Yes, Medicare can drop you from coverage, and it happens more often than most beneficiaries realize. The usual causes are missed premium payments, a move outside your plan’s service area, or the loss of the eligibility that got you enrolled in the first place. Less familiar triggers include a successful kidney transplant, a return to work after disability, incarceration, and fraud on a plan application. Because a termination often carries a permanent late-enrollment penalty when you re-enroll, it pays to understand exactly what puts your coverage at risk and what you can do if it ends.
Why Original Medicare Coverage Can End
Part A and Part B can each be terminated on their own, and the reasons don’t always overlap.
Unpaid Premiums
Most people get Part A without a premium because they or a spouse worked at least 40 quarters in Medicare-covered employment. If you don’t meet that threshold, Part A costs up to $565 per month in 2026, and falling behind ends your coverage.
Part B always has a premium. The standard 2026 amount is $202.90 per month, with higher earners paying more based on income from two years earlier. Federal rules give you a grace period through the last day of the third month after your billing month. Miss that deadline and Part B ends.
Higher-income beneficiaries owe an Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount on top of the standard Part B premium. Not paying the surcharge puts your coverage at the same risk as missing any other premium.
Returning to Work After a Disability
If you qualified through a Social Security disability determination and your health improves enough for you to work again, coverage doesn’t stop right away. Social Security first gives you a nine-month trial work period; in 2026, any month you earn $1,210 or more counts toward it. After that, Medicare continues for roughly seven years and nine months, giving you about eight and a half years of Medicare from the point you returned to work. When that runs out, disability-based eligibility ends.
A Successful Kidney Transplant
If end-stage renal disease is your only path onto Medicare, coverage ends on the last day of the 36th month after a successful transplant. Going back on dialysis or receiving another transplant before that deadline keeps coverage going. Otherwise it ends unless you qualify by age or another basis.
Incarceration
Going to prison or jail doesn’t strip you of premium-free Part A entitlement, but Medicare generally won’t pay for care you receive while in custody. If you pay a premium for Part A, or for Part B, you have to keep paying during incarceration or coverage ends. Social Security benefits are usually suspended while you’re in custody, so you’ll need to set up direct billing yourself.
Moving Abroad
Original Medicare is tied to U.S. residency. A permanent move outside the country can end your coverage, and Medicare generally does not pay for care received abroad except in narrow emergency situations near the Canadian or Mexican borders.
Dropping Coverage Yourself
You can also end Part B — or premium Part A — voluntarily by submitting Form CMS-1763 to the Social Security Administration. People commonly do this after returning to work with employer coverage or gaining coverage through a spouse’s plan.
Why a Medicare Advantage or Part D Plan Can End
Medicare Advantage (Part C) and Part D drug plans are run by private insurers, so they carry additional termination triggers beyond the ones that apply to Original Medicare.
Unpaid Plan Premiums
Plans must give you at least two calendar months of grace before disenrolling you for missed premiums, and some offer more. If the balance isn’t paid by the end of the grace period, disenrollment takes effect the first day of the following month. The exact grace period appears in the Evidence of Coverage document your plan sends each fall.
Moving Out of the Service Area
Advantage and Part D plans operate within defined geographic areas. Move somewhere your plan doesn’t serve, and the plan will disenroll you once it confirms the move is permanent. You’ll need to pick a plan available where you now live or return to Original Medicare.
Your Plan Leaves Medicare
Insurers can stop offering a plan or exit Medicare entirely. When that happens, the plan is required to send a written non-renewal notice in October, and you get a Special Enrollment Period to pick new coverage.
Losing Part A or Part B
Advantage and Part D plans require enrollment in Original Medicare. If Part A or Part B ends, your private plan enrollment ends automatically. This is the domino that catches people off guard: a Part B termination for unpaid premiums also kills the Advantage plan riding on top of it.
Disruptive Behavior
An Advantage plan can ask CMS for permission to disenroll you if your behavior substantially impairs its ability to provide services to you or other members. Federal rules draw a firm line: disagreeing with medical advice, refusing treatment, or being difficult about your own care does not count. Before submitting a request, the plan must attempt to resolve the situation, accommodate mental health conditions and developmental disabilities where relevant, and send you a written notice giving you at least 30 days to change course. CMS reviews each case individually.
