Comparing Medicare Advantage plans properly means comparing what is available at one person's postcode, against their own doctors and their own medicines, in one year. That is a real task and there is a free government tool for it. What fills a search result instead is mostly comparison written by parties who earn a commission on the outcome, and the useful thing to know first is how to tell the two apart.
The comparison that can only be made at your address
Plan availability, networks, formularies and cost sharing are local and annual. A plan that exists in one county does not exist in the next, and a plan that covered a drug this year may not next year. That is why a general comparison article cannot answer the question and why Medicare runs a plan finder that takes a postcode, a list of medicines and a list of doctors. Anything that compares plans without those three inputs is comparing something other than your situation.
How to tell who is paying for the comparison
A site that compares plans and offers to connect you with someone is being paid per enquiry or per enrolment, which is lawful and disclosed but is not the same as independent. Federal rules require a specific disclaimer from organisations in that position and require them to say how many plans they actually represent. Reading that line first tells a reader what they are looking at more reliably than the design of the page does.
What this site compares instead, and why
This site compares states rather than plans. Every state page carries how many people there hold a Medicare Advantage or other health plan against how many kept Original Medicare, taken from CMS's own enrollment file with the field and the date. It cannot tell a reader which plan to pick and does not try; it tells them whether the arrangement being pitched is the ordinary choice where they live, which no plan comparison will mention.
Questions people ask about medicare advantage plan comparisons
Does this site compare plans?
No. It names no plan and quotes no plan's benefits or premiums. It compares how Medicare is held, state by state, from CMS's own file.
Where is the official comparison tool?
Medicare's own plan finder, linked below. It takes your postcode, your medicines and your providers, which is what the comparison actually depends on.
Why do so many comparison sites want my phone number?
Because the enquiry is the product. That is disclosed and lawful; it is simply a different thing from a reference.
Is there a free adviser who is not paid on my choice?
Yes. Every state has a State Health Insurance Assistance Program, and its counselling is free and not commission-based.