Coverage
Medicare when you travel or live in two states
If you split the year between two states or travel often, the kind of Medicare coverage you choose can matter as much as the price. Original Medicare goes wherever you go in the U.S.; most Medicare Advantage plans are built around one local area. Here's how each works on the road.
Last reviewed October 27, 2026. General information, not advice about any plan.
Living in two states
- Routine care in your second state
- Original Medicare (with Medigap): Any doctor who accepts Medicare
- Medicare Advantage: Usually only in the plan's area; PPOs may cover out-of-network care for more
- Emergencies and urgent care
- Original Medicare (with Medigap): Covered
- Medicare Advantage: Covered anywhere in the U.S.
- Long stays away
- Original Medicare (with Medigap): No limit inside the U.S.
- Medicare Advantage: Dropped after 6 months away (up to 12 with a visitor program)
- Drug coverage
- Original Medicare (with Medigap): A separate drug plan, which allows up to 12 months away
- Medicare Advantage: Usually built in
Your plan choices depend on the state where you permanently live, and that state's Medigap rules usually apply to you.
Medicare Advantage away from home
- HMO
- In-network care only, except emergencies, urgent care while you're temporarily away, and dialysis away from home.
- PPO
- You can usually see out-of-network providers, but you'll pay more. Call the plan first.
- The 6-month rule
- If you're out of the plan's area more than 6 months in a row, the plan must disenroll you. You'll be in Original Medicare and lose the plan's drug coverage, with a special window to join a drug plan or another plan. Some plans offer a visitor or traveler program that lets you stay up to 12 months, sometimes only in certain areas.
- Before signing up, ask: "Do you cover routine care in the state where I spend winters, and do you have a visitor or traveler program?" Get the answer in the plan's Evidence of Coverage.
Prescriptions while traveling
- Check whether your drug plan has network pharmacies in your second state; national chains often do.
- Ask whether the plan allows a vacation supply or early refill, or use mail order for long trips. These are plan rules, not guaranteed.
- If you can't reach a network pharmacy, plans must cover some out-of-network fills, but you may pay more.
- Medicare plans can't cover drugs you buy outside the U.S.
Outside the U.S. and on cruises
- Original Medicare abroad
- Generally not covered. Exceptions: a foreign hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. one in an emergency in the U.S., if you have an emergency while traveling directly through Canada between Alaska and another state and a Canadian hospital is closer, or if a foreign hospital is closer to your U.S. home.
- Medigap
- Plans C, D, F, G, M and N pay 80% of emergency care abroad after a $250 yearly deductible, up to $50,000 in a lifetime, for care that starts in the first 60 days of a trip.
- Medicare Advantage
- Generally doesn't cover care abroad, but some plans include emergency or urgent travel coverage.
- Cruises
- Medicare may cover medically necessary care on a ship in a U.S. port or within 6 hours of one, not farther out, and only if the ship's doctor is allowed to bill Medicare. Expect to pay the ship's medical center up front.
Travel insurance can fill the gap, but read what it covers: not all of it includes health care.
Choosing an agent
An agent must be licensed in the state where they sell you a plan, which for most people is the state where they permanently live. Many agents hold licenses in several states. Check the license before you enroll, and see moving to another state if the move is permanent.
Common questions
Does Medicare work in every state?
Original Medicare works with any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare anywhere in the U.S., including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. Medicare Advantage plans usually cover routine care only in their local area, but cover emergencies and urgent care anywhere in the U.S.
Can I keep my Medicare Advantage plan if I spend winters in another state?
If you're away from the plan's area more than 6 months in a row, the plan must drop you, unless it has a visitor or traveler program that allows up to 12 months. Ask the plan before you go.
Does Medicare cover me outside the U.S.?
Generally not, except in a few situations near the border. Medigap plans C, D, F, G, M and N pay 80% of emergency care abroad after a $250 deductible, up to $50,000 in a lifetime, for emergencies that begin in the first 60 days of a trip (plans C and F are only for people eligible for Medicare before 2020). Some Medicare Advantage plans include travel coverage.
Which state counts as my home for Medicare plans?
The state where you permanently live, your primary residence, not just your mailing address. A plan may ask for proof like a driver's license, voter registration or tax records.
Keep reading
- Moving to another state with Medicare: what changes and what to doOriginal Medicare moves with you; most Medicare Advantage and drug plans don't. What happens to each kind of coverage when you move, your window to switch, and why your agent must be licensed in your new state.
- HMO, PPO or Special Needs Plan? Medicare Advantage plan types explainedWhat the letters after a Medicare Advantage plan's name mean for your doctors, referrals and costs, plus the Special Needs Plans built for people with certain conditions, Medicaid or nursing home care.
- Medigap Plan G vs. Plan N (and the other letters), explainedWhat each Medigap letter covers, the real differences between Plan G, Plan N and high-deductible G, why Plans C and F are closed to people new to Medicare, and how pricing works.
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