Medigap Plan G vs. Plan N in Florida (2026): Which Fits You?

Once a Floridian decides to pair Original Medicare with a Medicare Supplement — the path I walk through in detail in my guide to Medicare Advantage vs. Original Medicare — the very next question is almost always the same: which supplement? And in 2026, for most people newly coming onto Medicare, that question really comes down to two letters: Plan G and Plan N.

These are the two most popular Medigap plans for new enrollees, and they’re genuinely close cousins. The good news is that comparing them is one of the cleaner decisions in all of Medicare, because the plans themselves are standardized by federal law. The differences come down to a short, knowable list. Let me lay that list out plainly, with the actual 2026 numbers, and explain who each plan tends to fit — without telling you which to buy, because the honest answer to that depends entirely on you.

What Medigap is, in 30 seconds

A Medicare Supplement plan — “Medigap” — is private insurance that sits on top of Original Medicare (Parts A and B) and pays much of the cost-sharing that Medicare leaves to you. Original Medicare by itself covers roughly 80% of approved costs and has no annual out-of-pocket cap; a Medigap plan fills in most of that remaining 20% so your costs become small and predictable.

Two things to keep straight up front:

• Medigap pairs with Original Medicare, not with Medicare Advantage. By federal law you cannot use a Medigap policy alongside a Medicare Advantage plan — you choose one path or the other. I explain that fork in the road in Medicare Advantage vs. Original Medicare: a Tampa Bay senior’s guide.
• Medigap does not include drug coverage. A Medicare Supplement covers medical cost-sharing only. For prescriptions you add a separate standalone Part D plan. So the full “supplement path” is really three pieces: Original Medicare + a Medigap plan + a Part D plan.

With that framing in place, the question becomes: among the standardized Medigap letters, how do Plan G and Plan N compare?

Why “standardized” matters

This is the single most reassuring fact about Medigap, and the one most people don’t realize: Medigap plans are standardized by federal law. A “Plan G” sold by one company covers the exact same benefits as a “Plan G” sold by any other company. Same for Plan N. The benefit chart is written into federal regulation; companies don’t get to add or subtract coverage from a lettered plan.

What companies can differ on is the price, the customer service, the financial strength behind the policy, and small extras like a fitness-program perk. But the core coverage of Plan G is fixed, and the core coverage of Plan N is fixed. That’s why this comparison is so clean: once you understand what each letter does, you understand what every version of that plan does. And it’s why comparing the letters is education rather than a product pitch — I’m describing a federal benefit design, not steering you toward anyone’s policy.

What Plan G covers

Plan G is the most comprehensive Medigap plan available to people newly eligible for Medicare in 2026. After you pay the annual Part B deductible (more on that below), Plan G picks up essentially everything else Original Medicare doesn’t pay. Specifically, Plan G covers:

• Part A hospital coinsurance — and an extra 365 days of hospital coverage after Original Medicare benefits are used up.
• Part B coinsurance or copayment — the 20% you’d otherwise owe on most doctor and outpatient services, paid in full, with no per-visit copay.
• The Part A hospital deductible (the per-benefit-period inpatient deductible).
• Skilled nursing facility coinsurance.
• Part A hospice coinsurance or copayment.
• The first three pints of blood each year.
• Part B excess charges — in full. (This is one of the two key differences from Plan N.)
• Foreign travel emergency care — up to plan limits, after a deductible. (Plan N covers this too.)

The one thing Plan G does not cover for new enrollees is the annual Part B deductible. Once you’ve met that, a Plan G holder typically has very little left to pay out of pocket for Medicare-covered services for the rest of the year. That predictability is Plan G’s whole appeal.

What Plan N covers (and where it differs)

Plan N covers the same broad list as Plan G — the Part A hospital coinsurance and the extra 365 days, the Part A deductible, skilled nursing coinsurance, hospice coinsurance, blood, and foreign travel emergency care. For the great majority of what you’ll ever use, Plan N and Plan G look identical.

Plan N parts ways from Plan G in exactly two spots:

1. Plan N has copays at the point of care. You pay a copay of up to $20 for some office visits and up to $50 for an emergency-room visit that does not result in an inpatient admission (if you’re admitted, the ER copay is waived). Outside of those copays, Plan N pays your Part B coinsurance just like Plan G does.
2. Plan N does not cover Part B excess charges. If a provider is allowed to — and chooses to — bill an excess charge (explained below), you pay it yourself under Plan N. Plan G would have absorbed it.

That’s the whole difference. Plan N is, in effect, Plan G with two cost-sharing features added back in — and in exchange, Plan N usually comes with a lower monthly premium. Whether that trade favors you depends on how often you see the doctor and whether your providers accept Medicare assignment.

The 2026 Part B deductible — and the 2020 rule

Here’s a point that trips people up, so I want to be precise. Neither Plan G nor Plan N covers the annual Part B deductible for anyone who became eligible for Medicare on or after January 1, 2020.

Why the “2020” caveat? Federal law (the MACRA reforms) closed the plans that paid the Part B deductible — chiefly Plan F — to anyone newly eligible for Medicare in 2020 or later. If you were already eligible before 2020, you may still have access to those first-dollar-coverage plans. But for the typical Floridian turning 65 today, the realistic choice is Plan G or Plan N, and both leave the Part B deductible to you. So the deductible is a wash between them — it’s the same $283 either way, and it should not be a deciding factor.

For the full picture of where the $283 Part B deductible sits among all the other Medicare numbers — premiums, the Part A hospital deductible, IRMAA, the Part D cap — see my companion piece, What Does Medicare Actually Cost in Florida? A 2026 Breakdown.

