Yes, you can switch from Medicare Advantage to Medigap in Florida, but the switch is really two decisions and only one of them is yours alone. You can leave a Medicare Advantage plan for Original Medicare every year from October 15 to December 7, and again from January 1 to March 31 (Medicare.gov). Whether a Medigap carrier then has to accept you is a separate question: unless you are inside your six-month Medigap Open Enrollment Period or hold a guaranteed issue right, a Florida carrier can ask about your health, charge more or decline the application.
That asymmetry is the whole story. Getting into Medicare Advantage never involves health questions. Getting into a Medicare Supplement after your first window has closed usually does. This post covers when you can leave, the situations where a carrier must take you, how underwriting works when none of them apply, the Florida pricing rule that makes the timing matter, and the order to do things in so you are never left without coverage.
It is written as a description of the rules, not an argument for one product. Plenty of Floridians are well served by an Advantage plan and have no reason to move. The point is to know what the door back looks like before you need it.
Can you switch from Medicare Advantage to Medigap?
Yes, in two steps that run on different rules.
Step one is leaving Medicare Advantage for Original Medicare. This is an enrollment right. Medicare gives everyone in an Advantage plan two scheduled chances a year, plus Special Enrollment Periods for events like a move.
Step two is buying a Medicare Supplement (Medigap) policy to sit on top of Original Medicare. This is an insurance application to a private company. Federal law guarantees acceptance only at particular moments. CMS puts it plainly in its official guide: you are guaranteed the right to buy a Medigap policy when you are in your Medigap Open Enrollment Period or if you have a guaranteed issue right, and “you may be able to buy a Medigap policy at other times, but the insurance company can deny you a Medigap policy based on your health” (CMS, Choosing a Medigap Policy, March 2026).
One more rule connects the two steps. You cannot hold both at once in any useful way. A Medigap policy cannot pay Medicare Advantage deductibles, copayments, coinsurance or premiums (Medicare.gov), and CMS lists it as an illegal practice to sell a Medigap policy to someone in a Medicare Advantage plan unless they are switching back to Original Medicare and their Advantage coverage will end before the Medigap policy starts.
| Leaving Medicare Advantage | Buying a Medigap policy | |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides | You | The insurance company, unless a protection applies |
| When | Oct 15 to Dec 7; Jan 1 to Mar 31; Special Enrollment Periods | Any time of year |
| Health questions | None | Yes, outside open enrollment and guaranteed issue |
| Can you be turned down | No | Yes, outside open enrollment and guaranteed issue |
| Source | Medicare.gov | CMS, Choosing a Medigap Policy, March 2026 |
When can you leave a Medicare Advantage plan?
There are two scheduled windows, and they behave differently (Medicare.gov).
| Window | Dates | What you can do | When the change takes effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Enrollment Period | October 15 to December 7 | Switch from a Medicare Advantage plan to Original Medicare, and join a Medicare drug plan | January 1 of the next year |
| Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period | January 1 to March 31 | Drop your Advantage plan and return to Original Medicare; you can also join a separate drug plan | First of the month after the plan gets your request |
The fall window is the one most people use, and it is three and a half weeks away as this is written. It has a practical advantage for anyone who will face underwriting: a January 1 effective date is known well in advance, which leaves October and November to get a Medigap application decided before anything is cancelled.
The January to March window is open only to people already in an Advantage plan, and it allows one change. It is useful when a plan’s January changes turn out worse than the fall paperwork suggested. Our post on the Annual Notice of Change explains how to read those changes before they take effect.
Outside those windows, a Special Enrollment Period can open if you move out of the plan’s service area or the plan leaves Medicare. Several of those same events also create a guaranteed issue right for Medigap, which is the next section.
When does a Medigap carrier have to accept you?
When you hold a guaranteed issue right, CMS says the insurance company must sell you a Medigap policy, must cover all your pre-existing health conditions, and cannot charge you more because of past or present health problems. The March 2026 edition of the federal guide lists these situations for people coming from Medicare Advantage:
| You have a guaranteed issue right if… | You can buy… | You must apply… |
|---|---|---|
| Your Advantage plan is leaving Medicare, stops giving care in your area, has a significant network change, or you move out of its service area, and you switch to Original Medicare | Medigap Plan A, B, C*, D*, F* or G* sold in your state | From 60 days before coverage ends (or by the date in the plan’s termination notice) to no more than 63 days after it ends |
| You joined an Advantage plan when first eligible for Part A at 65 and want Original Medicare within the first year (trial right) | Any Medigap policy sold in your state | From 60 days before to no more than 63 days after coverage ends |
| You dropped a Medigap policy to join an Advantage plan for the first time, have been in it less than a year, and want your policy back (trial right) | Your former Medigap policy if the same company still sells it; otherwise Plan A, B, C*, D*, F* or G* | From 60 days before to no more than 63 days after coverage ends |
| You leave an Advantage plan because the company did not follow the rules or misled you | Medigap Plan A, B, C*, D*, F* or G* | No more than 63 days after coverage ends |
*Plans C and F are not available to people who became new to Medicare on or after January 1, 2020; they have the right to buy Plan D or G instead.
