KFF counts about 4.3 million Medicare beneficiaries whose plans end on Dec. 31, and the three biggest insurers account for hundreds of thousands each. Humana is ending Medicare Advantage drug plans for about 530,000 members, UnitedHealth Group for about 367,000 and CVS Health for about 254,000, according to KFF’s analysis of federal plan data, published Oct. 27. Those three companies are only part of a list that also takes in stand-alone drug plans.
How many members is each insurer dropping?
The analysis, written by KFF researchers Jeannie Fuglesten Biniek, Meredith Freed, Nancy Ochieng and Juliette Cubanski, splits the 4.3 million into 3.1 million people in Medicare Advantage plans that include drug coverage and 1.2 million in stand-alone Part D drug plans. KFF built the count from CMS’s 2027 landscape files, its plan crosswalk and June 2026 enrollment, and treats a plan as terminated when it is not offered in a county for 2027.
Among the Advantage plans, KFF puts Humana at about 530,000 members, UnitedHealth at about 367,000 and CVS Health, which owns Aetna, at about 254,000. A fourth company, Aware Integrated, which sold Blue Cross-branded plans in Minnesota, accounts for about 249,000. Together the four make up about half of the people losing an individual Advantage plan with drug coverage.
The count leaves out employer and union plans, cost plans and PACE, so it measures plans leaving counties, not every change a Medicare member could face. It also treats people moved into a different plan from the same insurer separately, a group KFF sizes at another 1.4 million.
Why does CVS show up on the drug-plan side too?
The 4.3 million total includes drug-only coverage, and there CVS is the largest name. KFF counts about 950,000 people in SilverScript Choice, CVS’s stand-alone drug plan, which is ending in 13 drug-plan regions and makes up 81% of the 1.2 million stand-alone terminations. Another 190,000 or so are in HealthSpring Extra Rx, sold by Health Care Service Corporation.
KFF says about 6% of stand-alone drug plan enrollees are affected, double the 3% last year, and that the average person now has nine stand-alone drug plans to choose from, down from 11 in 2026.
That makes the question concrete for anyone holding a plan from one of these companies: is that exact plan, in that exact county, on the termination list, and what will replace it by Dec. 7? An insurer can end one plan and keep another in the same county, so the company name alone does not settle it.
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What happens to a member whose plan ends?
KFF says people whose Advantage plan is terminated must enroll in another Advantage plan if one is available where they live, or they are switched automatically to Original Medicare. Anyone losing a stand-alone drug plan has to pick a new one, or move to an Advantage plan with drug coverage, to keep Part D.
Open enrollment runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, and Medicare.gov says changes made then take effect Jan. 1 if the new plan receives the request by Dec. 7. People who go back to Original Medicare may need a separate drug plan and can consider buying a Medigap policy to cover some of what Original Medicare does not.
The Medigap timing matters most for anyone leaving Advantage. KFF says people who lose Advantage coverage get a special enrollment period with guaranteed issue rights, so an insurer cannot deny them or charge more over a health condition. Medicare.gov’s Medigap page says the application window opens 60 days before the Advantage coverage ends and closes no more than 63 days after.
The 1.4 million people in consolidating plans are in a different spot. KFF says about 500,000 general-enrollment members and about 900,000 special needs plan members will be moved automatically into another plan from the same insurer. They can choose a different Advantage plan in open enrollment or switch to Original Medicare, but without federal guaranteed issue rights for Medigap.
Does the wider market look this shaky?
Not in CMS’s national tally. In a Sept. 28 release, the agency said about 5,532 Medicare Advantage plans will be available in 2027, against 5,553 in 2026, that more than 99% of beneficiaries can reach at least one plan, and that about eight in 10 members can keep their plan at the same or a lower premium. CMS put the average monthly Advantage premium at $12.00, down from $14.37.
Both pictures hold at once. The national supply is close to flat while individual plans leave individual counties, which is why KFF’s per-insurer counts are large even as CMS reports stability. KFF says the average beneficiary still has 28 Advantage drug plan options for 2027, alongside the nine stand-alone drug plans.
KFF adds that people whose plans survive may still see changes to costs, benefits, networks or drug lists, and that some stand-alone drug plan members who stay put could face sizable premium increases. For a member of Humana, UnitedHealth or CVS, a replacement plan that carries the same brand name can differ on all of those, so the comparison has to be done plan by plan.
Is your plan one of the 4.3 million on KFF’s list?
A plan that ends Dec. 31 leaves a replacement to be chosen by Dec. 7, and a member who does nothing can be moved to Original Medicare with no drug plan or Medigap policy lined up. Someone who picks the nearest-sounding replacement can land on a different drug list or lose a current doctor.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors. It is a 55-page kit, and its Part 2, The Drug and Doctor Coverage Check, lays out how to test a replacement plan against the prescriptions and doctors a member already has.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the 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.
