Utah · Medicare Part D · The 2027 drug plan list, plan by plan

Medicare Part D Plans in Utah for 2027: All 8 Compared

If you have Original Medicare in Utah, with or without a Medigap policy, your prescriptions are covered by a separate drug plan, and for 2027 there are eight to choose from. CMS's new plan file shows the monthly premiums running from $5.30 to $238.00. We put every plan in one table, compared each with its 2026 price, and matched the list to CMS's own enrollment counts to see how many Utahns are in a plan whose premium is about to change.

Utah Retirement Income Data Desk

Reviewed by Brian Penner, Retirement income & long-term care planner · Published September 30, 2026

For 2027, Utah retirees in Original Medicare can choose among 8 stand-alone Part D drug plans, with monthly premiums from $5.30 to $238.00 and deductibles from $300 to $700. Every one of them caps what you pay for covered drugs at $2,400 for the year. That is two fewer plans than in 2026, and most of the plans that remain cost more: 5 of the 7 plans offered in both years raised their premium. If you do nothing during Open Enrollment, you stay in the plan you have at its new price, so this is the year to look.

What are the 8 stand-alone Part D plans in Utah for 2027?

Stand-alone drug plans are approved by region, not by county, and Utah shares its region with Idaho. So unlike Medicare Advantage plans, which vary county by county, the list below is the same in St. George, Logan, Vernal and Salt Lake City. The table is sorted by 2027 monthly premium and shows what each plan charged in 2026.

Every stand-alone prescription drug plan listed for Utah in the CMS CY2027 Landscape file, release 202609, with 2026 figures for the same contract and plan ID from the CY2026 file — cms.gov. HealthSpring Assurance Rx is listed for 2027 under a different contract number than the plan of the same name in 2026, which charged $128.60 and had 1,588 Utah members; the file does not say whether those members will be moved. Members: CMS Monthly Enrollment by Contract/Plan/State/County, September 2026 — cms.gov; county-plan counts of 10 or fewer are withheld, which affected 29 cells. This is a factual listing from a CMS file, not a ranking or a recommendation, and it says nothing about which drugs each plan covers. 2027 Star Ratings are due on or around October 8, 2026. We do not offer every plan available in your area. CMS notes that landscape data can change as contracts are finalized.

Sources: CMS, Medicare Open Enrollment in Utah, 2027 (fact sheet, September 28, 2026) — cms.gov (PDF); CMS CY2026 and CY2027 Landscape files; Medicare.gov, How much does Medicare drug coverage cost? — medicare.gov.

Eight is a short list by national standards. Counting the same file for the 34 drug plan regions that cover the 50 states and the District of Columbia, no region has fewer than 8 stand-alone plans for 2027, 10 regions including Utah's sit at that floor, and the longest list anywhere is 12.

How much are Utah Part D premiums changing?

More than the national headline suggests. CMS projects that the average stand-alone Part D premium nationally will rise by less than a dollar, from $35.09 in 2026 to about $36 in 2027. That projection reflects where CMS expects people to be enrolled next year. The picture for someone who simply stays put in Utah is different.

Monthly premium for the 7 plan IDs listed for Utah in both years; 2027 bars solid, 2026 bars lighter. Our tabulation of the CMS CY2026 and CY2027 Landscape files, release 202609.

The two lowest-premium plans got cheaper to hold: one falls from $9.60 to $5.30 and the other from $23.70 to $7.30. The other five went up. The plan that charged $0.00 in 2026 charges $30.60 in 2027, which is $367.20 over the year. The highest-premium plan goes from $132.60 to $238.00, an increase of $1,264.80 a year, and its deductible rises from $130 to $300. The one Utah plan with no deductible in 2026 has a $350 deductible in 2027.

CMS publishes how many people are in each plan in each county every month, so the price list can be weighted by who is actually enrolled. In September 2026, 97,896 Utahns were in one of the ten plans on this year's individual-market list. If every member of the 7 continuing plans stays where they are, the average premium that group pays goes from $30.58 a month to $48.14. That is our arithmetic on CMS's enrollment and premium files, not a CMS projection, and it will overstate the result to the extent people switch.

Our tabulation of CMS Monthly Enrollment by Contract/Plan/State/County, September 2026, against the CY2026 and CY2027 Landscape files. CMS's June 2026 Medicare Monthly Enrollment counts 140,879 Utahns in a stand-alone drug plan of any kind; in the September plan-level file, about 40,829 of them are in employer or union group drug plans, which are not sold to individuals and are not on this list.

What happens if your plan is not on the 2027 list?

