About MediNav

When my parents aged into Medicare, four brokers called them in a single week. Each one was friendly. Each “recommended” the plan that paid them the most. None mentioned that Original Medicare + Medigap might be a better fit. Two didn't even ask about the prescriptions my mom takes daily.

This is normal. Brokers earn roughly twice as much recommending a Medicare Advantage plan as they do Original Medicare + Medigap. The pressure to steer is structural, and there's no neutral counterweight built for the person sitting at the kitchen table.

MediNav is that counterweight. It pulls real CMS data — every Medicare plan available in Wisconsin, every formulary, every Star rating — and ranks them against what actually matters to you: your doctors, your prescriptions, how predictable you want your costs to be. The math is visible. Nobody pays us to put a plan on top.

• A free comparison tool — no fees, no registration, no email required.
• Wisconsin-focused — eligibility for BadgerCare and WI Medicaid programs, county-by-county Medicare plan landscape, WI-specific Medigap rules.
• Real CMS data — refreshed monthly from the CMS Landscape, Plan Benefit Package, and Monthly PUF datasets. See our methodology page for sources.
• Neutral — no broker affiliations, no paid placement, no per-plan referral fees.
• Open source — code on GitHub. Issues and corrections accepted.

• Not an insurance company.We don't sell plans, take applications, or process enrollments.
• Not a brokerage. No commissions, no sales pressure, nobody on commission.
• Not affiliated with the federal Medicare program. Medicare.gov is the authoritative federal source. We're a third-party comparison tool that links to them.
• Not a substitute for SHIP, an attorney, or a licensed broker. For specific legal or enrollment situations, see our WI resources page.

• Neutral by design.No per-plan referral fees. No paid placement. No “sponsored” plans.
• Show the math. Every number cites a source. Every methodology choice is documented.
• Uncertainty is a feature.If a provider directory is known to be inaccurate, we say so. If we don't have data for a field, we show “—” instead of inventing a number.
• Plain English. Every screen should be readable by a 72-year-old. If you have to stop and think how, we failed. File an issue.
• Data minimization. We only collect what the comparison actually uses. Photos for vision extraction stream and drop. Lead form info gets sent once and stored encrypted.
• WI-first.We launched here, and we won't expand to a new state until we've done the data work to be as accurate elsewhere.

• Every methodology choice is documented in /methodology.
• Every content review is described in /editorial-process.
• Every shipped feature is in /roadmap.
• Every commit is public on GitHub.
• Material errors get a correction footer and a commit with rationale.

MediNav is built by Justin Nichols, an engineer based in Wisconsin. No insurance industry ties, no venture capital, no plan-brokerage affiliations. The site started as a tool for my own family and grew into something I want every WI senior to have access to.

Brutally honest feedback is more valuable than polite praise. If something is wrong, confusing, broken, or missing — please tell me.