Three details in that table deserve a second look.
The trial right is one year, once. It applies to your first time in Medicare Advantage, not to every new plan you join. Someone who picked an Advantage plan at 65 and is now 66 and a half no longer has it. CMS notes the right “may last for an extra 12 months under certain circumstances” and sends you to your state insurance department to check.
Plan N is not on the general list. Outside the first trial right, which covers any policy sold in the state, the list is Plans A, B, C, D, F and G. If Plan N is what you want, our Plan G vs Plan N comparison explains the difference, and a carrier may still offer N through underwriting.
Keep the paperwork. CMS advises keeping the plan’s letters, notices and even the postmarked envelope, because a Medigap carrier can ask you to prove the guaranteed issue right with your application.
What is not on the list matters as much: being unhappy with a network, facing higher copays than expected, or being diagnosed with something serious does not by itself create a guaranteed issue right. Our post on what happens if your doctor leaves your Advantage plan covers the network-change situation in more detail.
What happens if you have no guaranteed issue right?
Then the application is medically underwritten. CMS describes the consequences of applying outside your Medigap Open Enrollment Period this way: you may have to pay more for a policy, fewer policy options may be available to you, and there is no guarantee that an insurance company will sell you a policy if you do not meet its medical underwriting requirements.
In practice that means a health questionnaire, and often a review of prescription history. Each carrier writes its own underwriting rules, so the same applicant can be declined by one company and accepted by another. There is no federal list of conditions that disqualify you, which is why a post like this cannot tell you whether you would pass. What can be said honestly is the direction of travel: the healthier you are when you apply, the more likely the answer is yes, and health tends to move one way.
If a carrier accepts you through underwriting, it may still apply a waiting period for pre-existing conditions. Florida caps that exclusion at six months, and defines a pre-existing condition no more broadly than one for which medical advice or treatment was recommended or received in the six months before the policy’s effective date (section 627.6741(2), Florida Statutes). CMS adds that prior creditable coverage counts against that waiting period as long as any break in coverage was no more than 63 days.
A decline is not a catastrophe if you sequenced it correctly. You simply stay in your Advantage plan, or choose a different one in the fall window. The painful version is the person who dropped the plan first and applied second.
What is different about switching in Florida?
Three things, each sourced to the state.
Florida has no annual switching window. A handful of states give Medigap buyers a yearly chance to change without health questions. Florida’s Medicare supplement statute requires carriers to accept applicants during the six-month period that begins when someone is 65 or older and enrolled in Part B, and during the two months after group health coverage ends (section 627.6741(1), Florida Statutes). It contains no birthday rule and no annual open season. For a Floridian leaving Medicare Advantage after the first year, the federal guaranteed issue list above is the whole list. State law can change, so confirm the current position with the Department of Financial Services before relying on it.
Florida prices Medigap by issue age. The Department of Financial Services states that all Florida Medicare Supplement policies must be sold on an issue-age basis, and that someone who moves to a new insurer is rated at their age on the new application (Florida DFS). So the person who buys at 65 is priced as a 65-year-old for as long as they keep the policy, and the person who arrives from Medicare Advantage at 72 is priced as a 72-year-old for good. A later switch costs more even when underwriting goes well. Our post on whether Medigap premiums go up with age walks through how issue-age pricing works. Real quotes by age, plan letter and county are published in the state’s CHOICES rate comparison tool.
Floridians under 65 on Medicare get their own window. Since October 1, 2009, someone who qualifies for Medicare Parts A and B through disability has six months from enrollment to buy a guaranteed issue Medicare Supplement policy, regardless of age (Florida DFS).
There is also a reason this question comes up so often here. CMS lists 133 Medicare Advantage and Part D plan options in Hillsborough County for 2026 (CMS CY2026 Landscape files). With that many plans in one county, most people in Tampa Bay who want to change something can do it by moving between Advantage plans in the fall, with no health questions at all. Going back to a Supplement is the less common move, and the one that needs planning.
