Maryland will have 47 Medicare Advantage plans on offer for 2027, down from 63 this year, according to federal figures released September 28. Michigan’s count slips to 181 from 192, and Louisiana goes the other way, rising to 124 from 111. The numbers come from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ state-by-state fact sheets for the 2027 plan year.
Maryland’s cut of 16 plans is larger than the changes in Michigan (11 fewer), Massachusetts (6 fewer, to 97 from 103) or Maine (2 fewer, to 50 from 52). The Maryland sheet also counts 1,199,172 people with Medicare in the state. That total covers Original Medicare as well as Advantage members, so it does not say how many people sit in the plans that are no longer offered.
The sheets count the plans available across a state, and they do not name the ones that left. A member in Maryland, Michigan or any state with a shorter list therefore has one job before open enrollment closes on December 7: find out whether the plan they carry now returns for 2027, what it will cover, and what the other plans in the county would cost for the same drugs and doctors.
Maryland has 16 fewer Medicare Advantage plans to choose from for 2027 than this year, and the choice has to be made by December 7. The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, so a member can test the current plan against the 47 now on offer.
Test a plan against the 2027 field with the Open Enrollment Decision Kit calculator →
Michigan, Massachusetts and Maine each lose plans
Michigan has the biggest market of the group. The sheet puts 2,324,309 people on Medicare there, with 181 Advantage plans in 2027 against 192 in 2026, and 11 stand-alone prescription drug plans. The average monthly Advantage premium in Michigan moves to $16.21 from $14.88.
Massachusetts counts 1,516,549 people with Medicare and 97 Advantage plans, six fewer than this year, at an average premium of $37.80 a month against $36.19. Maine, with 390,974 people on Medicare, goes to 50 plans from 52, and has 8 stand-alone drug plans on offer. Each of the five state sheets reports the same thing for access: 100% of people with Medicare in the state can reach an Advantage plan. Maine’s average monthly Advantage premium rises to $22.07 from $18.16, a jump of $3.91 that is the steepest of the five states by dollars. Michigan’s increase is $1.33 a month and Massachusetts’ is $1.61. Maryland’s is 43 cents.
Louisiana adds 13 plans and a lower average premium
Louisiana is the outlier. Its sheet lists 124 Advantage plans for 2027 against 111 for 2026, an increase of 13, in a state where 966,602 people have Medicare. The average monthly Advantage premium falls to $6.71 from $12.51, a drop of $5.80 and the only decline among the five states. Massachusetts and Maine, by contrast, lose plans and see the average premium rise. Michigan, with 11 stand-alone drug plans, has the longest list of those among the states whose sheets show them, ahead of Maryland’s 9 and the 8 each in Louisiana and Maine.
The same sheet counts 8 stand-alone drug plans in Louisiana and puts the lowest monthly premium for one of them at $5.30. Maryland’s sheet shows the same $5.30 floor across 9 stand-alone plans, so a low entry premium is not unique to the state where the Advantage field is growing.
The national count barely moves
The state swings sit inside a market CMS calls stable. In its announcement of the 2027 landscape, the agency says the national number of Advantage plans goes from 5,553 in 2026 to approximately 5,532 in 2027. It reports the average monthly Advantage premium falling to $12.00 from $14.37, a decline of 16.5%, and projects Advantage enrollment of 34 million, about 47.4% of people with Medicare. The agency says more than 99% of people with Medicare can choose at least one Advantage plan, and 97% can choose among ten or more. For drug coverage, it puts the average premium for a stand-alone Part D plan at $36 a month in 2027 against $35.09 now, while the average total Part D premium inside an Advantage plan that includes drugs drops 38%, to $7 from $11.32.
Maryland’s average goes the other direction, from $23.39 to $23.82. A national average that falls does not guarantee that a particular county’s plans cost less, which is why the state and county lists matter more to a member than the national headline.
Comparing 2027 plans before December 7
Medicare’s Plan Finder is the free place to look up every 2027 plan available at a given address. Medicare’s page on joining a plan gives the Open Enrollment Period as October 15 to December 7, with new coverage starting January 1 of the next year.
Before opening the Plan Finder, members benefit from having three lists in hand: every prescription with its dose and the pharmacy used, every doctor and hospital whose care matters, and last year’s out-of-pocket spending. A premium of a few dollars a month says little until the drug list is priced plan by plan, and a plan that kept its premium can still change which doctors are in its network.
CMS has also posted the source file behind the figures. The CY2027 landscape file, a ZIP labeled 202609.1, sits on the agency’s prescription drug coverage page, which shows a last-modified date of September 30, 2026.
Maryland has 16 fewer plans and one December 7 deadline
A plan that looks cheap on premium can cost more once drugs and doctors are counted, and the Open Enrollment window closes on December 7 whether the comparison is done or not. The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit puts the Open Enrollment calendar and a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors in one place, so the decision to keep, switch or wait ends with a written reason. The kit runs 55 pages and includes a provider call script for checking a doctor’s network status.
Get the Open Enrollment calendar and plan cost calculator for the December 7 deadline →
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.
