As Medicare open enrollment begins, millions of seniors will have to pick a new plan

Open enrollment for Medicare starts on Thursday. Seniors will have until early December to review their health insurance options for next year and sign up for either a traditional Medicare plan through the federal government or a Medicare Advantage plan through a private insurance company.

Millions of people who currently have Medicare Advantage plans may have no choice but to pick a new one, according to a couple of different analyses. That’s because a number of major insurers, including UnitedHealthcare and Blue Cross and Blue Shield, are dropping some of their plans this year.

More than half of people on Medicare have an Advantage plan through a private insurance company. In recent weeks, many have received notices telling them their current plan isn’t being offered in 2027 and they’ll have to pick a new one.

“It happens every year, to some extent,” said Jeannie Fuglesten Biniek, deputy director for the Program on Medicare Policy at the health policy nonprofit KFF.

But it is becoming more common, she said. “We have seen last year and this year that there has been somewhat more disruption in the Medicare Advantage market.”

She said that’s largely because of recent policy changes at the federal level reducing how much private insurers get reimbursed for Medicare Advantage.

On top of that, Vivian Ho, a health economist at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine, said that healthcare costs are rising, and that seniors are using more medical care these days.

“For insurers, it's less profit for them, so they're less excited about being in this market,” she said.

People who live in cities or in the suburbs will likely still have plenty of Medicare Advantage options to choose from, Ho said, even if their current plan is going away.

“The seniors who are living in smaller rural areas are going to be the ones who are going to have the hardest time finding a Medicare Advantage plan,” she said.

Some will have no option but to go with a traditional Medicare plan through the federal government, which Ho said can end up being more expensive.