For no-cost, unbiased counselling, Florida’s SHINE program (the state’s SHIP counselling service) is at 1-800-963-5337, and the Department of Financial Services consumer helpline is 1-877-693-5236.
What does the switch change about your costs?
The trade-off is the same one that existed at 65, and neither side of it is wrong.
| Medicare Advantage | Original Medicare + Medigap + Part D | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly premiums | Part B ($202.90 in 2026) plus any plan premium; many plans have a $0 plan premium, which means no monthly plan premium, not no cost | Part B ($202.90 in 2026) plus a Medigap premium plus a Part D premium |
| Cost when you use care | Copays and coinsurance set by the plan, up to the plan’s annual out-of-pocket maximum | With Plan G, the $283 Part B deductible in 2026 and then little or nothing for Medicare-covered services |
| Providers | The plan’s network, with rules on referrals and prior authorization that vary by plan | Any provider in the country that accepts Medicare |
| Drug coverage | Usually built in | A separate Part D plan; covered drug costs capped at $2,100 in 2026 |
| Extras such as dental and vision | Often included, varying by plan and year | Not included |
| Getting in later | No health questions | Underwriting unless a guaranteed issue right applies |
Figures: CMS 2026 Parts A and B fact sheet; plan benefits vary by plan and year.
Moving to a Supplement generally means paying more each month in exchange for smaller and more predictable bills when you use care, and the freedom to see any provider that takes Medicare. It also removes the hospital cost-sharing that Original Medicare alone would leave you with, including the $1,736 Part A deductible per benefit period in 2026. Moving the other way means lower fixed costs in exchange for a network and per-service cost-sharing. Which is cheaper over a year depends on how much care you use, and that is arithmetic rather than opinion. Our annual Medicare cost estimator totals the Original Medicare side from your own quotes. If the premium is the sticking point, the high-deductible version of Plan G, with a $2,950 deductible in 2026, is covered in is high-deductible Plan G worth it in 2026.
Do not forget Part D
Most Advantage plans include drug coverage, and Medigap policies sold after 2005 do not. Leaving an Advantage plan therefore usually means choosing a standalone Part D plan at the same time. Go 63 or more days in a row without Part D or other creditable drug coverage and Medicare adds a late enrollment penalty: 1% of the national base beneficiary premium, $38.99 in 2026, for every full month uncovered, for as long as you have drug coverage (Medicare.gov). The Part D penalty calculator shows what a gap would cost.
How to switch without a gap in coverage
- Find out which rule you are under. Check whether you are still in your first year of Medicare Advantage, or whether a plan notice has created a guaranteed issue right. If you never used your six-month Medigap window, the enrollment window checker shows its dates from your date of birth; our post on what happens if you miss the Medigap window covers what follows once it closes.
- If you have a guaranteed issue right, gather the proof. The plan’s letter, its date, and the envelope. Apply inside the 60-days-before to 63-days-after window.
- If you do not, apply for Medigap before you leave anything. Apply early in the fall window and request a January 1 effective date. CMS permits the sale when your Advantage coverage will end before the Medigap policy starts.
- Wait for a written approval. Not a quote and not a verbal indication.
- Then leave the Advantage plan and pick a Part D plan. During the October 15 to December 7 window you can switch to Original Medicare and join a standalone drug plan, both effective January 1. Contact your plan or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) to make the change, and keep the written confirmation of your disenrollment date.
- If the application is declined, stay put. You keep your Advantage plan, or use the fall window to choose a different one, and you have lost nothing but an afternoon.
The one sequence to avoid is cancelling first and applying second.
Who is this switch usually right for, and who should stay?
People who tend to look seriously at moving to a Supplement travel often or split the year between Florida and another state, want to see specialists without network or referral rules, or prefer a fixed monthly cost to variable bills. People who tend to stay are content with their plan’s doctors, use the dental, vision or hearing extras, and value the lower fixed cost. Both are reasonable positions, and the right answer depends on your own doctors, prescriptions, budget and health.
What is worth avoiding is treating the decision as something that can always be revisited on equal terms. In Florida, moving from a Supplement to Advantage is open every fall. Moving back is open only while your health allows it, or when one of the federal rights above applies.
Virginia Barausky helps Tampa Bay and Florida clients work through this with their own doctor list, prescriptions and health history in front of her. This post is education rather than advice about your situation. If you would like to know which rule applies to you before the fall window opens, schedule a call. There is no cost, and nothing has to be decided on the first conversation.