August 28, 2026
4:21 am

What Is a SHIP Counselor?

A SHIP counselor is a trained volunteer or staff member of your State Health Insurance Assistance Program who gives free, one-on-one, unbiased help with Medicare – and who is prohibited from selling you anything or earning a commission on your decision. That last clause is the whole point of the program: the person explaining your options has no financial interest in which option you pick.

SHIP is funded by the Administration for Community Living, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and it operates in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Recent program years have counted roughly 12,000 to 15,000 counselors and team members nationally. Services are free regardless of income, and there is no asset test to get an appointment.

This page is organized as a checklist – what to check, in order, when someone tells you to “call your SHIP.” It also says plainly what SHIP does not do, including the fact that a SHIP counselor is not the right person to ask about selling a life insurance policy.

In This Article

Check One: Find the Name Your State Uses
Check Two: Confirm What This Person Is Allowed to Help With
Check Three: The Calendar, Because Most Mistakes Are Timing Mistakes
Check Four: Screen for Money You May Already Qualify For
Check Five: Confirm Who You Are Actually Talking To
Check Six: What to Bring to the Appointment
Where Life Insurance Fits – and Where It Does Not
Frequently Asked Questions

Check One: Find the Name Your State Uses

The single biggest reason people cannot find their SHIP is that most states do not call it SHIP. The federal program name is the State Health Insurance Assistance Program; the local brands are different almost everywhere.

A partial list of real state names, current as of 2026: HICAP in California, HIICAP in New York, APPRISE in Pennsylvania, SHINE in Florida and Massachusetts, SHIIP in Iowa and North Carolina, SHIBA in Washington and Oregon, MMAP in Michigan, and SHIP itself in a number of states. If a search for “SHIP” in your state returns nothing, search instead for “free Medicare counseling” plus your state name, or use the national SHIP locator maintained by the SHIP National Technical Assistance Center.

Two federal resources also route you there: 1-800-MEDICARE will give you your state program’s contact information, and the Eldercare Locator, operated by the Administration for Community Living, connects callers to local aging services including SHIP. Your county Area Agency on Aging usually knows the number by heart.

Check Two: Confirm What This Person Is Allowed to Help With

SHIP counselors cover Medicare and the programs that surround it. In scope: comparing Part D drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans, explaining Original Medicare versus Medicare Advantage, Medigap rules and timing, appeals and denials, billing problems, and screening for the assistance programs described below.

Out of scope, and this is where people waste appointments: SHIP counselors do not determine Medicaid eligibility (the state Medicaid agency does), do not sell or recommend a specific insurance product, do not give legal or tax advice, and do not advise on life insurance, annuities or investments. They are also not the fraud investigators – that is the Senior Medicare Patrol, a separate ACL-funded program.

Bring the right question to the right door and the appointment is one of the highest-value free hours available to an older household.

Check Three: The Calendar, Because Most Mistakes Are Timing Mistakes

Four windows drive nearly every SHIP appointment. Confirm all of them at Medicare.gov or with the counselor, since dates and figures are set annually.

Initial Enrollment Period – seven months surrounding your 65th birthday: the three months before, your birthday month, and the three months after.
Medicare Open Enrollment – October 15 through December 7 each year, when you may change Part D and Medicare Advantage plans for a January 1 start.
Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment – January 1 through March 31, a narrower window for people already in a Medicare Advantage plan.
Medigap open enrollment – the six months beginning the month you are both 65 or older and enrolled in Part B. This is the one that cannot be recovered. During those six months a Medigap insurer generally cannot refuse you or price you up for health reasons. After it closes, in most states medical underwriting applies.

Missing a deadline costs real money and the cost is usually permanent. The Part B late enrollment penalty adds 10% to the premium for each full 12-month period you could have enrolled and did not, and it lasts as long as you have Part B. The Part D late enrollment penalty adds roughly 1% of the national base beneficiary premium for each full uncovered month. For reference, the standard Part B premium was $185.00 a month in 2025; confirm the current year’s amount at Medicare.gov.

Who they are	What they do	Do they sell anything?	Call them when
SHIP counselor	Free one-on-one Medicare counseling	No – prohibited	Comparing plans, appeals, benefit screening
Licensed insurance agent	Enrolls you in plans they represent	Yes, on commission	You want to buy a specific plan
1-800-MEDICARE	Federal claims and enrollment line	No	Card, claim or enrollment questions
Senior Medicare Patrol	Medicare fraud, errors and abuse	No	A bill or charge looks fraudulent
Long-term care ombudsman	Advocacy for facility residents	No	A nursing home or assisted living problem
State Medicaid agency	Determines Medicaid and MSP eligibility	No	You need an actual eligibility decision

Check Three: The Calendar, Because Most Mistakes Are Timing Mistakes

Check Four: Screen for Money You May Already Qualify For

This is the part of a SHIP appointment that most often produces a direct dollar result, and it is the reason to book one even if you are happy with your plans.

Medicare Savings Programs are state-run programs that pay Medicare premiums and, at some levels, deductibles and coinsurance. The three main tiers are keyed to the federal poverty level: the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary program at roughly 100% of FPL, Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary at roughly 100 to 120%, and Qualifying Individual at roughly 120 to 135%. Several states apply higher limits or no asset test at all. The state Medicaid agency decides eligibility; SHIP helps you apply.

