Insurers published a flurry of press releases Thursday morning showcasing their 2027 Medicare Advantage offerings to the public. According to the statements, the plans — even if there are fewer available — preserve the core benefits that seniors value the most.
But CMS data shows how major insurers like UnitedHealthcare and Humana are actually paring back the generosity of what’s on offer as they continue to prioritize profit growth.
Insurers broadly reduced benefits for 2027, according to a Leerink Partners analysis of Medicare Plan Finder, an online tool that allows seniors to compare and enroll in different Medicare coverage.
In particular, MA carriers tightened allowances for dental care, a popular supplemental benefit, along with Part B givebacks, which refund to seniors all or part of their monthly premium for outpatient care.
Still, insurers’ press releases about their 2027 MA offerings presented their plans as robust, with a focus on affordability, choice and patient experience.
UnitedHealthcare is “delivering the core benefits consumers rely on most,” the MA giant, which covers more than 7.5 million seniors in its privatized Medicare plans, said Thursday morning.
Ninety-percent of Medicare seniors will have access to a UnitedHealthcare plan with a $0 premium, and all will have access to $0 primary care visits and $0 preventive care services, according to the company.
However, cuts to UnitedHealthcare’s dental benefits affected almost 70% of its members, Leerink analyst Whit Mayo found. The UnitedHealth-owned insurer also increased cost-sharing for seniors, meaning they’ll have to pay more out of pocket for care.
Though, UnitedHealthcare’s Part B giveback cuts hit just 7% of its members, and its co-pays for primary care didn’t increase.
Humana, the second-largest MA insurer, characterized its 2027 MA plans as “designed to deliver high-value coverage with affordable monthly premiums.”
“Members will have continued access to the benefits they value most — including $0 cost-sharing on in-network primary care visits and labs plus dental, vision, and hearing coverage,” the Louisville, Kentucky-based payer said Thursday morning.
Humana — which retained more generous benefits than its competitors for 2026, generating headaches about the potential runaway spending — didn’t change its primary care co-pays, and actually increasing dental allowances modestly, according to the Leerink analysis.
The company did notably pare back its Part B giveback, reducing or eliminating it entirely for 62% of its members, Leerink found.
The choices made by UnitedHealthcare and Humana have an outsized impact on the Medicare market, given their scale. Together, the two companies cover almost 15 million MA seniors, more than 40% of the entire MA population.
Other publicly traded MA carriers, including Elevance, CVS and Centene, also issued press releases touting their slate of MA plans, while trimming benefits behind the scenes.
Elevance, the third-largest MA carrier, focused on plans with strong local relationships with providers to better deliver coordinated care for 2027, the company said in its release. Members could have access to additional benefits like dental, vision, or hearing “depending on the plan,” Elevance wrote.
Elevance’s cuts to dental allowances affected 23% of its members, according to Leerink.
Similarly, Centene’s “2027 Medicare Advantage portfolio is designed to deliver holistic, coordinated, affordable coverage and competitive benefits that support the member’s overall health,” according to a release.
Though “benefits and allowance amounts vary by plan,” the company, which delivers MA plans through its Wellcare subsidiary, wrote. Centene’s biggest cuts were also in dental, with reductions affecting 45% of its members, Leerink found.
The insurer’s Part B giveback reductions hit 11% of its members, while maximum out-of-pocket limits rose “materially,” according to Mayo.
CVS, which offers health insurance through its Aetna division, reduced dental care for 36% of its members, cut Part B givebacks for 5% of its members, and increased primary care co-pays for 3% of its members.
Clover Health made the perhaps the most dramatic cuts, Leerink found.
The five-state insurer said its MA offerings show a “continued focus on PPO [more flexible, high-cost plan] choice, affordable access to preventive care and meaningful member value” in a Thursday press release.
But “[Clover’s] cuts are pervasive,” Mayo wrote. In particular, the company, which offers insurance and physician enablement services, increased its maximum out-of-pocket limit by $1,144 for next year — a “standout reduction in benefit protection,” Mayo said.
The benefit cuts build on a broader coverage pullback that could cause turmoil for seniors during Medicare enrollment this fall, as challenges in MA, including elevated spending on seniors’ care and what insurers characterize as insufficient government reimbursement, continue to drive a retrenchment for the industry.
Overall, companies are shrinking their traditional MA coverage while continuing to prioritize health maintenance organization arrangements, which give them more ability to predict and control spending, and higher-margin special needs plans.
Amid the MA retreat, insurers expect MA enrollment to drop to 34 million people next year, a decline of 6%. Though, the CMS argues that projection is overblown and characterizes the 2027 MA market as stable.
Medicare open enrollment runs Oct. 15 to Dec. 7.