Fraud or Misrepresentation on a Part D Plan
Knowingly submitting false enrollment information, or letting someone else use your enrollment card to get drugs, gives the plan the option to disenroll you. If CMS determines you materially misrepresented whether you have or expect third-party prescription drug reimbursement, disenrollment is mandatory, and the insurer can refuse to enroll you in any of its plans for a period CMS sets.
What Losing Coverage Costs You
The immediate problem is that you pay the full price of any care you receive. The longer-term financial damage often hurts more, because Medicare attaches permanent penalties to gaps in coverage.
Permanent Late-Enrollment Penalties
Go without Part B when you were eligible, and when you sign back up your monthly premium increases by 10% for every full 12 months you could have been enrolled. The surcharge never goes away. Someone who waited three years pays 30% above the standard $202.90 premium for life.
Part D has its own version. For every full month you went without creditable drug coverage after your initial enrollment period (with a 63-day gap needed to trigger it), Medicare adds 1% of the national base beneficiary premium — $38.99 in 2026 — to your monthly cost. That works out to roughly $0.39 per month per uncovered month, rounded to the nearest ten cents and recalculated each year as the base premium changes. It also stays with you permanently.
Your Medigap Window
Losing Medicare Advantage coverage opens a guaranteed-issue right to buy a Medigap supplemental policy without medical underwriting. You have 123 days from the date your Advantage benefits end to apply. Miss that window and insurers can screen your health, price based on pre-existing conditions, or refuse to sell you a policy.
How to Fight a Termination
Not every termination is correct, and you have appeal rights. Which path you use depends on the type of coverage.
Redetermination for Original Medicare
For an Original Medicare claim denial or coverage decision, you can ask for a redetermination — a fresh review by someone at the Medicare contractor who wasn’t involved in the original decision. You have 120 days from receipt of the initial determination to file, and Medicare assumes you got the notice five days after it was mailed unless you show otherwise. File on CMS Form 20027 or in a written request that includes your name, Medicare number, the services and dates at issue, and your reasons for disagreeing. No minimum dollar amount applies.
Fast Appeals for Discharges and Service Endings
If a hospital, skilled nursing facility, or home health agency is ending your care and you believe it’s too soon, request a fast appeal through your state’s Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organization. The non-coverage notice you receive lists the BFCC-QIO’s contact information. The reviewer looks at your medical records and the facility’s reasoning. A favorable decision in a hospital setting means Medicare keeps paying for as long as care is medically necessary.
Good Cause Reinstatement for Private Plans
If an Advantage or Part D plan disenrolled you for non-payment and the missed payment was due to something outside your control, you can ask for reinstatement for good cause. You or a representative must contact the plan within 60 days of the disenrollment effective date, show that an unusual or unexpected circumstance kept you from paying on time, and be able to pay the owed premiums within three months. Not receiving a bill by itself doesn’t qualify.
How to Get Back on Medicare
If appeals don’t apply or don’t succeed, re-enrollment is your route back, and the timing depends on which window fits your situation.
General Enrollment Period
The General Enrollment Period runs January 1 through March 31 each year. You can use it to sign up for Part B or premium Part A after missing your initial window or being disenrolled. Coverage begins the month after you enroll, and any late-enrollment penalty is added to your premium.
Special Enrollment Periods
Certain life events open a Special Enrollment Period that lets you enroll outside the general window without a penalty. Losing employer group health coverage is the most common trigger and gives you an eight-month window starting the month after your employment or group coverage ends, whichever comes first. Other qualifying events include moving to a new area, losing Medicaid eligibility, and being released from incarceration.
Annual Enrollment Period for Private Plans
For Advantage and Part D plans, the Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7, with coverage starting January 1. During that window you can join a new Advantage plan, switch between plans, return to Original Medicare, or pick a standalone Part D drug plan. Special Enrollment Periods also apply when your current plan ends its contract or you move to a new service area.
Any late-enrollment penalty you’ve built up carries over to your new coverage. The surcharge reflects the time you spent without coverage, not the plan you pick, so switching won’t erase it.