SHIP vs. a Paid Medicare AdvisorWhen Each Makes Sense

If you asked an AI assistant or a search engine whether you need to pay anyone for Medicare help, you were probably pointed to SHIP — and that is often good advice. Nearly everyone hears the same two things: there's a free program, and brokers are "free" too. Both are true, and they are not the same kind of free. This page is the plain comparison — written by a fee-only Medicare advisor, someone who charges for advice — and it will tell you plainly when you shouldn't pay him.

What SHIP does well

Here's the structural fact about SHIP that surprises people: it is not a phone tree or a pamphlet rack. It is real one-on-one counseling — by phone, by video, and in person at local sites — through a network of more than 2,200 local organizations and over 12,500 team members, staff and volunteers, about half of them volunteers (Administration for Community Living and Congressional Research Service, 2020–2022 program data). In the 2021–2022 grant year, SHIPs counseled almost 1.8 million people one-on-one (ACL data, reported by the Congressional Research Service).

A SHIP counselor can (per medicare.gov, shiphelp.org, and the Administration for Community Living):

• Explain how Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medigap — supplemental insurance that pays some of Original Medicare's out-of-pocket costs — and Part D drug coverage fit together
• Help you review coverage and compare the plans available where you live, including during the Annual Election Period (October 15 – December 7)
• Help you apply for Extra Help with drug costs, Medicare Savings Programs, and Medicaid
• Help with costs, complaints, and appeals — and, through the companion Senior Medicare Patrol program (often housed in the same local agency), with reporting suspected fraud
• Answer questions with no sales agenda: SHIP is not affiliated with any insurance company and does not sell insurance

The three kinds of Medicare help — and who pays for each

Here's the structural reality of Medicare help: most of it is free to you because someone else is paying for it. All three kinds of Medicare help differ in one structural way: SHIP is paid by federal grants, a broker is paid commissions by insurance companies, and a fee-only advisor is paid a flat fee by you — and by no one else.

• SHIP counselor

  Costs you: nothing

  Paid by: federal grants

  Sells plans: no

  What you get: unbiased counseling and comparison help

  Funded through the Administration for Community Living; not affiliated with any insurance company.

• Insurance agent or broker

  Costs you: nothing out of pocket

  Paid by: insurance-company commissions

  Sells plans: yes — the plans they hold contracts to sell

  What you get: comparison and enrollment, from their menu

  Commissions are paid per enrollment, with renewal commissions each year you stay on the plan — for 2026, capped at $694 for a first-year Medicare Advantage enrollment and $114 for a first-year drug-plan enrollment in most of the country; a few states, including California and New Jersey, run higher (CMS contract year 2026 compensation memo). Medigap commissions are separate, state-regulated percentages of premium. Many brokers are excellent; the structure means both the menu and the paycheck come from the insurance companies — which is why federal rule 42 CFR 422.2267(e)(41) requires brokers who don't offer every plan in your area to tell you so ("We do not offer every plan available in your area") and to state how many organizations and plans they do represent.

• Fee-only Medicare advisor

  Costs you: a flat fee, stated up front

  Paid by: you, and no one else

  Sells plans: no

  What you get: a specific written recommendation

  No carrier contracts limit the menu, and no commission sits behind the advice.

Sources: CMS Contract Year 2026 agent and broker compensation memo (June 18, 2025); 42 CFR 422.2274 and 422.2267(e)(41); Florida Statutes 626.311(6).

Where SHIP's free model has limits

None of what follows is a criticism of SHIP counselors. The limits are structural — they come from how the program is built, not from how hard the people work.

• Counseling is one service; a written recommendation is another. SHIP describes its own service as objective insurance counseling — a counselor explains your options and helps you compare them, and medicare.gov says SHIPs help people choose a plan. What a paid engagement adds is the shape of the deliverable: one professional who takes in your whole situation, puts a specific recommendation in writing with the reasoning shown, and stays with it through follow-up.
• Demand follows the calendar. Everyone's plan-change window falls in the same few weeks each fall. In KFF's analysis of 2021 program data (KFF is a nonpartisan health policy research nonprofit), one-third of the year's one-on-one sessions happened during the six-week open enrollment period, and the average session ran about 33 minutes.
• One session at a time. SHIP's published scope is built around sessions: the question you bring in, answered. Nothing in it describes a year-round engagement where one person tracks the whole picture — your drugs, your doctors, your spouse's different situation, next year's income.
• Scope has edges. SHIP's published scope covers enrollment, plan comparison, cost programs, and appeals. It does not include the places where Medicare crosses into money strategy: timing retirement income around IRMAA's two-year lookback (IRMAA is Medicare's income surcharge), a Roth conversion that would cross a bracket line, or Medigap medical-underwriting strategy when you're thinking of switching. (Some SHIPs do offer education on premium appeals; the appeal itself is a Social Security process, Form SSA-44.) Those questions sit outside SHIP's published scope.

When free help is enough

Start with SHIP — and keep your money — if most of these describe you:

• Your situation is simple: settled doctors, few prescriptions, one state, no employer coverage in the mix
• You mainly need enrollment mechanics — which window, which form, what deadline
• You want a knowledgeable second opinion on an enrollment question — a window, a form, a deadline
• You're comfortable doing the comparison work yourself with a counselor's help, using Medicare's official plan-comparison tool at medicare.gov — free, and it covers the Medicare Advantage and Part D plans available in your area (Medigap has its own separate lookup)

When paying a Medicare advisor makes sense

Consider a paid, fee-only advisor when the decision is complex enough — or expensive enough to get wrong — that you want a specific recommendation and a person accountable for it:

• You and your spouse have different doctors, drugs, and priorities, and need two coordinated answers
• You have employer or retiree coverage in the mix, or you're still working past age 65
• Your income sits near the IRMAA brackets, where one dollar over a line can cost about $1,736 more a year, per person on Medicare — roughly $3,473 for a couple with both spouses enrolled (CMS 2026 premium tables; our IRMAA explainer has the full brackets)
• You're weighing Medigap against Medicare Advantage — the one decision that's hard to undo, because coming back to Medigap later usually means medical underwriting — and want it argued for your case, not just described
• You want the work done on your timeline, with follow-up until it's settled

If three or more of those describe you, the free model was not built for your situation. The fastest way to settle it is a short call — (850) 810-1000 — and the call is a fit check, not a sales conversation.

What a flat fee buys — and what it costs

Jason Baar's packages run $250 to $1,000, flat and stated up front: a written analysis in a PDF report, phone time, and email follow-up, ending in a specific recommendation with the reasoning shown. No commissions, ever — the Florida license forbids them. 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. 45 Days. No Questions Asked. Details are on the pricing page; if you're unsure a package is worth it for your situation, call (850) 810-1000 and ask.

Questions people ask about SHIP and paid Medicare help

Deciding whether to hire anyone at all? The companion page — questions to ask before hiring a Medicare advisor — is the checklist to bring to that conversation, with the answers a trustworthy advisor should give.

For the printout: www.JasonKnowsMedicare.com · (850) 810-1000 · Your state SHIP: shiphelp.org · 877-839-2675 · Florida SHINE: 1-800-963-5337.