🔔 Important Notice: 2027 Medicare plans will not be available to shop or compare until October 1, 2026.
Medicare Advantage is changing in Minnesota
Some Medicare Advantage plans are leaving Minnesota for 2027, and in parts of the state there will be fewer plans than there were — or none at all. If you’re on one of them, you have options and you have protections. Here’s what’s happening and what to do about it.
What's happening?
For the 2027 plan year, several insurance companies are reducing where they sell Medicare Advantage in Minnesota. Some are pulling individual plans. In some rural counties, the result is that there will be far fewer Medicare Advantage plans to choose from — and in a few, there may be none.
Insurers are pulling out of counties
Several carriers are dropping specific plans in certain counties while keeping others. Two neighbors in different counties can get different letters. If your plan is ending, you’ll have to choose something else for the 2027 plan year.
Some counties may have no Advantage plans at all
In parts of rural Minnesota, no Medicare Advantage plan will be offered at all. Residents there will use Original Medicare, with the option to add drug and supplement coverage.
If your plan ends, you get protections
Losing a plan because the insurer left is not the same as choosing to leave one. You get extra time to pick something else, and you get the right to buy a Medicare supplement without answering health questions.
Check your mail from late September
Every Medicare Advantage plan has to send its members an Annual Notice of Change before the end of September. It’s a booklet that says what’s different about your plan next year; the cost, the drug list, the doctors, the extras.
If your plan is ending, you get a different letter: a non-renewal notice, which says plainly that your plan will not be offered in your county for 2027 and that your coverage ends 31 December.
How to use the plan finder
A seven-minute walkthrough of comparing plans on this site: entering your information, checking that your doctors and prescriptions are covered, and reading the results. Skip to whichever part you need.
0:00 – About the plan finder tool
0:48 – Entering your zip code
1:25 – Adding your prescriptions
2:00 – Checking your doctors
3:45 – Reading and sorting the results
4:15 – Enrolling, or getting help
3:45 – Reading and sorting the results
Choosing a plan
Six things worth thinking about, roughly in the order they should matter to you.
Look up your doctors before anything else
A low premium is worth nothing if your clinic is out of network. Check every provider you want to keep, including specialists, and confirm the plan year — networks change on January 1.
Enter your prescriptions by exact name and dose
Drug coverage varies more between plans than anything else. The same medication can be inexpensive on one plan and cost hundreds on another.
Check the annual out-of-pocket maximum, not the premium
That number is what a bad year actually costs you. A zero-premium plan with a high maximum can be the more expensive choice.
Check whether your pharmacy is preferred, not just in-network
Many plans charge noticeably less at preferred pharmacies. If yours isn’t one, you may be paying more for the same prescription.
Don’t buy the extras first
Dental, vision, hearing, gym memberships and grocery cards are what get advertised. They’re genuinely nice. They’re also worth a few hundred dollars a year, and they should never be the reason you choose a plan that handles your actual medical care worse.
If you spend part of the year elsewhere, ask about coverage away from home
Advantage plans are built around local networks. Snowbirds and people who travel often should confirm what’s covered outside Minnesota before enrolling.
Dates that matter
By Sep 30th
Your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) arrives. Or a non-renewal notice, if your plan is ending. Watch the mail.
Oct 1st
Plan details for the next year become public. You can start comparing.
Oct 15th - Dec 7th
Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) opens. You can change Medicare Advantage and drug plans.
Jan 1st (2027)
New plan year begins. New networks and drug lists take effect.
Jan 1st - Mar 31st (2027)
Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment. If you're on a Medicare Advantage plan, you get one switch during this period — to a different Advantage plan, or back to Original Medicare with a drug plan.
Ready to compare?
Find the plans available in your county, check your doctors and prescriptions, and enroll online. There’s no cost to compare, and no account needed to look.