Medicare Advantage shoppers in four states will see very different menus when Open Enrollment opens on October 15. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ 2027 state fact sheets show California and Kansas with fewer plans than this year, while Alabama and Arizona gain fifteen apiece. The counts decide how many plans a retiree can compare before the December deadline, and in which direction the choice is moving. CMS published the fact sheets on September 28, 2026.
California and Kansas shrink their Medicare Advantage lineups
California remains the largest market in the document by a wide margin, but its count slips from 402 plans in 2026 to 394 for 2027, a loss of eight. Kansas has the steeper proportional drop, falling from 87 plans to 80, a loss of seven. Seven fewer plans out of 87 removes roughly one in twelve of the options on the Kansas shelf; eight fewer out of 402 leaves California’s list about two percent shorter.
A state-level count does not say which plans are leaving or where. CMS’s fact sheets report totals by state, and a plan can be withdrawn from one county while the same sponsor keeps a different plan in the next. For the member, the count is a signal that the lineup has changed. The notice from the plan itself, which carries the county-level facts, is what decides whether a particular plan survives into 2027.
Anyone enrolled in a California or Kansas Medicare Advantage plan has one task before December 7: confirm that the plan, its doctor and hospital network and its drug list are all still in place for 2027, and pick a replacement if any of them is not.
For members weighing which option to move to, The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, plus a prescription-by-plan comparison.
Compare 2027 options if your California or Kansas plan changes →
Alabama and Arizona add fifteen plans each
The movement runs the other way in the Sun Belt. Alabama’s count rises from 98 plans to 113, and Arizona’s from 133 to 148, an identical gain of fifteen. The two states differ in size and in the density of plans already on offer, so the same fifteen-plan increase represents about 15 percent more choices in Alabama and about 11 percent more in Arizona.
More plans does not automatically mean better coverage. Each additional plan is another set of premiums, copays, drug tiers and provider networks to check, and the fact sheet counts do not rank them. What a larger lineup does change is the amount of comparison work in front of an enrollee. In a market of 148 plans, a shopper who looks only at the monthly premium can easily overlook that a plan does not cover a regular prescription or excludes a specialist.
What the insurers’ own announcements say about exits
The two largest Medicare Advantage insurers published their 2027 plans in early October. Humana’s release describes a footprint of approximately 2,600 counties across 45 states and Washington, D.C., and discloses no exits. UnitedHealthcare’s release says more than 94 percent of Medicare-eligible individuals nationwide will have access to its plans, and likewise names no exits.
Neither announcement ties its footprint to the California or Kansas reductions, and the CMS fact sheets do not attribute the net changes to any sponsor. The state counts are therefore the firm figures; the reasons behind them are not published in these documents.
Choosing a 2027 plan between October 15 and December 7
The free official route is Medicare.gov. Its joining-a-plan page states that during the Open Enrollment Period, October 15 to December 7, enrollees can join, drop or switch to another Medicare Advantage plan with or without drug coverage, and that coverage begins January 1 of the next year if the plan receives the request by December 7. Medicare’s plan finder, reached from that page, lists the plans available at a given ZIP code.
Before comparing, gather the current plan’s annual notice of change, the list of every prescription with its dose, and the names of each doctor and hospital in use. Check each candidate plan’s drug tier for those prescriptions, whether each provider is in the network, and the out-of-pocket maximum rather than the premium alone. A plan that lowers the premium but moves a regular drug to a higher tier can cost more over the year.
The same page notes a second window: people already in a Medicare Advantage plan can switch plans or return to Original Medicare between January 1 and March 31. That period is narrower than Open Enrollment, which is why the October to December window is the main chance to line up January coverage.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit puts a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors next to a prescription-by-plan comparison, and adds a provider call script for confirming networks directly with doctors’ offices.
Click here to get The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit →
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire’s editorial team.
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.
