our count can be checked against an independent one — KFF’s published shares of plans offering each extra benefit, for example — we check it, and say so. When an article is revised, its update history says what changed and when.
What I don’t do
I don’t sell insurance. I take no commission from any insurer, and no insurer pays to appear on this site or to be ranked on it. If a plan looks bad in the data, it gets written up as bad.
That independence is the whole point. Most Medicare content online is published by agencies that earn a commission when you enroll, which gives them a reason to prefer one plan over another. This site earns nothing from your choice of plan, so it has no reason to steer you anywhere.
How this site is funded
Advertising. Medicare Plan Compass carries ads served by Google AdSense and similar networks. Advertisers have no say in what is written here and no sight of it before publication.
If something here is wrong
Tell me. Write to contact@medicareplancompass.com with the article and the figure, and I will check it against the source. Confirmed errors get corrected and the article records the date it was last reviewed.
Where to get advice
Nothing here is advice for your situation, because I don’t know your situation. For free, personalized, one-to-one help, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or contact your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP). Neither charges you anything and neither sells insurance.