By Paul Barrett, CMIP | The Modern Medicare Agency | Independent, licensed in 34 states Last updated: July 2026
If you’ve watched even one Medicare commercial this year, you’ve probably heard some version of: “You could get money back in your Social Security check!” That’s the Part B giveback, and it’s one of the most talked-about — and most misunderstood — benefits in Medicare Advantage. Let’s slow down and actually explain it, because the honest version is more useful than the commercial version.
I’m independent — I represent more than 40 carriers — so nothing here is written to sell you on a giveback plan. It’s written so you understand exactly what you’re being offered before you decide if it’s worth it.
WHAT THE GIVEBACK ACTUALLY IS
Everyone with Medicare Part B pays a monthly premium — $202.90 in 2026. Most people have this deducted automatically from their Social Security check. Some Medicare Advantage plans offer to cover part or all of that premium for you. That’s the “giveback,” also called a Part B premium reduction.
Here’s the part that matters: you don’t get a check in the mail. If your Part B premium comes out of Social Security, your deduction gets smaller, so your Social Security check gets a little bigger. If you pay Medicare directly, your bill gets smaller instead. It’s real money in your pocket — it’s just delivered as a lower deduction, not a deposit.
WHERE THIS MONEY ACTUALLY COMES FROM
This is the part most commercials skip entirely, and it’s worth understanding. Each year, Medicare sets a spending benchmark for what it expects to cost to cover an average person in a given area. Medicare Advantage plans submit bids for what they think it’ll actually cost them. When a plan bids below that benchmark, Medicare pays them a rebate — and the plan is required to put that rebate toward extra member benefits, which can include reducing your Part B premium, adding dental or vision coverage, or lowering other costs.
So the giveback isn’t the carrier being generous out of nowhere. It’s the carrier choosing to direct some of its rebate money toward your Part B premium instead of toward something else, like a lower deductible or a richer dental allowance. Every plan makes a different choice about where that rebate money goes — which is exactly why “how much giveback” isn’t the only question worth asking.
THE HONEST TRUTH: MOST GIVEBACKS ARE SMALLER THAN THE ADS SUGGEST
This is the single most important thing to understand before you get excited about a giveback plan. Nationally, among people enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan with a giveback benefit, about half are in plans offering less than $10 a month. Only around a third are in plans offering $50 or more. The eye-catching numbers you see in ads — $150, $185 — exist, but they’re the exception, not the rule, and they tend to be concentrated in a handful of competitive markets. Los Angeles County happens to be one of those markets, which is part of why you’re seeing so much giveback marketing here specifically.
For 2026, roughly a quarter of all Medicare Advantage plans nationwide offer some form of Part B premium reduction — down slightly from the year before, after several years of steady growth. So most plans still don’t offer this at all, and the ones that do vary enormously in how much they actually give back.
HOW MUCH IS ACTUALLY AVAILABLE IN LA COUNTY — VERIFIED, PLAN BY PLAN
Los Angeles County is genuinely one of the more competitive giveback markets in the country, and here’s a real, verified list confirmed directly from 2026 CMS plan data for the Long Beach/Santa Monica/Pasadena area. Medicare Advantage plans are priced at the county level, so this same lineup and these same dollar amounts apply across ZIP codes throughout LA County:
Highest giveback amounts confirmed:
- SCAN Essential Savings (HMO): $185/month — includes prescription drug coverage, $250 Rx deductible (Tiers 1 and 2 excluded)
- Alignment Health L.A. Premium Giveback (HMO): $185/month — includes prescription drug coverage
- Astiva Health Savings Plan (HMO): $185/month — includes prescription drug coverage, $50 Rx deductible
- Alignment Health smartHMO (HMO): $164.90/month — includes drug coverage, $2,499 out-of-pocket max
- Alignment Health smartSavings (HMO): $150/month — includes drug coverage
Mid-range giveback amounts confirmed:
- Alignment Health ValorCare (HMO): $125/month — includes drug coverage, $6,000 out-of-pocket max
- Central Health Part B Savings Plan (HMO): $120/month — includes drug coverage, $2,900 out-of-pocket max
- Humana Gold Plus Giveback (HMO): $105/month — includes drug coverage (3,359 formulary drugs), $2,700 out-of-pocket max
- Central Health Valor Care Plan (HMO): $79/month — no drug coverage, only 14 members enrolled locally (a very small, newer plan)
- Humana USAA Honor Giveback (PPO): $75/month — no drug coverage, built for USAA/veteran members
- Aetna Medicare Eagle (PPO): $65/month — no drug coverage
- Humana USAA Honor Giveback (HMO): $65/month — no drug coverage, built for USAA/veteran members
- Anthem I CareMore Premium Savings (HMO-POS): $62.10/month — includes drug coverage, a notably low $1,000 out-of-pocket max
Lower giveback amounts confirmed:
- AARP Medicare Advantage Giveback from UHC CA-19 (HMO-POS): $35/month — includes drug coverage
- AARP Medicare Advantage Patriot No Rx (HMO-POS): $25/month — no drug coverage, higher $4,900 out-of-pocket max
A few real patterns worth noticing here: the biggest giveback numbers aren’t always paired with drug coverage — several of the “no Rx” plans (Aetna Eagle, both Humana USAA Honor plans, AARP Patriot No Rx) skip prescription coverage entirely, which only makes sense if you’re getting medications elsewhere, like through the VA. And the plan with the lowest out-of-pocket max in this entire list — Anthem CareMore Premium Savings, at just $1,000 — isn’t the plan with the highest giveback. That’s a perfect real-world example of the trade-off explained below.
