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When can I enroll in Medicare?
Your first window is seven months long: the three months before your sixty-fifth birthday month, the birthday month itself, and the three months after. When you sign up inside that window determines when coverage begins.
Figures reviewed for 2026
Coverage begins the year you turn 65, so 1961 means 2026.
Your initial enrollment period
March 1961 – September 1961
- You turn 65 in
- June 1961
- First day to sign up
- March 1961
- Last day without a delay
- September 1961
- Earliest coverage start
- June 1961
Born on the first of the month? Coverage can begin one month earlier than the table above, which is worth confirming when you apply.
How the start date moves
Sign up during the three months before your birthday month and coverage starts on the first day of your birthday month. Sign up during the birthday month and it starts the first day of the following month. Sign up in any of the three months after, and coverage is delayed a month or more, which is the reason the last three months are worth avoiding.
If you are still working and covered by an employer plan through your own or a spouse’s current job, the calculus changes entirely. You may be able to delay Part B without a penalty, and a special enrollment period opens when that coverage ends. Part A is usually worth taking regardless, since most people owe nothing for it.
The other dates that matter
Medicare Advantage open enrollment runs January 1 through March 31 for people already in an Advantage plan, and the annual election period runs October 15 through December 7 for everyone. The Medigap open enrollment period is separate again: six months beginning the month you are 65 and enrolled in Part B, and the only time health questions are off the table.
Official sources
Check it at the source
Every figure on this page comes from the agencies below. They are the primary record, and none of these links costs you anything.
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