Why Did My Medicare Advantage Plan Change, and What Actually Did It?

A letter arrives in the fall. Your Medicare Advantage plan is ending, or the gym membership you used every week is gone, or your doctor is no longer in the network. The obvious suspect is the 2025 budget law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). For a Medicare Advantage plan change, it is mostly the wrong suspect.

What did the budget law change?

OBBBA’s health provisions land mainly on Medicaid, the joint federal and state program for people with low incomes. Medicare is the federal program for people 65 and older and some younger people with disabilities. The law requires many adults covered through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion to show 80 hours a month of work, school, or community service, or qualify for an exemption. States must start by January 1, 2027, though the federal government may excuse a state that shows good faith effort until the end of 2028. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the law cuts federal Medicaid spending by $911 billion over ten years, $326 billion of it from the work requirements.

The law did not change how Medicare Advantage plans are paid or which benefits they must offer. Its main direct change to who is covered by Medicare concerns eligibility. Some lawfully present non-citizens, such as refugees and people granted asylum, lose Medicare, and those enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan are disenrolled. Coverage for people already enrolled is set to end in early 2027, under a rule Medicare finalized on November 4, 2026.

Who decides what a Medicare Advantage plan includes?

Medicare Advantage is private insurance paid for by the federal government. Each year Medicare sets a payment rate per member, and each insurer decides, county by county, whether to offer a plan and which extras to add. The contract between the insurer and Medicare runs one year at a time.

For 2027, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) set an average payment increase of 2.48 percent, about $13 billion, or 4.98 percent counting expected growth in patient risk scores, a measure of how sick members are expected to be. Insurers quoted by Becker’s Hospital Review say that falls short of rising medical and drug costs. Axios reports that plans appear to be cutting extras such as the Part B premium giveback (a plan paying part of your Medicare Part B premium) and major dental coverage, and raising specialist copays. A gym benefit such as SilverSneakers is the same kind of optional extra. Whether a plan keeps it is the plan’s choice, and the change appears in the Annual Notice of Change the plan mails each fall.

Why is ConnectiCare leaving Medicare Advantage?

The biggest Connecticut change is an exit. Molina Healthcare, which bought ConnectiCare, told insurance brokers in February 2026 that ConnectiCare would end its Medicare Advantage plans with drug coverage for 2027. Brokers told the Hartford Business Journal in March 2026 that about 48,000 Connecticut residents are affected. Molina cited weak results in its Part D business, the prescription drug side of Medicare, and a shift toward plans for people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. A broker also pointed to low Medicare payment rates. Nothing in that reporting ties the exit to the budget law.

One separate federal change matters for drug coverage. A temporary program that held down Part D premiums, the premium stabilization demonstration, ends December 31, 2026, Kiplinger reports, citing a CMS announcement in July. Some drug plan premiums may rise even where nothing else changed.

What should I do if my plan is ending?

• Look for the non-renewal notice first. The plan must mail it about 90 days before coverage ends, by October 1. If you never received one, call the plan and 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).
• Know the windows. Annual Enrollment runs October 15 to December 7. A plan that is not renewing also opens a special enrollment period, a window outside the normal sign-up dates, from December 8 through the last day of February.
• Choose before December 31. A new plan starts the first of the month after you pick it. If you choose in January, January runs on Original Medicare, with no drug coverage unless you hold a separate Part D plan.
• Weigh Original Medicare, the traditional government-run program. Returning to it gives you guaranteed-issue rights to buy certain Medigap policies, the supplements that cover what Original Medicare leaves out, for up to 63 days after your Medicare Advantage coverage ends. You will need a separate Part D plan for drugs, and going without one can trigger a late-enrollment penalty.
• Check each doctor by name. A plan’s network is the list of doctors it covers, and its directory is often wrong. CMS created a special enrollment period for people who relied on a wrong Plan Finder listing, but it covers only plans that started in 2026, so it will not help with a January 1, 2027 enrollment. Call the doctor’s office, name the exact plan, and write down the date and who you spoke to. If your plan is not renewing and the answer proves wrong, the special enrollment period through February is the way out.
• Get free help. Connecticut’s CHOICES program counsels people on Medicare at 1-800-994-9422. Expect longer waits until December 7.

Why can the extras disappear?

A gym membership can feel like part of the coverage. Legally, it is a feature of a one-year contract between the insurer and Medicare, paid for out of the federal payment, and the plan can reprice it every year. Members get notice and a right to switch. They get no right to keep the extra. That is how the same plan can look generous in 2026 and thin in 2027 without any new law.

Related: What Are the Social Determinants of Health, and Where Do Lawyers Come In? covers the conditions outside the clinic that shape health. More health law posts are collected in Health Law, Plainly.

I am a law student, not a lawyer. Nothing here is legal advice.

Sources

• A Closer Look at the Work Requirement Provisions in the 2025 Federal Budget Reconciliation Law (KFF)
• Fact Sheet 2026: Medicare and Immigration Status (Center for Medicare Advocacy)
• 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D Rate Announcement (CMS, April 6, 2026)
• Medicare Advantage plans appear to be cutting benefits in 2027 (Axios, September 10, 2026)
• Medicare Advantage looks stable for 2027. Underneath, it’s shifting (Becker’s Hospital Review)
• ConnectiCare Medicare Advantage exit, Hartford Business Journal, March 23, 2026 (reprinted by the Connecticut Hospital Association)
• Special Enrollment Periods (Medicare.gov)
• Your Rights When Your MA Plan Doesn’t Renew (Center for Medicare Advocacy)
• New Special Enrollment Period for Medicare Plan Finder Directory Errors (CMS)
• Changes Coming to Medicare in 2027 (Kiplinger)
• CHOICES (Connecticut Aging and Disability Services)
• CMS Finalizes 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (HHS, November 4, 2026)