Important: these are current 2026 figures, confirmed for the Long Beach/Santa Monica/Pasadena ZIP cluster specifically. Giveback amounts are set plan-by-plan and can change every year during the Annual Enrollment Period, and other parts of LA County outside this cluster may occasionally have a different plan lineup. Always confirm the current, exact figure for your specific address using Medicare.gov’s Plan Finder or Q1Medicare before enrolling.
WHY THE BIGGEST GIVEBACK ISN'T ALWAYS THE BEST DEAL
Here’s the trade-off nobody puts in the commercial: a plan can choose to put its rebate money toward a big giveback, or toward a lower out-of-pocket maximum, or a richer dental allowance, or a broader doctor network. It generally can’t do all of it at maximum strength at the same time. So a plan advertising a huge giveback may be quietly thinner in another area — a smaller provider network, higher specialist copays, or fewer supplemental benefits.
The real question isn’t “which plan gives back the most.” It’s “which plan gives me the most total value once I add up the giveback, the out-of-pocket costs, and whether my doctors and medications are actually covered.” A $150 giveback is worth nothing if your cardiologist isn’t in the network and you end up paying out of pocket for a specialist visit that costs more than a year of giveback savings.
A SIMPLE WAY TO THINK ABOUT IT
Picture your Social Security check going from $1,400 to $1,550 a month because of a $150 giveback. That’s genuinely great — as long as everything else about the plan still works for you. But if that same plan means driving 40 minutes to see an in-network specialist instead of the doctor five minutes from your house, the math on “value” gets a lot more complicated than the commercial made it look.
PAUL'S HONEST TAKE
I like giveback plans when they’re the right fit — extra money in your Social Security check is real money, and I never want to talk anyone out of a legitimate benefit. But I’ve seen people switch plans chasing a bigger giveback number and lose access to a doctor they’d seen for fifteen years. That’s not a good trade, no matter how big the check gets. My approach is always the same: let’s look at your specific doctors and medications first, and treat the giveback as one factor among several — not the reason to choose a plan on its own.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
It’s completely real and has existed since 2003. The confusion comes from marketing that makes it sound like free money, when it’s actually the carrier directing part of its Medicare rebate toward your premium instead of toward other benefits.
If your Part B premium is deducted from Social Security, your deduction gets smaller, increasing your check. If you pay your premium directly, your bill gets smaller. You never receive a separate check or deposit.
Yes — by law, the giveback amount must be the same for every enrollee in a given plan. It varies by plan and location, but not by individual within the same plan.
Possibly, yes. Giveback plans are regular Medicare Advantage plans with their own provider networks, and switching plans to chase a giveback can mean switching doctors too. Always check your specific doctors and medications against a plan’s network before enrolling.
Based on fully verified 2026 plan data, three plans currently tie for the highest confirmed giveback in the area: SCAN Essential Savings, Alignment Health L.A. Premium Giveback, and Astiva Health Savings Plan, all at $185/month. Several other Alignment plans follow close behind ($125–$165/month). Humana, Central Health, Aetna, Anthem/CareMore, and UnitedHealthcare all offer smaller giveback amounts on select LA County plans, generally in the $25–$120/month range. Exact amounts can change annually and should be confirmed on Medicare.gov’s Plan Finder for your specific address.
No — this is an important detail to check. Some giveback plans, including certain Humana Honor plans, don’t include Part D prescription drug coverage at all. These plans are often designed for people who already get their medications through the VA. If you need drug coverage, always confirm this before enrolling in a giveback plan, not after.
Want help figuring out whether a giveback plan is actually a good deal for your specific doctors and prescriptions? Call or text 631-358-5793. No pressure, no cost, just a real answer based on your situation.
RELATED READING
- SCAN Health Plan in Los Angeles County: An Honest 2026 Review https://www.paulbinsurance.com/scan-health-plan-los-angeles/
- Alignment Health Plan in Los Angeles County: An Honest 2026 Review https://www.paulbinsurance.com/alignment-health-plan-los-angeles/
- SCAN vs. Alignment vs. Kaiser: Which Medicare Advantage Plan Fits Your LA Neighborhood? https://www.paulbinsurance.com/scan-vs-alignment-vs-kaiser-los-angeles/
- Best Medicare Advantage Plans in Los Angeles for 2026 (Carrier-by-Carrier Breakdown) https://www.paulbinsurance.com/best-medicare-advantage-plans-in-los-angeles-for-2026-carrier-by-carrier-breakdown/
SOURCES
- MedicareResources.org — How the Medicare Part B Premium Reduction Might Save You Money: https://www.medicareresources.org/medicare-eligibility-and-enrollment/how-the-medicare-part-b-giveback-might-save-you-money/
- U.S. News — Understanding the Medicare Part B Giveback Benefit: https://health.usnews.com/medicare/articles/understanding-the-medicare-part-b-giveback-benefit
- Devoted Health — Medicare Part B Giveback: How It Works and Who Qualifies: https://www.devoted.com/resources/medicare-part-b-giveback/
- Medicare.gov Plan Finder: https://www.medicare.gov/plan-compare
- Q1Medicare.com — Los Angeles County 2026 Medicare Advantage Plan Finder (non-government, CMS-data-based): https://q1medicare.com/mafinder/2026/ca/
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We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.
