Higher premiums, less choice ahead for Medicare Advantage shoppers in Minnesota

Higher monthly premiums and fewer options are coming for hundreds of thousands of seniors across Minnesota who use Medicare Advantage health insurance plans.

In Minnesota, the federal government is projecting the average insurance premium will increase nearly 18% next year in the plans, which are privatized alternatives to the original Medicare program.

Meanwhile, HealthPartners, Humana and UnitedHealthcare will stop selling Medicare Advantage coverage next year in dozens of Minnesota counties, primarily outside the Twin Cities metro. UCare, the state’s second-largest Medicare Advantage provider, announced in early September it would stop selling the plans statewide.

The changes will force thousands of seniors in Minnesota to shop for new insurance next year, including at least 158,000 with UCare plans this year.

“It’s gonna be a tough year all the way around for beneficiaries in Minnesota,” said Kelli Jo Greiner, the Medicare product manager at the Minnesota Board on Aging.

About 653,000 beneficiaries in Minnesota elect to receive government-sponsored Medicare benefits via Advantage plans, which are run by insurance companies.

Usually about 3% of Medicare Advantage enrollees in Minnesota switch plans and carriers, Bloomington-based HealthPartners said in a statement, but “this year it could be 30% or more.”

“There is no doubt the Medicare Advantage market in Minnesota will experience significant disruption heading into 2026,” Minnetonka-based Medica said in a statement.

Wednesday marks the official start of Medicare Advantage marketing, so insurers are just beginning to reveal premium jumps and other changes for 2026.

Searches of the Medicare Plan Finder tool show fewer 2026 options in a number of counties, with exits ranging from Humana in Hennepin County, HealthPartners in St. Louis County and UnitedHealthcare in Olmsted County. HealthPartners won’t have the plans in Lyon County in southwest Minnesota or Wilkin County along the North Dakota border.

“This change will affect less than 5% of HealthPartners Medicare Advantage across 46 counties in greater Minnesota where we had minimal membership,” the insurer said in a statement. “We are now in 22 counties in Minnesota.”

Federal officials say that nationally, the average Medicare Advantage premium is expected to drop from $16.40 to $14 per month, a decline of roughly 14%.

In Minnesota, however, the average monthly premium is projected to increase from $61.51 in 2025 to $72.34 next year.

“Local market dynamics, including available Medicare Advantage plan options, are largely driving the contrast between Minnesota and the rest of the country,” Eagan-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Blue Cross, which runs the state’s largest Medicare Advantage plan, is raising premiums by an average of roughly 10% across 66 counties where it sells the coverage.

In general, Medicare Advantage premiums in Minnesota are considerably higher than the national average because seniors here often opt for plans with richer benefits including easy access to doctors, clinics and hospitals, insurance agents say.

In many other states, a larger share of seniors opt for cheaper or even $0 premium plans that come with more coverage restrictions.

In recent years, Medicare Advantage premium costs in Minnesota have been decreasing even as benefits have gotten richer, said Chad Levis, an insurance agent who is president CAL Financial Inc. in Edina.

Federal funding for the plans, however, has not kept pace with inflation in medical costs, Levis said. Insurers are boosting premiums and tightening benefits in response to compressed or vanishing profit margins.

“2024 was a breaking point for the industry,” Levis said, “with many insurers countrywide incurring massive losses.”

Eden Prairie-based UnitedHealthcare, which is the nation’s largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, announced in July that diminished profitability was prompting the company to exit a number of markets across the country, impacting about 600,000 people.

The company is now beginning to detail these changes, including premium increases for about half of its Medicare Advantage plans in Minnesota.

UnitedHealthcare says it’s closing five plans here and will stop selling Medicare Advantage coverage in 45 of the 72 Minnesota counties where it currently operates. Reductions are concentrated in southern Minnesota.

Across the country, UnitedHealthcare is absorbing a financial hit from changes in the Medicare Advantage risk adjustment system, which compensates insurers for covering sicker patients. Critics say the system has been riddled with waste, fraud and abuse that has enriched health insurers.

The scrutiny is not grounded in fact, UnitedHealthcare believes, yet the company is adjusting its 2026 offerings in response to “significant financial pressure,” said Bobby Hunter, the CEO of its government programs.

“The combination of [federal] funding cuts, rising health care costs and increased utilization have created headwinds that really no organization can ignore,” Hunter said during a call with reporters.

In Minnesota, UnitedHealthcare was the third-largest Medicare Advantage plan as of March, with about 94,000 enrollees. UCare, which ranked second at the time, is exiting after suffering huge losses last year and in the first half of 2025.

Kentucky-based Humana offers Medicare Advantage plans in 73 Minnesota counties, but will do so in just 36 counties next year. Average premiums at Humana will be about 13% higher across the state and the company is suspending two of its four $0-premium plans sold here.

Seniors changing health plans will place extra burdens on Minnesota Aging Pathways, the state’s network of free health insurance counselors. This service, formerly known as the Senior LinkAge Line, will try to provide more help by concentrating resources on phone-based assistance, Greiner said, versus in-person events.

Meanwhile, insurance agents say they might not be able to provide as much assistance because several Medicare Advantage plans are suspending some commissions for signing up seniors to their plans.

“If they’re eliminating a commission or severely cutting a commission, they’re saying: ‘Yeah, we don’t care so much if we gain enrollment this time around,’” said Jack Hoadley, a health policy researcher at Georgetown University.

In general, there’s a “lack of enthusiasm from the industry in enrolling more people, which is expressed through the reductions or cuts in commissions, and in some of their scaling-back of offerings,” he said.

More than 500,000 Minnesotans opt to get coverage through original Medicare, the government-run program that can require significant out-of-pocket costs when people use health care. These beneficiaries often purchase Medicare Supplements, or “Medigap” insurance, plus standalone “Part D” drug plans to round out their coverage.

The annual election period for Medicare Advantage and Part D plans runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7.

People can survey options via the Medicare Plan Finder at Medicare.gov. Help over the phone is available from Minnesota Aging Pathways 800-333-2433.

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