Medicare Help in Santa Barbara County
From Carpinteria to Santa Maria, Lompoc and the Santa Ynez Valley. An independent agency on State Street that compares Medicare Supplement, Medicare Advantage and Part D against your own doctors, at no charge.
Medicare in Santa Barbara County, in numbers
About 86,500 people in Santa Barbara County were on Medicare in June 2026, according to the CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment data. Only about 20 percent of them were in a Medicare Advantage plan. Across California the figure is about 51 percent.
That gap has been there for years. The county was at 14 percent in 2013 and has crept up slowly since, while most of the state moved past the halfway mark. In practice it means roughly four out of five people on Medicare here are on Original Medicare, most of them with a Medicare Supplement and a standalone Part D drug plan.
We have been helping people in this county with Medicare since 1996, from an office upstairs at 1221 State Street. Most of our Medicare clients choose a Supplement. We also enroll clients in Medicare Advantage plans, and we compare the two honestly with everyone.
Why the Supplement is the usual answer here
Medicare Advantage plans are built around networks, and networks are built by contracting with local medical groups and hospitals. Santa Barbara County has relatively few of them, and a single large group, Sansum Clinic, sees a very large share of the South County's patients. When one contract does not renew, thousands of people can find their doctors out of network at once. That happened here on January 1 2025, and the details are on Supplement or Advantage on the Central Coast.
A Medicare Supplement has no network. Any doctor or hospital in the country that accepts Medicare accepts it, which matters to people who see specialists in Los Angeles, spend part of the year somewhere else, or simply do not want to recheck a network every autumn. Plan G and Plan N are the two we are asked about most.
Advantage is still the right answer for some people here, usually when the premium of a Supplement does not fit comfortably in the budget and every doctor you use is in the plan's network. We will tell you which side of that line you are on.
What changes here for 2027
CMS published its list of 2027 plans in September. The county's short list of Medicare Advantage plans gets shorter: one national insurer is withdrawing its Advantage plans from Santa Barbara County, and from Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties as well. CMS says the list can still change while contracts are finalized.
If your Advantage plan is leaving, it will send you a letter this fall. You will have a special enrollment period to choose another plan, and when a plan leaves the area you also gain a time limited right to buy certain Medicare Supplement policies without answering health questions. That right is short, so call us as soon as the letter arrives rather than waiting for the Annual Enrollment Period to end.
The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 to December 7. Changes made then take effect January 1.
Doctors and hospitals to check before you choose
North County and South County are different medical markets, and an Advantage plan that works in Santa Barbara may not suit someone in Santa Maria. Whichever way you lean, write down the names you intend to keep and we will check them with you.
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Cottage Health. Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, and Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital in Solvang. The hospital matters as much as the doctor: the admission is the expensive part.
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Sansum Clinic. The largest medical group in the South County, part of Sutter Health since 2023. Ask which Advantage networks include it this year, because that answer can change at a contract renewal.
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Marian Regional Medical Center. Dignity Health's hospital in Santa Maria, with its Pacific Central Coast Health Centers clinics across the North County.
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Lompoc Valley Medical Center. The public district hospital in Lompoc, with its own Lompoc Health clinics.
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Community clinics. Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics in the South County, and Community Health Centers of the Central Coast in Santa Maria, Guadalupe, Los Alamos, Lompoc and New Cuyama.
Kaiser Permanente does not operate in Santa Barbara County. If you are moving here from a Kaiser area, your Kaiser Medicare plan will not follow you, and the move opens a special enrollment period to choose something new.
Free local help that is not us
Social Security, Santa Barbara office: 122 West Figueroa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, phone 1-866-695-6285. It serves the South County and the Santa Ynez Valley.
Social Security, Santa Maria office: 2436 Professional Parkway, Santa Maria, CA 93455, phone 1-866-331-2316. It serves Santa Maria, Orcutt, Guadalupe, New Cuyama and Lompoc. There is no office in Lompoc itself.
HICAP: California's free, unbiased Medicare counseling program. In Santa Barbara County it is run by Family Service Agency, which took over from the Central Coast Commission for Senior Citizens in 2026. Call (805) 842-5148, or the statewide line at 1-800-434-0222.
Medi-Cal: CenCal Health runs Medi-Cal in Santa Barbara County. If you qualify for both Medicare and Medi-Cal, your choices and your enrollment rights are different, and worth a separate conversation with us.
Most Social Security business, including applying for Medicare, can be done online at SSA.gov without a visit. Our apply for Medicare checklist walks through it.
Working with us from anywhere in the county
Our office is in downtown Santa Barbara, upstairs in Victoria Court across State Street from the Granada Theatre. South County clients often come in. For people in Santa Maria, which is about 75 miles up the 101, or in Lompoc, most of the work happens by phone, and the paperwork can be done without a trip.
A first Medicare appointment takes about an hour. We explain every option, check your doctors and your prescriptions, and complete the enrollment with you. After that we stay: claims questions, billing problems and plan changes are part of the service, and we contact you before each Annual Enrollment Period.
Turning 65 soon? Start with Turning 65 in Santa Barbara County, the month by month timeline we use with clients here.
Questions we hear from Santa Barbara County
Short answers. Call us for the long ones.
Do you help people in the North County, or only in Santa Barbara?
We help people across the whole county, including Santa Maria, Orcutt, Lompoc, Guadalupe and the Santa Ynez Valley. You are welcome in the office, and most North County clients work with us by phone.
Do you sell Medicare Supplement plans or Medicare Advantage plans?
Both. We enroll clients in Medicare Supplement plans, usually with a standalone Part D drug plan, and in Medicare Advantage plans. Most of our Medicare clients in this county choose a Supplement. We compare both against your own doctors, hospitals and prescriptions before you decide.
We do not offer every plan available in your area. For information on all of your options, contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE.
How common is Medicare Advantage in Santa Barbara County?
Less common than almost anywhere else in California. About 20 percent of people on Medicare here were in an Advantage plan in June 2026, against about 51 percent statewide, according to CMS enrollment data.
What does your help cost?
Nothing. The insurance company pays the agent, and your premium is the same whether you enroll through us or directly. There is never a charge for our services.
Where is the nearest Social Security office?
122 West Figueroa Street in Santa Barbara for the South County and the Santa Ynez Valley, and 2436 Professional Parkway in Santa Maria for the North County, including Lompoc. You can apply for Medicare online without visiting either one.
Is there free Medicare counseling in Santa Barbara County?
Yes. HICAP, the state's Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program, is run here by Family Service Agency at (805) 842-5148. HICAP counselors do not sell insurance. We are glad to work alongside them.
A local answer to a local question
We work in this county every week and we watch these networks. When a contract changes, we know which of our clients it touches and what window it opens. That is the practical value of an independent local agency over a call center reading a national script.
Bring your list of doctors, your prescriptions and your Medicare start date. We will tell you plainly what we would do, including when the honest answer is to keep the coverage you already have.
Or call us at (805) 966-4900. There is never a charge for our help.
About this page. The organizations, websites and rules described here change from time to time, and what you see may not match this page exactly. It was checked on October 1, 2026. If something looks different, or you get stuck at any point, call us at (805) 966-4900 and we will walk you through it.
Medicare Help in Santa Barbara County
Call, visit the office on State Street, or ask for a phone appointment. There is never a charge for our services.