Maine’s average monthly Medicare Advantage premium rises to $22.07 for 2027 from $18.16 this year, a jump of $3.91 a month. Michigan’s goes to $16.21 from $14.88. Louisiana is the exception, with an average that falls to $6.71 from $12.51.
The figures appear in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ state fact sheets dated September 28, one per state, each reporting how the average monthly Advantage plan premium changed between 2026 and 2027. Over twelve months, Maine’s increase comes to $46.92 on the state average, and Michigan’s to $15.96. Louisiana’s decline works out to $69.60 a year. The plan lists moved as well: Maine’s shrinks to 50 plans from 52, Michigan’s to 181 from 192 and Maryland’s to 47 from 63, a cut of 16 plans. Massachusetts goes to 97 from 103, while Louisiana’s list grows to 124 from 111.
A state average is not any one member’s bill. It says where the middle of the market moved, and a member’s own plan can sit well above or below it. Anyone in Maine, Michigan or any other state who wants to know whether a 2027 premium will go up has to look up the specific plan by name and county, and weigh that premium against drug and doctor costs before open enrollment ends December 7.
On the Maine average alone, the 2027 increase adds $46.92 over a year before a single prescription is filled. The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit’s cost calculator spreadsheet compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, so a premium change is weighed against the whole year’s cost.
Weigh a 2027 premium change against drug and doctor costs with the Decision Kit →
Five states, ranked by how far the average moved
The same sheets give a clear order for the five states CMS lists in this part of the document, from the biggest rise to the biggest fall:
- Maine: $18.16 to $22.07, up $3.91, or about 21.5%
- Michigan: $14.88 to $16.21, up $1.33, or about 8.9%
- Massachusetts: $36.19 to $37.80, up $1.61, or about 4.4%
- Maryland: $23.39 to $23.82, up $0.43, or about 1.8%
- Louisiana: $12.51 to $6.71, down $5.80, or about 46.4%
Massachusetts still carries the highest average of the group, at $37.80 a month. Maine’s rise is the largest in dollars and in percentage terms, though the state also has the smallest Medicare population of the five, with 390,974 people enrolled. Michigan has 2,324,309 and Louisiana 966,602.
The gap between the top and bottom of the group is wide. Massachusetts’s $37.80 is $31.09 a month above Louisiana’s $6.71, or $373.08 over a year. Louisiana is the only one of the five states where the number of Advantage plans rose, by 13, and it is also the only one where the average premium fell.
Why the premium is the smaller question
The fact sheets report one number per state. They do not break the average down by plan, county or insurer, so the Maine figure cannot be read as a price for any particular Maine plan.
Premium is also only one line of what a plan costs. The same documents list stand-alone prescription drug plans separately: Maine has 8 on offer for 2027, Michigan 11 and Louisiana 8, with $5.30 as the lowest monthly premium on the Louisiana and Maine sheets. A member whose drugs are priced through a stand-alone plan is shopping a different market from one whose drug coverage sits inside an Advantage plan.
The national average moves the other way
CMS’s national announcement reports the average monthly Advantage premium falling to $12.00 for 2027 from $14.37, a decline of 16.5%. It also puts the average total Part D premium for Advantage plans with drug coverage at $7, down from $11.32, a drop of 38%, while the average stand-alone drug plan premium rises to $36 from $35.09. The agency counts about 5,532 Advantage plans nationwide for 2027, against 5,553 this year.
Maine’s $22.07 sits $10.07 a month above that $12.00 national figure, which works out to $120.84 over twelve months. Becker’s Hospital Review describes the national number as a weighted average and counts 28 states where members lose plan options for 2027, so a state’s own average can move against the national trend while the headline figure stays calm.
Taken together, the national and state numbers point to a market where premiums moved in opposite directions depending on where a member lives. Maine’s average is up more than a fifth while the nation’s is down more than a sixth.
Weighing premium against total cost before December 7
Medicare’s Plan Finder lets anyone enter an address, a drug list and a pharmacy and see what each 2027 plan would cost for the year, not just by the month. That total is the number to compare, because it folds in drug copays, deductibles and the plan’s cap on out-of-pocket spending.
The Open Enrollment Period runs from October 15 to December 7, according to CMS, and a plan chosen in that window takes effect January 1.
Three questions are worth settling for each plan on a short list: whether every regular prescription is on its drug list and at what tier, whether the doctors seen most often are still in its network, and what the plan lists as its maximum out-of-pocket cost for 2027. CMS’s own figures for the year, 34 million people projected in Advantage plans or about 47.4% of everyone with Medicare frame the size of the market in which that comparison gets made.
A $22.07 Maine premium is only part of 2027’s cost
The detail most people miss is that the premium is one line of the year’s bill, and drugs and doctors decide the rest. The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit adds the Open Enrollment calendar to a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, so a switch or a stay is backed by the full-year number rather than the monthly one.
Price each 2027 plan on drugs and doctors with the Open Enrollment cost calculator →
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.