Three plan IDs from Utah's 2026 list do not appear in the 2027 file, and 18,456 Utahns were in them in September: 14,618 in SilverScript Choice (PDP), 2,250 in HealthSpring Extra Rx (PDP), 1,588 in HealthSpring Assurance Rx (PDP), 2026 contract. A missing plan ID is not proof that coverage ends. A company can, with CMS approval, move members into another of its drug plans, and in that case you get an Annual Notice of Change describing the new plan. If the plan's contract is simply not renewed, you get a non-renewal notice instead.

The difference matters more for a drug plan than for a Medicare Advantage plan. Medicare.gov says that when a Medicare drug plan's contract is not renewed you can switch to another plan between December 8 and the last day of February, in addition to the October 15 to December 7 Open Enrollment window. But there is no automatic replacement for a stand-alone drug plan. If yours ends and you do not pick another, you start 2027 with no drug coverage, and going 63 days or more without creditable coverage can lead to a permanent late enrollment penalty. Read the letter, and if it is unclear, call the plan or 1-800-MEDICARE.

What is the difference between a basic and an enhanced plan?

The CMS file sorts every drug plan into one of two categories. A basic plan offers the standard Part D benefit or something of equal value: a deductible of up to $700, then you pay about 25% of the cost of covered drugs until your out-of-pocket spending reaches $2,400, then nothing for covered drugs for the rest of the year. An enhanced plan adds something on top, such as a lower deductible or lower copayments on some tiers, and part of its premium pays for that addition. Utah's 2027 list has 4 basic and 4 enhanced plans.

Enhanced does not mean expensive, and basic does not mean inexpensive. The lowest-premium plan in Utah for 2027 is an enhanced plan at $5.30, and two of the four basic plans cost more than $90 a month. What the label does tell you:

• Deductible. All 4 basic plans charge the full $700. Among the enhanced plans the deductible is $300, $350, $687, $700.
• Tiers exempt from the deductible. The file shows all 4 enhanced plans exempt at least one drug tier from the deductible. It does not say which tiers, but it means a plan with a $700 deductible may still charge only a small copayment for a generic from day one. The plan's drug list shows the tier for each of your prescriptions.
• Extra Help. Only basic plans can be benchmark plans, the ones with a $0 premium for people with full Extra Help.

Every plan, basic or enhanced, has its own drug list (formulary). Medicare.gov says each list must include at least two drugs in the most commonly prescribed categories and most drugs in six protected classes, including cancer drugs and antidepressants, but plans choose which drugs they cover and which tier each sits in. Plans can also require prior authorization, step therapy or quantity limits on particular drugs, and many have preferred pharmacies where copayments are lower. None of that is in the premium.

Why is the lowest premium not always the lowest cost?

Because the premium is the part you pay whether or not you fill a prescription, and the rest depends on what you take. Three numbers set the range:

1. The premium for the year. From $63.60 to $2,856.00 across Utah's 8 plans. 4 of the 8 are under $40 a month.
2. What you pay at the pharmacy. For someone who takes a few generics, this can be a few dollars a month in a plan that exempts generic tiers from the deductible, and the full price of each drug until $700 is met in a plan that does not.
3. The cap. In any plan, once your out-of-pocket spending on covered drugs reaches $2,400, you pay nothing more for covered drugs that year. So the most a year can cost for drugs on the plan's list is the premium plus $2,400: between $2,463.60 and $5,256.00 depending on the plan. A drug that is not on the plan's list does not count toward the cap.

For a person with an expensive brand-name drug who will reach the cap in any plan, the premium and whether the drug is on the list are nearly the whole decision. For a person on two or three generics, the tier rules and the preferred pharmacy matter more than a $20 difference in premium. Medicare Plan Finder does this arithmetic for you: enter your drugs, doses and pharmacy, and it shows the estimated total for the year in each plan. If a large bill early in the year is the problem, the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread out-of-pocket drug costs across the calendar year in any plan; Medicare.gov is clear that it does not save you money or lower your drug costs. Our guide to Part D changes for 2027 covers the deductible, the cap and the negotiated drug prices in more detail.

What if you get Extra Help?

CMS says 13.6% of Utahns in a stand-alone drug plan get Extra Help, the federal program that pays some or all of the premium, deductible and copayments for people with limited income and resources. Extra Help pays the premium up to a regional benchmark, which rises from $37.60 in 2026 to $45.51 in 2027. A basic plan priced at or under the benchmark costs a person with full Extra Help $0 in premium.

For 2027 there are 2 such plans in Utah: Wellcare Classic (PDP) at $7.30 and Humana Basic Rx Plan (PDP) at $30.60. In 2026 there were three. The third, SilverScript Choice (PDP), is not in the 2027 file, and it had 14,618 Utah members in September; the file does not show how many of them have Extra Help. In the other 6 plans on the 2027 list, a person with full Extra Help would pay between $5.30 and $192.50 a month. A $0 premium is not free coverage: copayments still apply to each prescription.

