Ayotte: Trump administration will preserve Medicare Advantage in Coos, Carroll counties

Up to 27,000 Coos County seniors in danger of losing Medicare Advantage coverage will continue to keep it after Gov. Kelly Ayotte said she convinced the Trump administration to collaborate on this coverage through 2027.

Ayotte announced the deal late on Friday afternoon, a day after insurers had confirmed there would be no Medicare Advantage plans offered in the state's northernmost county.

Coos County also has by far the lowest median income of the 10 counties in the state at $57,677.

The benchmark family income level is more than double that in Rockingham County along the Massachusetts border ($118,731).

CVS Health and BMC Health Systems, two of the major insurers in the program, said they were leaving the state entirely.

The two exiting insurers had 14,000 residents under coverage who must find another alternative.

Some insurers were pulling out of Carroll County, which includes the Lakes Region and part of the White Mountain Valley region.

The only insurer left was offering coverage in Carroll County only to eligible seniors with “special needs,” which threatened to leave thousands of others without coverage, Ayotte’s office said.

Ayotte said Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), made the commitment to protect residents in both those counties during a recent telephone conversation the two had.

“I thank Administrator Oz and CMS for working with us to ensure Medicare Advantage coverage in Coos and Carroll Counties. When I spoke with Administrator Oz, I emphasized the unique challenges our North Country faces, and I am grateful that he was so responsive,” Ayotte said in a statement.

“This work will help North Country residents access the coverage and care they need, and we will continue working to protect Granite Staters’ access to healthcare coverage in rural New Hampshire and across our entire state.”

Gov urges affected seniors to wait for further info

Ayotte advised affected seniors to make no decisions until her office and the Trump administration offer more information about the coverage options that they have.

This is the second straight year New Hampshire seniors were sent scrambling as insurers bailed out of the Medicare Advantage program.

In late 2025 it was Anthem — the state’s largest insurer — that left the state, and more than 80,000 seniors lost their incumbent insurance plan.

In 2027, New Hampshire will have 20 Medicare Advantage plans offered by three organizations: Humana, UnitedHealth Group and new market entrant Devoted Health according to the New Hampshire Insurance Department.

State insurance experts expect statewide enrollment in the program will decline by more than 18,000.

Devoted Health is entering New Hampshire with six Medicare Advantage plans. It will only be available in Grafton, Hillsborough and Sullivan counties, officials aid.

Open enrollment in Medicare started last Thursday and runs through Dec. 7.

Consumers with questions may contact the New Hampshire Insurance Department Consumer Services Division at 603-271-2261 or consumerservices@ins.nh.gov . Consumers may also contact Medicare at 1-800-MEDICARE or visit https://www.medicare.gov .

Beneficiaries seeking free, impartial Medicare counseling may also contact ServiceLink at 1-866-634-9412.

Last month, those in one of the state’s most financially secure Medicare Advantage programs — coverage for 11,000 retired state workers and their spouses — learned they were not immune from the market changes.

Anthem, the incumbent vendor, agreed to a one-year extension of its existing contract covering these employees, but only if premiums went up 85%, only the second premium increase in the past decade.

State retirees pay no more than 10% of that premium cost, with state taxpayers picking up the other 90% of the premium.

This raised the monthly premium hit for state retirees from $22 to $40.

State officials said they had enough surplus money in the state health insurance account to cover the first six months of the premium increase.

Legislators must decide where to find money to meet the payment for the next six months within the next state budget that will be debated at the State House during the 2027 session.

The Medicare Advantage deal emerged hours after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s health and human services secretary, convened a roundtable last Friday afternoon in New Hampshire on rural health initiatives with Donnalee Lozeau, Ayotte's hand-picked executive director of the new Governor's Office of New Opportunities and Rural Transformational Health (GO-NORTH).

Kennedy announced the allocation of $11 million in federal Rural Health Transformation grant money to support mobile and telehealth emergency medical services for rural Granite Staters.

This was part of the $204 million annual grant New Hampshire first received in 2025, the largest one of any New England state.

Kennedy said it will expand New Hampshire’s Mobile Integrated Health program and bolster telemedicine in rural parts of the state. Both outcomes should help reduce strain on overburdened emergency rooms, he said.

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