Insurers drop Medicare Advantage plans for 1 million seniors

Humana and UnitedHealthcare are ending Medicare Advantage plans that cover close to 1 million people for 2027, and a new analysis of county-level data shows that insurers across the market are pulling out of hundreds of counties, according to CBS News reporting and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

CBS News reported on October 23 that the two companies together are discontinuing plans for about 1 million people age 65 or older. Humana said in a statement that “we anticipate plan exits for 2027 will impact approximately 600,000 members.” The company said most affected members will be offered an alternative plan. UnitedHealthcare is closing one Medicare Advantage plan that affects roughly 390,000 members, who will be able to move to another UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan. The company cited “higher costs and increased plan usage,” which it said affect the whole health care industry.

Humana’s chief financial officer, Celeste Mellet, said on a July earnings call that about 600,000 people are in a Humana plan that ends in 2027, about 8% of the company’s nearly 7.2 million Medicare Advantage members. She said Humana hopes to “recapture a significant portion” of those members and took a “targeted” approach rather than cutting “uniformly across the board,” Healthcare Brew reported. UnitedHealthcare President Bobby Hunter said on the company’s October 13 earnings call that it focused its 2027 cuts on PPO plans, continuing a strategy that prioritizes HMOs and special needs plans.

Counties losing insurers

A KFF analysis published October 9 counted the county-level changes for 2027. UnitedHealth Group is leaving 228 counties and entering nine. It will offer plans in about 70% of counties, down from nearly 80% in 2026. Humana is leaving 62 counties and entering four, and will offer plans in about 80% of counties, similar to 2026.

Other insurers are also shrinking their footprints. KFF found that Health Care Service Corporation is leaving 498 counties and entering none. Centene is leaving 359 and entering 15. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Mutual Insurance Company is leaving 177 and entering one, and will offer Medicare Advantage plans with drug coverage only in Michigan and Wyoming. CVS Health is leaving 186 counties and entering 63. Elevance Health is leaving 66 and entering 10. Devoted Health is entering 342 counties and leaving none. Group 1001 and Molina Healthcare are leaving the market for general enrollment plans with drug coverage entirely, KFF reported, though Molina still offers special needs plans in many counties.

KFF found that 193 counties will have no Medicare Advantage plan with drug coverage open to general enrollment in 2027, up from 123 in 2026. Those counties hold about 638,000 beneficiaries, or 1% of the total, up from 399,000 last year. They are in 16 states plus U.S. territories other than Puerto Rico. New Hampshire, North Dakota and Oklahoma were added to the list compared with 2026. Alaska has no such plans for general enrollment, which affects about 110,000 beneficiaries. In four Minnesota counties, Brown, Lake of the Woods, Morrison and Renville, each lost three insurers.

Fewer choices, more benefit changes

KFF found that 20% of beneficiaries can choose from more than 40 plans with drug coverage in 2027, concentrated in 4% of counties. In 2026, 27% of beneficiaries, in 6% of counties, had that many options. The average beneficiary will have 28 such plans to choose from. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, has the most of any county, with 66.

Healthcare Brew reported that experts say insurers are raising cost-sharing, narrowing networks and cutting supplemental benefits after a spike in use and medical costs. An October 1 analysis by Leerink Partners of the Medicare Plan Finder found that many major carriers cut dental benefits and raised cost-sharing for 2027, though they typically kept primary care costs the same. Humana was the only one of four insurers singled out in the analysis that did not decrease dental allowances. Alexis Levy, a senior partner at HealthScape Advisors, said, “A senior may be able to keep their plan, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to have the same level of benefit.”

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services described the 2027 plan options as “stable,” with lower average premiums, according to Healthcare Brew. The agency did not respond to a request for comment from the publication.

The Healthcare Brew report also cited a KFF analysis finding that about 4 million people in standalone Part D drug plans who had $0 premiums last year no longer do. People who receive the low-income subsidy may still get $0 premiums.

Healthcare Brew reported that UnitedHealth had 7.6 million Medicare Advantage members at the end of the third quarter.