Medicare open enrollment runs Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, with coverage starting Jan. 1. That is the window to join, switch, or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan — and for most people, the only reliable chance to undo a bad choice.

Census Bureau QuickFacts puts 30.6 percent of Talbot County residents at 65 or older. The 2020–24 American Community Survey puts the share at 29.6 percent and the median age at 51.2. Either reading, Talbot sits among Maryland's oldest counties.

Free, unbiased counseling here runs through the State Health Insurance Assistance Program. The published coordinator is Christina Kinnamon, 410-822-2869. Brookletts Place, at 400 Brookletts Ave. in Easton, lists the program. Upper Shore Aging, which operates Brookletts, is the Area Agency on Aging for Talbot, Caroline, and Kent.

SHIP covers Parts A, B, C, and D; Medigap policies; claims and appeals; and referrals into Medicare Savings Programs and the Part D Low Income Subsidy — the two programs that most reliably cut what a low-income beneficiary pays, and the two most often missed.

SHIP is not limited to people over 60. It serves Medicare beneficiaries of any age, including people under 65 who qualify through disability. The 60-and-older threshold around Brookletts Place is senior-center membership, not counseling eligibility.

Part D formularies and Advantage networks change every year. A plan that fit last December can fail this one — same plan, same person, different drug list. No letter arrives that says your plan got worse in a way that matters to you. That is what the counselor is for.

Call before the first week of October. Bring the plan list, the actual pill bottles, and another set of ears. Do not pick a plan from a television advertisement. The ads are national. The networks are local. The mismatch is where people get hurt.