Yes. Medicare Supplement Plan G covers the Part A deductible in full, every benefit period, with no cap on how many times it pays. In 2026 that deductible is $1,736, and Plan G picks it up each time it comes due.1Medicare.gov. Inpatient Hospital Care2CMS. Choosing a Medigap Policy
How the Part A Deductible Works
The Part A deductible is what you owe for inpatient hospital care before Original Medicare starts paying. It doesn’t reset once a year like most deductibles. It resets every benefit period, which begins the day you’re admitted and ends only after you’ve been out of the hospital and any skilled nursing facility for 60 straight days.3Medicare.gov. Medicare Costs
If you’re hospitalized, go home, and are readmitted after that 60-day window closes, a new benefit period starts and the $1,736 is owed again. There’s no limit on how many benefit periods you can have in a single calendar year. Someone with recurring hospital stays could face the deductible two or three times, well over $5,000 in a bad year.
The deductible has also kept climbing. It was $1,288 in 2016, so it has risen 35% in a decade.4New Horizons Marketing. Medicare Costs vs. Inflation: A Decade of Data That’s part of why Medigap coverage of this specific cost matters so much: it’s unpredictable in frequency and rising in size.
Exactly How Plan G Pays It
Plan G pays 100% of the Part A deductible each time a new benefit period triggers it. There is no annual limit on the number of deductibles it will cover and no coinsurance you share on that charge. The CMS standardized benefits chart confirms this flat 100% coverage, and because Medigap plans are federally standardized, every insurer selling Plan G must cover the Part A deductible identically. Only the premium varies between companies.5Medicare.gov. Compare Medigap Plan Benefits2CMS. Choosing a Medigap Policy
Plan G is not alone in covering the Part A deductible at 100%. Plans B, C, D, F, and N do as well. Plan K covers it at 50%, and Plan L at 75%. If avoiding the Part A deductible entirely is the main thing you want from a supplement, several plans will do that; the differences between them show up in other benefits.
What Plan G Covers on the Part A Side Beyond the Deductible
Plan G also pays Part A coinsurance on longer hospital stays. After 60 days in the hospital, Medicare charges $434 per day for days 61 through 90, and $868 per day for lifetime reserve days (days 91 through 150). Plan G covers all of that coinsurance. It also provides an additional 365 lifetime hospital days after your Medicare benefits are exhausted entirely.6Mutual of Omaha. Medicare Supplement Plan G
Hospice coinsurance and skilled nursing facility coinsurance under Part A are also covered at 100%. So on the hospital side, Plan G leaves you with essentially no cost-sharing for a covered stay.
The Deductible Plan G Does Not Cover
This is where most of the confusion happens. Plan G covers the Part A deductible, but not the Part B deductible. In 2026, the Part B deductible is $283, and you pay it out of pocket once per calendar year before Plan G starts covering Part B cost-sharing.7CMS. 2026 Medicare Parts B Premiums and Deductibles After that $283 is met, Plan G picks up the remaining Part B coinsurance and copayments for the rest of the year.
Plan G also doesn’t cover anything Original Medicare itself doesn’t cover: routine dental, routine vision, hearing aids, outpatient prescription drugs, or long-term custodial care.8Healthline. Medicare Plan G Pros and Cons Prescriptions require a separate Part D plan.
Why This Is the Only Real Difference From Plan F
Plan F used to cover both the Part A deductible and the Part B deductible. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 prohibited sales of Medigap policies that cover the Part B deductible to anyone newly eligible for Medicare on or after January 1, 2020.9Medicare Rights Center. Medigap Changes in 2020 That rule took Plans C and F off the shelf for new enrollees. People eligible before that date can still buy or keep Plan F.
For everyone else, Plan G is Plan F minus that $283 Part B deductible. The Part A deductible coverage is identical. And because Plan F’s pool is closed and aging, Plan F premiums tend to run noticeably higher than Plan G, often by more than the $283 difference it would save you. In 2023, the average monthly Plan F premium was $274 compared with $164 for Plan G.10KFF. Key Facts About Medigap Enrollment and Premiums Plan G has now overtaken Plan F in total enrollment.
High-Deductible Plan G Works Differently
There is a high-deductible version of Plan G, and it treats the Part A deductible very differently. You pay all Medicare cost-sharing out of pocket, including the Part A deductible, until you’ve spent $2,950 in 2026. Only after you hit that threshold does the plan start paying the way standard Plan G would.5Medicare.gov. Compare Medigap Plan Benefits
So if you’re comparing a high-deductible Plan G quote with standard Plan G, know that the Part A deductible answer flips: standard Plan G covers it from dollar one, high-deductible Plan G does not. The tradeoff is a much lower premium. For a 65-year-old nonsmoker in Atlanta, standard Plan G quotes ran $129 to $405 per month in recent data, while high-deductible Plan G ran $44 to $88.11NerdWallet. Medigap Plan G
Eligibility to Buy Plan G
You need to be enrolled in both Medicare Part A and Part B to buy any Medigap plan. The best time to enroll in Plan G is during your six-month Medigap Open Enrollment Period, which begins the month you turn 65 and have Part B. During that window, insurers can’t deny you coverage or raise your premium based on health history.2CMS. Choosing a Medigap Policy
Outside that window, guaranteed issue rights apply in specific situations such as losing employer group coverage or leaving a Medicare Advantage plan within the first 12 months. You generally have 63 days to enroll without medical underwriting.12Medicare Interactive. Medigap Purchasing Details One boundary to be aware of: Plan G is not sold in Massachusetts, Minnesota, or Wisconsin, which use their own state-specific Medigap standardization. Residents of those states have different plan structures to compare, though the underlying Part A deductible is still something a supplement there can cover.