UnitedHealthcare has told independent insurance agents and brokers it may stop selling Medicare Advantage plans in 34 counties spread across 12 states for the 2027 plan year, according to preliminary company materials reported by trade press in early August. The states on the list include Minnesota, Nebraska, California, Wyoming, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas and Kentucky, and the company has confirmed the roster is still subject to change before anything becomes official. In three of those counties, UnitedHealthcare is currently the only insurer selling a Medicare Advantage plan at all, which means a finalized exit there would leave residents with no local MA option to replace the one they have now. The disclosure lands weeks before the federal government publishes any confirmed 2027 coverage data.
What the Preliminary 34-County List Actually Says
More than 20,000 current UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members live in the counties on the preliminary list, a small slice of the insurer’s roughly 7.5 million Medicare Advantage enrollees nationwide but a significant local disruption for the specific counties involved. UnitedHealthcare has stressed, through statements to reporters, that this list reflects internal bid planning shared with third-party marketing organizations and is not a finished regulatory filing. Nothing about 2027 Medicare Advantage coverage becomes official until the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Medicare.gov publish finalized plan-by-plan, county-by-county data on October 1, 2026, ahead of the Annual Enrollment Period.
The three sole-insurer counties carry the sharpest stakes. Where UnitedHealthcare is presently the only company offering a Medicare Advantage plan, a confirmed exit would not simply mean switching to a competing MA plan in the same county — there would not be one. Beneficiaries in that position would fall back to Original Medicare, Parts A and B, unless a different insurer chooses to enter that market before open enrollment. UnitedHealthcare has not identified the three sole-insurer counties publicly, and the full 34-county list has not yet been matched to specific county names in any confirmed public record. The list is also small relative to UnitedHealthcare’s total footprint, representing roughly three-tenths of one percent of its national Medicare Advantage membership, but that ratio offers little comfort to a retiree in one of the affected counties who is watching a single local option disappear.
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Why the Nation’s Largest Medicare Advantage Insurer Is Retreating
The preliminary 2027 list follows a much larger pullback UnitedHealthcare has already carried out for the current 2026 plan year, when it withdrew Medicare Advantage plans from well over 100 counties, affecting roughly 180,000 members nationwide. Company executives have pointed to a combination of factors squeezing profitability across the industry: reduced federal reimbursement tied to Medicare Advantage funding formulas, cuts to the star-rating bonus payments that reward higher-performing plans, and medical-cost inflation running ahead of what insurers built into their bids. Research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that forced Medicare Advantage disenrollment, which averaged around 1% annually between 2018 and 2024, jumped to 6.9% in 2025 and is projected to reach roughly 10% in 2026 — as many as 2.9 million enrollees nationwide, according to reporting on the industry-wide trend.
UnitedHealthcare is not alone. Humana has confirmed market exits for 2027 as well, its second consecutive year of pulling back, with its chief financial officer telling investors the moves are meant to prioritize higher-performing plans over raw enrollment growth. Data compiled by the health policy research group KFF shows UnitedHealthcare holds roughly 26% of national Medicare Advantage enrollment and Humana about 20%, so the two companies together account for close to half of all Medicare Advantage members nationwide, and an even larger share in many rural counties. Advocacy groups, including the Senior Citizens League, have warned that repeated exits by the two largest carriers concentrate risk in areas that already had the fewest choices.
What Happens if a County Loses Its Only Medicare Advantage Plan
Federal rules require insurers to notify affected members in advance of any county exit, with notice typically required by September 30 for changes taking effect the following plan year. A member who is formally disenrolled from a Medicare Advantage plan is automatically moved back to Original Medicare, which covers hospital and outpatient medical care but not prescription drugs, dental, vision or hearing benefits the way many MA plans do. Anyone in that position typically qualifies for a Special Enrollment Period, generally lasting around 60 days, to pick a new Medicare Advantage plan if one is available locally, add a standalone Part D prescription drug plan, or enroll in a Medigap supplemental policy to help cover deductibles and coinsurance under Original Medicare. Beneficiaries can also make changes during the standard Annual Enrollment Period, which runs from October 15 through December 7 each year, according to Medicare’s official guidance on joining a plan.
How to Check a County’s Actual 2027 Options Once They Post
The preliminary list circulating now will not show up as a finalized answer on any government tool, because Medicare Advantage plan data for 2027 does not become searchable until CMS publishes it on October 1, 2026. Once that data is live, beneficiaries can search their specific county, zip code and current medications using the Medicare Plan Finder tool to see exactly which Medicare Advantage plans, if any, will be sold there for 2027, and to compare premiums, provider networks and drug formularies side by side. Anyone whose plan is later confirmed as exiting should also contact their State Health Insurance Assistance Program, a free counseling service available in every state, before the Annual Enrollment Period begins, since a narrowed county market can make the choice between a replacement Medicare Advantage plan and a return to Original Medicare with Medigap more consequential than in a typical year.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire editorial team.
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David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
