Administration for Community Living — state and local SHIP offices
FREE SERVICEFree, unbiased, in-depth one-on-one help with anything Medicare: choosing a plan, appealing a denial, and — the part that actually moves money — applying for Extra Help and Medicare Savings Programs. Medicare's own guidance points people here for free application help. It is not money and it sells you nothing. This entry is a middleman flag: the Medicare space is saturated with commissioned agents and call centres that look like government services, buy names like "Medicare Benefits Center", and are paid by insurers to move you into a particular plan. SHIP counselors are prohibited from selling insurance. If someone helping you with Medicare stands to be paid by a carrier, they are not a SHIP counselor.
Anyone with Medicare or approaching Medicare eligibility, plus family members and caregivers acting on their behalf. No income test, no fee, in every state, DC, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Find your state's SHIP at shiphelp.org, or through 1-800-MEDICARE. Many SHIPs are staffed partly by trained volunteers and appointment waits get long in the autumn Open Enrollment crush — call in summer if your issue can wait, and call immediately if it is an appeal with a deadline.
Apply at the official source →← more like this · all programmes
Not financial or legal advice. Program terms change — verify eligibility, amounts, and deadlines with the administering agency before acting.