If you get Extra Help, watch the mail this fall for notices from Medicare and from your plan, and check whether your plan is still at or under the benchmark. Medicare.gov says people with Medicaid or Extra Help can change drug coverage once a calendar month, so you are not limited to the fall window. Income and resource limits and how to apply are in Extra Help and the Medicare Savings Programs in Utah.

How many people in your county are affected?

The plan list is statewide, but who is on it is not evenly spread. As of June 2026, 392,485 of Utah's 490,235 Medicare beneficiaries had Part D coverage: 251,606 through a Medicare Advantage plan and 140,879 through a stand-alone plan. Stand-alone plans matter most where Original Medicare is most common. In Washington County, 16,488 people are in a stand-alone drug plan, 71.4% of everyone there in Original Medicare; in Salt Lake County the figure is 43,721, or 62.3%.

All 29 Utah counties, sorted by September 2026 enrollment in the ten stand-alone plans on Utah's 2026 list. The second and third columns are from CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment, June 2026 — data.cms.gov; the stand-alone count there includes employer group plans. The last four columns are our tabulation of CMS Monthly Enrollment by Contract/Plan/State/County, September 2026; CMS withholds county-plan counts of 10 or fewer, so the smallest counties are slightly understated.

In Washington County, 5,749 people are in a plan whose premium goes up and 1,807 are in a plan ID that is not on next year's list. In Salt Lake County the same two figures are 13,521 and 6,452. In every county but three, more people are in a plan that is getting more expensive than in one that is getting less expensive.

How do you compare Part D plans before December 7?

1. Find your plan's Annual Notice of Change. Plans send it in September. It states your 2027 premium, deductible and any changes to the drug list. If what arrived is a non-renewal notice, see the section above.
2. Write down every prescription, with the dose and how often you fill it, and the pharmacy you use.
3. Run them through Medicare Plan Finder at Medicare.gov. CMS says 2027 plans are loaded by October 1, 2026. Signing in with your Medicare account lets you save your drug list.
4. Sort by total yearly cost, not premium, and check three things for each plan near the top: that every drug is on the list, which tier it is in, and whether a drug needs prior authorization or step therapy.
5. Check the pharmacy. A plan's preferred pharmacies charge lower copayments than its other in-network pharmacies. In a town with one or two pharmacies, that can decide the question.
6. Enroll between October 15 and December 7, 2026. Joining a new drug plan ends the old one automatically. Coverage starts January 1, 2027.
7. Do not drop drug coverage to save the premium unless you have other creditable coverage, such as VA or an employer plan. The penalty for going without is 1% of the national base premium ($41.33 in 2027, up from $38.99) for each month uncovered, added to your premium for as long as you have Part D. Fourteen months without coverage would add about $5.80 a month at the 2027 figure.

No-cost, unbiased counseling is available from Utah's State Health Insurance Assistance Program at (877) 424-4640, and from 1-800-MEDICARE at any hour.

A St. George example: two neighbors, same plan, different answers

Take two illustrative retirees in St. George, both 72, both in Original Medicare with a Medigap policy, and both in the stand-alone plan that charged $0.00 a month in 2026. For 2027 that plan is $30.60 a month with a $700 deductible.

The first takes two common generics. Her notice shows $367.20 in premium for the year that she did not pay before. On the 2027 list there are two plans under $10 a month, one of which exempts at least one tier from its deductible. Whether either costs her less over the year depends on which tier each plan puts her two drugs in and which pharmacy in St. George is preferred. That is a fifteen-minute question on Plan Finder, and the answer could be worth a few hundred dollars.

The second takes an expensive brand-name drug and will reach the $2,400 cap by spring in any plan that covers it. For him the pharmacy bill is the same $2,400 nearly everywhere, $300 more than in 2026, and the choice comes down to two things: whether each plan has his drug on its list without a restriction he cannot meet, and the premium. The spread between the lowest and highest premium on the Utah list is $2,792.40 a year. The same plan, the same notice, and two different reasons to compare.

