Humana and UnitedHealthcare are cancelling Medicare Advantage plans. Here is what to do if yours ends.

Humana and UnitedHealthcare, the two largest Medicare Advantage companies in the country, are ending some of their plans at the end of this year. Together those plans cover nearly 1 million people. If yours is one of them, it stops on December 31, 2026, and what you have on January 1 depends on what you do before then.

The letter telling you has already been sent. This article explains how to know if you got one, what happens if you do nothing, and the three windows you have to fix it.

The numbers, in plain words

• UnitedHealthcare says about 390,000 of its members are in plans that will not be offered in 2027.
• Humana says about 600,000 of its members are, close to one in ten of its Medicare members. In 2027 Humana will sell plans in just over 80 percent of the counties in the country, down from 85 percent this year.
• Most of the plans being dropped are PPOs, the kind that let you see doctors outside the network. The companies are leaning on HMO plans, which cost them less.
• It is not only these two. Counting Aetna, several Blue Cross plans and others, about 3.16 million people, more than one in ten of everyone in a Medicare Advantage plan, need to pick a new plan for 2027. That is the count from Medicare Market Insights, which went through the government's own plan files.
• Florida is one of the hardest-hit states. About 321,000 people here are losing their plan, and nearly 40 percent of the Humana members affected live in Florida.

How to know if your plan is ending

Your plan had to mail you an Annual Notice of Change by the end of September. If your plan is ending, that letter says so, usually with the words "will not be offered" or "non-renewal". UnitedHealthcare dated its non-renewal letters October 2.

If you cannot find the letter, or you are not sure what it says, do one of these three things:

• Call the member number on the back of your plan card and ask, "Is my plan offered in 2027?"
• Look up your plan at Medicare.gov. Next year's plans have been posted since October 1.
• Call us. We can check in a few minutes.

Do not assume you are safe because you have had the same plan for years. Some of the plans being dropped are ones people have kept for a long time.

Why this is happening

The short version: people used more care than the companies expected, medical and drug prices went up, and what Medicare pays the companies did not go up as fast. For 2027 Medicare is raising that payment 2.48 percent, and the companies say their costs rose more than that. So they are ending the plans that make them the least money and keeping the ones that make the most.

"We can't ignore the realities facing the healthcare system," UnitedHealthcare's president, Bobby Hunter, told investors. "Funding pressures, rising medical costs, rising drug costs, and increased utilization are affecting every part of healthcare."

Humana's finance chief, Celeste Mellet, said the company chose to cancel its lowest-profit plans rather than cut a little from every plan. Humana says it hopes to keep most of those 600,000 members in a different Humana plan.

Consultants who follow the industry say the big companies have stopped chasing more members and are protecting their profit margins instead. Michael Abrams of Numerof & Associates sums it up as margin first, size second.

Even if your plan is staying, it is probably changing

The plans that survive are being trimmed. Analysts at Leerink found that UnitedHealthcare and Humana raised the most you can pay out of pocket in a year by 11 percent and 8 percent for 2027, and that both raised what members pay for prescription coverage by about 30 percent. Barclays found Humana removed its hearing-aid allowance on several plans. Several large insurers trimmed dental benefits. And the $0 drug-only plans that about 4 million people had are mostly gone.

So read your Annual Notice of Change even if your plan is staying. Check four things: your medicines, your doctors and pharmacy, what you pay, and the extras like dental, vision and hearing.

If you do nothing, here is what happens on January 1

If your plan is ending and you do not pick another one, Medicare puts you back on Original Medicare on January 1. That is not nothing. But Original Medicare by itself has two holes:

• No drug coverage. Go 63 days or more without it and Medicare adds a penalty to your premium for as long as you have drug coverage.
• No yearly limit. You pay 20 percent of most services after your deductible, with no ceiling on what that adds up to.

Your dental, vision, hearing and gym benefits go away too, because those come from the plan, not from Medicare.

Your three windows

1. Open enrollment, now through December 7. Pick any Medicare Advantage plan or drug plan in your county and it starts January 1, with no gap. This is the simplest fix.

2. A special window, December 8 to February 28. Because your plan is ending, Medicare gives you extra time to join another Medicare Advantage plan or a drug plan. But a plan you join in January starts February 1, and one you join in February starts March 1, so you would spend those weeks on Original Medicare alone.

3. The Medigap door opens again. Normally you get one six-month window at 65 to buy a Medicare Supplement, also called Medigap, with no health questions. When your Medicare Advantage plan leaves Medicare, you get a second chance. If you go back to Original Medicare, you have the right to buy Medigap Plan A, B, C, D, F, G, K or L from any company in your state, with no health questions and no extra charge because of your health. Plans C and F are only for people who were eligible for Medicare before January 1, 2020. You can apply from 60 days before your coverage ends until 63 days after it ends. For a plan ending December 31, that means by March 4, 2027. Add a separate drug plan and you have the two together.

For many people, option 1 is the right one. For someone with a serious condition who wants to keep seeing any doctor who takes Medicare, option 3 may be the only chance they will ever get.

You do not have to work it out alone

We help people with Medicare compare their options in English and in Spanish, at no cost to you, in Florida, Texas and the other states where we are licensed. Bring your Annual Notice of Change, your list of medicines and your doctors. We will tell you whether your plan is ending and what is available in your county for 2027. Call us at (800) 305-7709 before December 7, or read more on our Medicare page.

You can also compare every plan in your area yourself at Medicare.gov. For information on all of your options, contact Medicare at 1-800-MEDICARE, or your local State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), which gives free counseling. For what else to check before December 7, see Medicare before December 7: what to do, even if you have no plan.

Sources

• New York Post, Health insurance companies cancel nearly 1M Medicare Advantage plans, October 21, 2026
• The Hill (NewsNation), UnitedHealthcare, Humana Medicare Advantage cancellations to affect 1 million, October 22, 2026
• Quartz, via Yahoo Finance, UnitedHealth and Humana cutting Medicare Advantage plans in 2027, October 2, 2026, for the member counts, the non-renewal letters, the Hunter quote, Humana's county figures and the 2027 payment rate
• Financial Times, "Older Americans brace for higher healthcare costs ahead of midterms", October 20, 2026 (subscription, also carried by Yahoo Finance), for the Leerink and Barclays findings
• Medicare Market Insights, 11% of Medicare Advantage enrollees are losing their plan in 2027, October 8, 2026, for the national total, the Florida figures and the PPO share
• Becker's Payer Issues, Insurers pull Medicare Advantage plans as profit pressures mount, August 5, 2025, for how the pullback began
• MedCity News, Insurers are pulling back on MA. How does this affect patients?, August 24, 2025, for the consultants' view
• Medicare.gov, Special Enrollment Periods, for the December 8 to February window and the return to Original Medicare
• Medicare.gov, When can I buy a Medigap policy?, for the guaranteed issue right when a plan leaves Medicare
• Medicare.gov, Open Enrollment

The member counts are the companies' own figures as reported in October 2026, and the national total is one analyst's count of the government's plan files. Rules have exceptions and change from year to year. Medicare.gov is the authority on your own situation. Sources consulted October 23, 2026.