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Free help

Your state SHIP counselor

SHIP — the State Health Insurance Assistance Program — is a federally funded service that gives free, one-on-one Medicare counseling. Counselors are trained on Extra Help and Medicare Savings Programs, and they have nothing to sell you.

What a SHIP counselor can do

  • Check whether you qualify for Extra Help or a Medicare Savings Program
  • Help you complete the SSA-1020 or your state MSP application
  • Explain a notice that says your benefit is changing or ending
  • Compare Part D and Medicare plans with no commission and no bias
  • Sort out a billing problem if you’re being charged when you shouldn’t be

Why we point here first

The Medicare world has a long history of high-pressure sales and scam-adjacent “free help” that isn’t free. SHIP is the opposite: publicly funded, independent, and genuinely free. That’s why we surface it before any paid option, on every page. If anyone pressures you, asks for payment to “sign you up,” or promises a “best plan,” treat it as a warning sign — and call your SHIP instead.

How to reach yours

Every state has a SHIP, often under a local name. Use the national locator to find your state’s program and phone number, or open your state page for the local program name.

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