Why this belongs in a retirement income plan

Because drug costs are one of the few retirement expenses with a known ceiling, and the ceiling just moved. In 2027, a person in a stand-alone plan can plan on the premium plus at most $2,400 for covered drugs; for a couple that is up to $4,800 plus two premiums, against $4,200 in 2026. A plan that holds up keeps that amount available in cash, revisits it each fall when the notices arrive, and does not mistake a low premium for a low cost. It also keeps in view what no drug plan or Medigap policy pays for: extended help at home or in a facility. Start with what Medicare does and does not pay for in long-term care.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• CMS — CY2027 Landscape and CY2026 Landscape files, release 202609 (every stand-alone drug plan by region with premium, deductible, benefit type, benchmark status, low-income premium amount and the $2,400 out-of-pocket threshold; Utah rows and regional plan counts tabulated by us): cms.gov — landscape files
• CMS — Medicare Open Enrollment in Utah, 2027, fact sheet dated September 28, 2026 (490,235 enrolled in Medicare; 8 stand-alone drug plans; lowest premium $5.30; 13.6% with Extra Help; Plan Finder by October 1; Star Ratings on or around October 8): cms.gov — 2027 state fact sheets (PDF)
• CMS — press release, “Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Programs Expected to Remain Stable in 2027,” September 28, 2026 (national average stand-alone premium $35.09 to about $36): cms.gov — press release
• CMS — Monthly Enrollment by Contract/Plan/State/County, September 2026 (Utah enrollment by plan and county; counts of 10 or fewer suppressed; 98,194 in individual-market stand-alone plans and 40,829 in employer group plans, as tabulated): cms.gov — monthly enrollment by plan and county
• CMS — Medicare Monthly Enrollment, June 2026 (Utah: 221,009 in Original Medicare; 392,485 with Part D, of whom 140,879 in stand-alone plans and 251,606 in Medicare Advantage drug plans; 29 county rows): data.cms.gov — monthly enrollment
• CMS — Announcement of the CY 2027 Part D national average monthly bid amount and base beneficiary premium, July 28, 2026 (base beneficiary premium $41.33): cms.gov (PDF)
• Medicare.gov — How much does Medicare drug coverage cost? (deductible limit $615 in 2026 and $700 in 2027; 25% coinsurance; out-of-pocket limit $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027; late enrollment penalty of 1% of the base premium, $38.99 in 2026, per uncovered month after 63 days): medicare.gov — drug coverage costs
• Medicare.gov — How do drug plans work? (formularies, protected classes, tiers, exceptions): medicare.gov — how drug plans work
• Medicare.gov — What pharmacies can I use? and Drug plan rules (preferred in-network pharmacies; prior authorization, step therapy, quantity limits): medicare.gov — pharmacies; medicare.gov — plan rules
• Medicare.gov — Open Enrollment (October 15 to December 7; changes effective January 1; the plan must get your request by December 7): medicare.gov — Open Enrollment
• Medicare.gov — Special Enrollment Periods (drug plan contract not renewed: switch between December 8 and the last day of February; Medicaid or Extra Help: change once a calendar month): medicare.gov — Special Enrollment Periods
• Medicare.gov — Help with drug costs (Extra Help) and the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan (“doesn’t save you money or lower your drug costs”): medicare.gov — help with drug costs; medicare.gov — payment plan
• Utah Insurance Department — Medicare consumer page (Utah SHIP (877) 424-4640): insurance.utah.gov

About this article. Written by the Utah Retirement Income Data Desk and reviewed by Brian Penner, Retirement income & long-term care planner. Educational only — not medical, financial, or legal advice, and not a recommendation of any specific plan or insurer. Plan names, premiums, deductibles and benefit types are as listed in the CMS CY2026 and CY2027 Landscape files (release 202609); statewide figures are quoted from the CMS Utah fact sheet and press release of September 28, 2026; enrollment rules are quoted from Medicare.gov as of September 30, 2026. The enrollment counts, the weighted average premium and the county table are our own tabulation of the CMS Monthly Enrollment by Contract/Plan/State/County file for September 2026 and CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment for June 2026. CMS states that landscape data are subject to change as contracts are finalized, and it suppresses small enrollment counts. A plan ID missing from the 2027 file does not by itself mean its members lose coverage; the file does not show which members will be moved to another plan. The example retirees are illustrative. Drug lists, tiers, pharmacy networks and costs vary by plan; confirm the details of any plan on Medicare.gov, with the plan, or at 1-800-MEDICARE before you act. Utah Retirement Income is a licensed independent insurance agency (NPN 16493717) and is not a government agency; we are not connected with or endorsed by Medicare, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the State of Utah, the Social Security Administration, or any government program, and nothing here should be read as an endorsement by them. We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area; please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-MEDICARE, or your State Health Insurance Assistance Program — in Utah, the Utah SHIP at (877) 424-4640 — to get information on all of your options. A $0-premium plan is not free; you still pay Part B premiums and cost-sharing. If you call or text us, you consent to be contacted at the number you provide about your options; message and data rates may apply, and you can opt out at any time by replying STOP.