Plain version: outside open enrollment, a Medigap insurer may generally underwrite. Certain events, though, give a person a guaranteed issue right: the insurer must sell certain plans without looking at health and without a preexisting condition exclusion. California also limits how commissions are paid, so agents gain nothing by churning policies.

Medicare Advantage plan ends (§10192.12): when a Medicare Advantage plan involuntarily ends a person's enrollment, for example by leaving the county, the guaranteed issue period starts when the person receives the notice and ends 63 days after coverage terminates. The 63 days run from termination, not from the notice. Separately, §10192.11(g) adds a 60-day open enrollment period after the federal period for a person whose Medicare Advantage coverage was terminated.

Trial right: a person who drops a Medigap policy, joins a Medicare Advantage plan for the first time and leaves within the first 12 months is an eligible person. She is entitled to the same policy she most recently had, if the same issuer still offers it; if not, to Plan A, B, C, F, K, L, M or N from any issuer. For people newly eligible for Medicare on or after January 1, 2020, the C and F references read as D and G. The issuer may not impose a preexisting condition exclusion, and leaving voluntarily does not defeat the right.

Commissions (§10192.16): - First-year commission may be no more than 200% of the commission paid in the second year. - Renewal commission in later years must equal the second-year amount and be paid for at least five renewal years. - When a policy is replaced, compensation may not exceed the replacing issuer's renewal compensation. - "Commission" includes bonuses, gifts, prizes, awards and finders' fees. Example: a $150 second-year commission caps the first-year commission at $300.