More Medicare Advantage plans are disappearing for 2027
Several major insurers are pulling Medicare Advantage plans out of markets for 2027, hundreds of thousands of members combined. If yours is one of them, the letter saying so is arriving now — and it starts a clock most people don’t know about.
Last week’s note about the Annual Notice of Change covered the routine version of this letter — premium shifts, formulary tweaks, network changes. This year, for a meaningful number of people, the letter says something bigger: the plan itself won’t exist in 2027.
Several of the largest Medicare Advantage insurers have confirmed 2027 market exits, and the combined number of affected members runs into the hundreds of thousands.
| Humana | Confirmed exits affecting about 600,000 members nationally for 2027 — the majority in plans rated 3.5 stars or lower. |
|---|---|
| UnitedHealthcare | A preliminary 2027 list covering roughly 34 counties across 12 states, affecting more than 20,000 members. |
| Molina Healthcare | Exiting its Medicare Advantage Part D product entirely for 2027 — about 80,000 MAPD members by its own count — to focus exclusively on its dual-eligible line. |
| October 2 | The federal deadline for your plan to notify you in writing if it is leaving your area entirely for 2027. That’s a separate, later deadline than the September 30 ANOC mailing covered in last week’s piece, which covers routine plan changes, not full terminations. |
These three are the confirmed, named exits as of this writing — a combined figure in the hundreds of thousands, not the millions. Other insurers have signaled smaller pullbacks in specific counties, and the full national picture won’t be final until plans file their complete 2027 bids. The reliable way to find out whether your own plan is affected isn’t a headline number — it’s the letter arriving from your plan by October 2, or a direct check at the Medicare Plan Finder once 2027 plans are listed.
This also isn’t a new pattern starting this year. For the 2026 plan year, roughly 2.9 million Medicare Advantage enrollees in standard HMO and PPO plans faced forced disenrollment nationally — about 10% of that group, against a roughly 1% average annual rate from 2018 through 2024. Rural beneficiaries were hit hardest: they made up about 14% of typical enrollees but nearly 23% of those whose plans were terminated. The 2027 wave described above is a continuation of that trend, not a one-year event.
Why, in a year CMS actually paid insurers more
The obvious assumption is that Medicare cut payments and insurers left in response. That isn’t what happened. CMS finalized the 2027 Medicare Advantage payment rate at +2.48% — over $13 billion more industry-wide — a larger increase than insurers had been told to expect in the earlier proposal.
The exits are happening anyway, and the detail that explains it is which plans are leaving: overwhelmingly the lower-rated ones. This reads less like a funding crisis and more like insurers trimming plans that were losing money regardless of the overall payment environment — margin recovery on specific underperforming products, not a broad retreat from Medicare Advantage.
Also on The Second Half Guide Is the National Parks Senior Pass still one of America’s best deals? $80 for life, starting at 62. The headline is as good as it sounds — but the word “parks” misleads people about what they’re actually buying. Read it →CMS raised Medicare Advantage payments for 2027. Insurers are still leaving markets anyway — which says more about which specific plans were losing money than about the year’s overall funding.
What happens automatically if your plan leaves
If your Medicare Advantage plan exits your area, you don’t lose Medicare — coverage reverts automatically to Original Medicare (Parts A and B) on the date your plan ends. What it doesn’t include automatically is drug coverage; Original Medicare has no Part D built in, so without action you could be without prescription coverage.
Two protections follow specifically from the plan leaving, not from anything you have to prove about your own health:
- A federal guaranteed-issue right to buy a Medigap policy. When your Medicare Advantage plan leaves Medicare or stops serving your area, federal law entitles you to buy a Medigap policy without medical underwriting — an insurer can’t deny you or charge more for a pre-existing condition in this specific situation.
- A Special Enrollment Period to pick a new Medicare Advantage plan or add a standalone Part D drug plan.
