Plan G vs Plan N in South Carolina: A Gap That Grows With Age

By Anthony Orner, Independent Licensed Medicare Insurance Broker · South Carolina filed rates pulled September 11, 2026, CSG Actuarial · Greenville County (ZIP 29690)

Published October 17, 2026 · Filed rates pulled September 11, 2026 · Source: CSG Actuarial · Profile: female, non-tobacco, individual, no household discount

In Greenville County, South Carolina, Bankers Fidelity Assurance files the cheapest Plan G at $114.30 and the cheapest Plan N at $83.39 for a 65-year-old woman who does not use tobacco (CSG Actuarial, pulled September 11, 2026). That is $30.91 a month, $371 a year, about 18 office copays. On today's tables the same floors sit $45.27 apart at 80.

That $83.39 is the cheapest flagship-county Plan N among the 28 state files we hold. The gap to Plan G is on the narrow side: 20 of the other 27 files have a wider floor gap. And because none of the 25 carriers prices on issue age, the gap you see at 65 is not the gap you keep. Both premiums climb with birthdays.

Broker pay comes from the carrier. Your filed premium is the same with or without us.

24 South Carolina Carriers, Both Letters, Sorted by the Gap

Each row is one company's Plan G and Plan N in Greenville County at 65, matched by NAIC code. Red means Plan N is filed at or above the same company's Plan G; amber means the two sit under $20 apart.

ZIP 29690, CSG Actuarial filings pulled September 11, 2026; each carrier's lowest filed class, no household discount. The rank in parentheses is the carrier's place among the 25 Plan G and 24 Plan N filings in Greenville County. The last column is the carrier's most recent Plan G filing and its Plan N change on the same date. Physicians Mutual shows no standard Plan N line in the file.

United American files Plan N $36.00 above its own Plan G, the red row. There, Plan G is the only sensible letter. Nassau Life Insurance Company prices the two $19.39 apart, less than one office copay a month. The deepest Plan N discounts, as a share of Plan G, are GPM Health and Life at 49% and Washington National at 39%. Washington National files the second-cheapest Plan N in Greenville County and only the sixth-cheapest Plan G.

The middle of the 24 pairs is a $44.87 gap. Of the Plan N filings, 12 cost as much as or more than the cheapest Plan G in the county, $114.30. Pick a dear carrier and its Plan N can cost more than a cheap carrier's Plan G.

Attained Age: The Gap Grows as You Do

Of the 25 carriers, 23 price on attained age and the rest are tagged community rated. None uses issue age. At an attained-age carrier both letters follow the age table, so the rows below preview where a policy bought at 65 is heading, before any filing. The floor gap is $30.91 at 65 and $45.27 at 80. As a share of the Plan G floor it barely moves, about 27% at 65 and 26% at 80; the dollars grow because both premiums do.

Floors are the cheapest filing in Greenville County at that age; medians are statewide. Floor carrier at every age: Bankers Fidelity Assurance. Copays divide a year of the floor gap by the $20 office cap.

When a Filing Moves One Letter and Not the Other

Each letter is priced on its own. At 7 of the 24 carriers, the latest filing moved Plan G and Plan N by different amounts: Washington National +20.00% on G against 0.00% on N (August 2026), Guarantee Trust Life +7.90% on G against 0.00% on N (May 2026) and Nassau Life Insurance Company +7.00% on G against +14.00% on N (October 2025). At Nassau Life Insurance Company, United American and GPM Health and Life, the Plan N percentage was the larger of the two.

Of the 24 pairs, 21 carry a latest Plan G filing dated this year. The largest Plan G filing in the state records is AARP / UnitedHealthcare (NAIC 84549) at +20.44%, effective June 1, 2026. On an attained-age policy a filing lands on top of the birthday step, so the last column of the pair table is worth reading twice. Every state's list is on 2026 Medigap rate increases.

The Gap by County

The floor pair sits $30.91 apart in Greenville, Richland, Lexington, York, Anderson, Sumter and Pickens, and $34.66 apart in Charleston, Beaufort, Berkeley, Dorchester, Florence and Aiken. On the dearer line the cheapest Plan N comes from Washington National, not Bankers Fidelity Assurance. So the county moves the gap by $3.75, while across carriers it runs as wide as $122.22.

Narrowest gap first, each county at its own sample ZIP, same profile. Horry County, Spartanburg County and Laurens County are held out because the pull quoted them through a ZIP in another county.

What Plan N Hands Back

Next to Plan G, Plan N gives back three things. Up to $20 at some office visits. Up to $50 at an ER visit that does not end in admission. And any Part B excess charge, the up to 15% above the approved amount that a doctor who does not accept assignment may bill. Plan G pays all three. Both pay the $1,736 Part A deductible; neither pays the $283 Part B deductible.

So Plan N fits someone who sees a doctor a handful of times a year and uses doctors who take assignment. Plan G fits someone in regular treatment, or anyone who would rather never see a copay. At the Greenville County floor, the copays would need to pass $371 in a year before Plan G came out ahead on cost.

South Carolina held 23,382 Plan N policies at the December 2023 NAIC count, 8.5% of 275,034, or 20 for every 100 on Plan G. That Plan N share ranks 15 of 28 in our file. Plan F, closed to anyone new to Medicare since 2020, still held 114,254, 41.5% of the market, the sixth-largest Plan F share of the 28. A Plan F holder looking at N or G outside open enrollment answers health questions unless a guaranteed-issue right applies.

Methodology

• Every premium is a filed rate read at build time from the South Carolina file of our licensed CSG Actuarial pull dated September 11, 2026. Nothing is typed.
• Profile: woman, non-tobacco, individual, no household discount, ZIP 29690 in Greenville County, at the age shown; each carrier's lowest filed rate class.
• A pair is one NAIC code's Plan G and Plan N. The gap is that company's Plan G minus its Plan N; the floor gap is the cheapest G minus the cheapest N, whoever files each.
• The latest-filing column pairs a carrier's most recent Plan G change with its Plan N change on the same effective date.
• Direct-to-consumer, guaranteed-issue and bundled Plan G classes are excluded, as is any row above four times the state median. Blue Cross Blue Shield's guarantee-issue classes are among the exclusions, so its pair uses the classes left in the file.
• State rule: the NAIC's state Medigap rules chart (as of May 11, 2026) shows no birthday rule for South Carolina.
• Cross-state ranks compare South Carolina with the 28 state files holding both letters at 65. Enrollment counts are NAIC's statewide totals by plan letter, December 2023.
• The copay caps and both deductibles come from one 2026 federal figures file.

Anthony Orner, NPN 20586791, 1309 Route 70 West, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002, 855-559-1700, licensed in South Carolina and 33 other states. MedicareYourself (EasyKind Medicare) is an independent brokerage with no affiliation to Medicare, CMS or any carrier. We do not offer every plan available in your area; contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE for all options.