Part B excess charges and the Florida angle

This is the difference most people have never heard of, and it’s the one where living in Florida genuinely matters.

When a provider accepts “Medicare assignment,” they agree to accept the Medicare-approved amount as full payment. The overwhelming majority of providers do exactly that. But a provider who does not accept assignment is allowed, under federal rules, to bill you up to 15% above the Medicare-approved amount for a service. That extra slice is called a Part B excess charge.

Now the state angle. Eight states prohibit Part B excess charges entirely — Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In those states, the difference between Plan G and Plan N on excess charges is purely theoretical, because no provider can bill one. Florida is not one of those states. Here, excess charges are legally permitted.

Side-by-side comparison

Here are the standardized 2026 benefits laid out together. Notice how much is identical — the two differences are in the bottom three rows.

A note on the ER copay: under Plan N it applies only when you visit the emergency room and are not admitted as an inpatient. If the ER visit turns into a hospital admission, that copay is waived. And the office-visit copay is “up to” $20 — it doesn’t apply to every encounter, and it never exceeds the Part B coinsurance amount that would otherwise apply.

The premium trade-off

So far the scorecard looks lopsided toward Plan G — it covers more. But coverage isn’t free, and this is where Plan N earns its place.

In general terms, and without quoting any company’s prices:

• Plan N usually has a lower monthly premium. It costs less each month precisely because you absorb some cost at the point of care — the office and ER copays — and because you carry the small risk of an excess charge. You’re trading a bit of predictability for a lower fixed bill.
• Plan G usually has a higher monthly premium in exchange for fewer surprises. Apart from the annual Part B deductible, a Plan G holder rarely faces unexpected out-of-pocket costs on Medicare-covered services.

Which one is “cheaper” over a full year is genuinely an arithmetic question with a personal answer. If you see doctors often, Plan N’s copays add up and can erode the premium savings; if you rarely use care, those savings may simply stay in your pocket. There’s no universal winner — only the answer that fits your situation, which is the entire reason a personalized review exists. CMS rules (and plain good sense) keep me from naming carriers or quoting specific premiums on a public page, so treat this section as the shape of the trade-off, not a quote.

How Florida Medigap pricing actually works

Two Plan G policies with identical, federally standardized benefits can still carry very different premiums — and a big reason is how the premium is rated as you age. There are three rating methods you’ll encounter, and it’s worth knowing the difference, because the cheapest policy at 65 isn’t always the cheapest at 80.

This matters because an attained-age policy can look like the best deal at 65 and then quietly become the most expensive a decade later, while a community-rated or issue-age policy that started a little higher may age more gently. None of this changes what Plan G or Plan N covers — the benefits are standardized either way — but it changes the long-run cost of owning the plan, and it’s a big part of what I help clients compare privately.

The window that matters most: guaranteed issue

There’s a timing rule in Florida that can matter even more than which letter you choose. When you’re first 65 and enrolled in Part B, you get a six-month Medigap Open Enrollment Period. During that window you have a guaranteed-issue right: any Medigap carrier must sell you any plan it offers, regardless of your health, and cannot charge you more for pre-existing conditions.

After that six-month window closes, Florida law allows carriers to use medical underwriting — they can ask about your health, decline to issue a policy, or charge a higher premium based on your history. Florida does not have a continuous guaranteed-issue right or a “birthday rule” like some states. That’s why the Plan G versus Plan N decision is best made carefully and early, while your options are fully open. I cover the enrollment timeline that opens this window in Turning 65 in Florida? A 7-Step Medicare Enrollment Timeline.

Who each plan tends to fit

I want to be careful here, because “who it fits” is not the same as “what you should buy.” These are patterns I see, not prescriptions. The right plan for you is the one that matches your health, budget, and tolerance for surprises — a determination we’d make together, privately.

With that caveat firmly in place, here are the tendencies:

• Plan G tends to appeal to people who value maximum predictability — who would rather pay a steady, slightly higher premium and almost never think about a bill at the doctor’s office. People who see doctors frequently, who want the excess-charge protection that matters in a state like Florida, or who simply don’t want to track copays often gravitate here.
• Plan N tends to appeal to people comfortable with small, occasional copays in exchange for a lower monthly premium — particularly those who don’t see the doctor often, who use providers they’ve confirmed accept Medicare assignment, and who’d rather keep more in their pocket each month and pay a little when they actually use care.

Notice that both of those tendencies hinge on personal facts: how often you go to the doctor, whether your providers accept assignment, how a fixed monthly premium versus pay-as-you-go costs sits with your budget and temperament. That’s why I won’t tell you which to pick from a web page. What I can do is sit down with you, look at your real situation, and help you see clearly how each standardized structure would play out — and then you decide.

Frequently asked questions

Read more

• Medicare Advantage vs. Original Medicare: A Tampa Bay Senior’s Guide (2026)
• What Does Medicare Actually Cost in Florida? A 2026 Breakdown
• Turning 65 in Florida? A 7-Step Medicare Enrollment Timeline

Sources and further reading: Medicare.gov — Medigap (Medicare Supplement) Insurance, Medicare.gov — Compare Medigap plan benefits, CMS — 2026 Medicare Part A & B premiums and deductibles.

This article is for general information only. It is not legal, tax, or personalized insurance advice, and it does not recommend any specific plan or carrier. Medigap plans are standardized by federal law; the benefit comparison above describes those standardized plan structures, not any company’s product. Medicare premiums, deductibles, and rules are set and adjusted over time. The 2026 figures cited reflect official federal amounts available as of June 2026. Plan availability, rating methods, and underwriting rules can vary. Always verify current details with Medicare.gov, CMS, or a licensed agent before making a decision.