Medicare Advantage plans will cost $12 a month on average in 2027. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said on Sept. 28 that the weighted average monthly premium falls 16.5%, from $14.37 in 2026 to $12.00, as the agency posted next year’s plans ahead of the Oct. 15 start of Open Enrollment. CMS projects that 34 million people, about 47.4% of Medicare beneficiaries, will be enrolled in Medicare Advantage in 2027.
A $12.00 average is a summary, not a price tag
In its announcement that Medicare Advantage and Part D are expected to remain stable in 2027, CMS described $12.00 as a weighted average monthly premium and put the decline at 16.5%. The gap between $14.37 and $12.00 is $2.37 a month, roughly $28 across a year, for a member who pays exactly the average. Few members do. A weighted average blends plans that charge nothing with plans that charge far more, so an individual premium can sit well away from $12 in either direction.
The premiums behind the average are in CMS’s landscape files, which the agency lists on its prescription drug coverage page as “CY2027 Landscape (202609)”. The page says the landscape resources carry plan premiums for each year’s Medicare Advantage and Part D offerings. CMS describes the national premium and the enrollment total as projections for 2027, which makes the plan-level files the place where a member’s own price is found.
California’s average premium went up while the national figure fell
The state-by-state fact sheets that CMS dated Sept. 28 show the decline is not universal. Each sheet reports the change in the state’s average monthly Medicare Advantage premium, the number of plans, the share of beneficiaries with access to $0-premium options and several Part D measures. California’s sheet lists 7,243,867 Medicare enrollees and an average Medicare Advantage premium that rose from $13.77 to $14.12, an increase of 35 cents a month.
A California member paying the state average would owe about $4 more across 2027 than in 2026, while the national average is projected to fall $2.37 a month. The fact sheets do not define how their averages are weighted, so the state and national numbers describe direction rather than any one member’s bill.
The same sheets carry drug-plan measures for each state: the number of stand-alone prescription drug plans, the percentage of beneficiaries with access to a lower premium than in 2026, the percentage receiving Extra Help and the lowest available monthly premium. A reader of the California sheet can therefore set the state’s average Medicare Advantage premium beside the cheapest stand-alone drug plan in the same state, a spread that no single national average captures.
Plan counts hold nearly flat and CMS credits payment policy
CMS counted about 5,532 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 5,553 in 2026, a difference of 21. The totals are net figures and do not identify which plans entered or left the market. The agency said more than 99% of beneficiaries can choose at least one Medicare Advantage plan and 97% can choose among 10 or more.
CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz linked the result to payment policy in the release. “By slashing handouts to big insurance companies, CMS is keeping premiums stable while ensuring that 97% of Medicare beneficiaries have access to 10 or more MA plans,” Oz said. The release headline calls the market “expected to remain stable in 2027”, a description that sits alongside a 16.5% drop in the average premium.
The enrollment projection carries a second reading. If 34 million members equal 47.4% of Medicare beneficiaries, the other 52.6% are outside Medicare Advantage and never see the $12.00 average as a price. For members in Original Medicare who add a stand-alone drug plan, CMS puts the average monthly premium at $36 in 2027, up less than $1 from $35.09 in 2026.
What Open Enrollment lets a member do with a new price
Premiums are one input to a decision that runs from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7. According to Medicare.gov’s Open Enrollment page, changes made in that window take effect Jan. 1, and the plan must receive the request by Dec. 7, and a request that arrives later falls outside the window the page describes. Members can join, drop or switch to another Medicare Advantage plan with or without drug coverage, or move between Medicare Advantage and Original Medicare. The page describes Medigap as extra insurance sold by private companies to help pay a share of Original Medicare’s out-of-pocket costs.
Members with limited income have a separate route. Medicare.gov’s help-with-drug-costs page says qualifying Extra Help enrollees pay $0 for plan premiums and deductibles in 2027, with copayments capped at $5.80 for generics and $14.40 for brand-name drugs. CMS’s release lists the Medicare Plan Finder and the 1-800-MEDICARE helpline, staffed 24 hours a day, as the places to compare plans.
For 2027, CMS puts the national average Medicare Advantage premium at $12.00 a month, and its California fact sheet puts the state’s average at $14.12.
Comparing Advantage plan costs on drugs and doctors, not only the premium
A Medicare Advantage premium is one line in a plan’s cost. Drug copayments and doctor networks differ from plan to plan, and the 2027 landscape files list thousands of plans side by side.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, and a prescription-by-plan comparison.
Open the cost calculator inside The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit.
This article was produced with AI assistance and checked against the primary sources linked above.
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.