Some states go further than the federal minimum. Maine extends the standard one-year Medicare Advantage trial period to three years before medical underwriting can apply. California lets Medicare Advantage enrollees buy a Medigap policy from the same insurer, without underwriting, if that plan reduced benefits, raised cost-sharing, or dropped a provider who was treating them — a broader trigger than a full market exit. Neither example is universal; what your own state actually guarantees is worth a direct call to your state insurance department or a SHIP counselor rather than assuming the federal floor is the whole picture.
The SEP timing depends on when your plan actually ends
| Plan ends December 31 | SEP runs from December 8 — the day after AEP closes — through the end of February. |
|---|---|
| Plan ends mid-year | SEP runs from one month before the termination date through two months after it. |
Outside either of these SEPs, changing Medicare Advantage plans generally means waiting for the next Annual Enrollment Period. That’s the reason the termination date matters as much as the fact of termination itself — miss the window tied to your specific date, and the next chance is months away.
What to actually check
- Read your ANOC or termination letter closely enough to know which case applies: is your plan changing, or ending entirely?
- If it’s ending, note the exact termination date — that date sets your SEP window, and the two scenarios above run on different clocks.
- If you want a Medigap policy, the guaranteed-issue right tied to a plan leaving your area is time-limited. Don’t assume it waits for you.
- Without action, you will have Original Medicare with no drug coverage starting the day your plan ends. If you take any prescriptions, treat picking a new Part D option as urgent, not optional.
- A free SHIP counselor (shiphelp.org) can walk through your specific letter with you at no cost and no commission on whatever you choose next.
None of this is optional reading. A routine ANOC asks you to notice a few numbers changed. A termination letter starts a clock, and the clock doesn’t wait for December 7 if your plan ends mid-year.
This is general information, not personal insurance, financial or legal advice. We report the rules, the numbers and the deadlines as clearly as we can, but plan details, coverage decisions and premium costs depend on your specific plan. Treat this as a good place to find the right questions, not a substitute for your plan’s own materials or a licensed adviser.
Where these facts come from
Checked on 11 September 2026 against the sources listed below. Dollar limits and program rules change — if you're reading this well after that date, verify the numbers at the links below.
- Becker’s Payer Issues — Humana to exit Medicare Advantage plans covering 600,000 members in 2027 — https://www.beckerspayer.com/payer/medicare-advantage/humana-to-exit-medicare-advantage-plans-covering-600000-members-in-2027/
- Becker’s Hospital Review — 4 insurers exiting Medicare Advantage markets — https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/4-insurers-exiting-medicare-advantage-markets/
- Becker’s Payer Issues — Molina to drop Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans in 2027 — https://www.beckerspayer.com/payer/medicare-advantage/molina-to-drop-medicare-advantage-prescription-drug-plans-in-2027/
- CMS — 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D Rate Announcement (fact sheet) — https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/2027-medicare-advantage-part-d-rate-announcement
- National Council on Aging — What are the Medicare Advantage Special Enrollment Periods? — https://www.ncoa.org/article/medicare-advantage-special-enrollment-periods/
- Q1Medicare — Am I granted a Special Enrollment Period when CMS terminates my Medicare Advantage plan’s contract? — https://q1medicare.com/faq/FAQ.php?faq=SEP-for-CMS-terminates-Medicare-Advantage-plans&faq_id=160
- Yahoo News — Millions of US Medicare Advantage enrollees forced to switch plans, study finds — https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/millions-us-medicare-advantage-enrollees-165838125.html
Edward Silva
Edward spent more than forty years as a computer professional — long enough to pick up one useful occupational habit: when somebody hands you a summary, go and read the actual documentation. He started The Second Half Guide after noticing that most writing aimed at people his age was either talking down to him or quietly selling him something, and that the plain facts — the dates, the thresholds, the dollar figures — were somehow the hardest part to find.
He's married, with two grown sons, both married themselves. He is not a financial adviser, an attorney or an insurance agent, and this site doesn't tell you what to do with your money. It tells you what the rules actually say, and links to where he checked.