Extra Help, also called the Part D Low-Income Subsidy, cuts drug costs sharply. Since 2024 the full subsidy has been available up to 150% of the federal poverty level. Applications go to the Social Security Administration, and the form is real and named: Form SSA-1020, Application for Extra Help with Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs.

Also worth asking about: the Part D out-of-pocket cap created by the Inflation Reduction Act, which was $2,000 in 2025 and is indexed annually – confirm the current year’s figure – and any state pharmaceutical assistance program your state runs.

Check Five: Confirm Who You Are Actually Talking To

Four different people give Medicare information and only one of them is a SHIP counselor.

A SHIP counselor is certified through the state program, sells nothing and earns nothing on your decision. A licensed insurance agent may be entirely honest and genuinely useful, but is compensated by the plans they are appointed with; ask which carriers they represent and whether they can quote every plan in your county. A 1-800-MEDICARE representative works from federal scripts and can handle claims and enrollment questions but not extended one-on-one counseling. A Senior Medicare Patrol volunteer handles suspected Medicare fraud, errors and abuse – a different program with a different mission.

Two related boundaries worth knowing: an Area Agency on Aging or Aging and Disability Resource Center coordinates local services such as meals, transportation and caregiver support, and often hosts the SHIP program. A long-term care ombudsman advocates for residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. If your problem is a facility, the ombudsman is the right call, not SHIP.

Check Six: What to Bring to the Appointment

Counselors work faster and better with paper. Bring your red, white and blue Medicare card; the plan card for any Medicare Advantage, Part D or Medigap policy you hold; a complete list of your prescriptions with exact dosages and pharmacy; a list of your doctors and hospitals; any denial letter, Explanation of Benefits or Medicare Summary Notice you want explained; and a rough figure for household income and resources if you want a Medicare Savings Program or Extra Help screening.

Ask for the counselor’s name and the program’s phone number before you leave, and ask them to write down which plan they compared and on what date. Plan formularies and networks change every year, so an answer that was right in one plan year is not automatically right in the next. Everything a SHIP counselor tells you is information, not a determination – only the state agency or the Social Security Administration can approve a benefit.

Where Life Insurance Fits – and Where It Does Not

Being straight about this matters. A SHIP counselor will not advise you on whether to keep, reduce, surrender or sell a life insurance policy. That is outside the program’s scope, and a good counselor will say so. If someone presenting themselves as a Medicare counselor starts discussing life insurance sales, that is a signal to stop and verify their identity with the state program directly.

Where the two subjects genuinely touch is means-tested benefits. Life insurance with cash value can be a countable resource for Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income, subject to a long-standing federal rule excluding policies whose total face value falls at or under a modest threshold – $1,500 per insured under the SSI rules, a figure unchanged for decades and applied with state variations. And proceeds from any policy sale generally become countable once received, which can interrupt eligibility for Medicaid or a Medicare Savings Program. Our page on settlement proceeds and Medicare Savings Programs walks through that interaction, and when life insurance counts as a Medicaid asset covers the resource rules.

The right order of operations is to get the Medicare and benefit picture straight with a SHIP counselor first, confirm eligibility questions with the state Medicaid agency or an elder law attorney, and only then look at the policy. Pine Lake Legacy does not purchase policies; we provide education and a free policy review. Sometimes the review’s honest conclusion is that keeping the policy is the right answer. Send the cover page or call (732) 978-9575 if you want that second opinion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is SHIP really free, and is there an income limit?

Yes, free to anyone with Medicare or approaching Medicare eligibility, with no income or asset test to get an appointment. The program is funded by the Administration for Community Living within HHS. Counselors are certified, cannot sell insurance, and receive no commission on the plan you choose. That independence is the reason the program exists.

Why can I not find a SHIP office in my state?

Most states use a local name instead. Real examples include HICAP in California, HIICAP in New York, APPRISE in Pennsylvania, SHINE in Florida and Massachusetts, SHIIP in Iowa and North Carolina, SHIBA in Washington and Oregon, and MMAP in Michigan. Search for free Medicare counseling plus your state, or call 1-800-MEDICARE for the local contact.

Can a SHIP counselor tell me which plan to pick?

They will compare plans against your drug list, doctors and budget and explain the trade-offs, but they will not recommend one product or enroll you on commission. The decision stays yours. Ask them to write down which plans were compared and the date, since formularies and networks change every plan year.

What is the deadline I absolutely cannot miss?

Medigap open enrollment: the six months beginning the month you are 65 or older and enrolled in Part B. During that window insurers generally cannot refuse you or charge more for health reasons. Once it closes, most states allow medical underwriting. Part B and Part D late enrollment penalties are also permanent, so timing errors compound.

Can a SHIP counselor help with my life insurance policy?

No. Life insurance, annuities and investments are outside the program’s scope, and a counselor should say so directly. If someone presenting as a Medicare counselor starts discussing life insurance sales, verify their identity with the state program. For policy questions, talk to your own advisor or request an independent policy review.

What should I bring to a SHIP appointment?

Your Medicare card, any plan cards, a complete prescription list with exact dosages, your pharmacy, your list of doctors, and any denial letter or Medicare Summary Notice you want explained. Add rough household income and resource figures if you want a Medicare Savings Program or Extra Help screening. Paperwork makes the hour far more productive.

Find out what your policy is worth — free, confidential, no obligation.

A 15-minute educational review covers your eligibility, every alternative, and a realistic view of what each path would net you.

Call (732) 978-9575 · Request a review online →

Table of Contents