Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is eliminating several of its Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, a move the insurer says is affecting roughly 20,000 Massachusetts seniors who must now find new coverage before the end of the year. The company is also sharply limiting enrollment in the plans it does keep, cutting off both the HMO and PPO options that many older residents have relied on for years.
According to The Boston Globe, the cuts hit Medicare Advantage offerings in Middlesex, Essex, and Worcester counties. Medicare Advantage is the privately run alternative to Original Medicare, the federal insurance program for people 65 and older. On its own enrollment page, Blue Cross confirms that enrollment in its Medicare Advantage plans is extremely limited for 2027, and online enrollment is unavailable on its website, according to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
A third-party plan-tracking page, citing CMS enrollment data from October 2026, lists 28 plan listings as being replaced and identifies seven plans as ending in 2027, according to ismyplanending.com. Blue Cross's 2027 lineup includes seven plans: two HMO, two HMO-POS, and three PPO options, according to the insurer's plan-information page.
A Somerville Retiree Faces Higher Bills
The toll on individual households is stark. Tom Stambaugh, 74, of Somerville, will pay nearly three times as much for health insurance next year as he did in 2026, the Globe reports. He chose Original Medicare but now must purchase two supplemental plans to help cover copays and prescriptions, bringing his monthly cost to $315 — a nearly 200 percent jump in his annual insurance costs. Stambaugh told the Globe the added expense is an inconvenience for him and his wife.
Blue Cross Reports Financial Pressures
Blue Cross reported a net loss of $223.6 million on $9.7 billion in revenue for full-year 2024, and said at the time that member medical-care and prescription costs were growing at their fastest rate in more than a decade, per a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts announcement. The Globe also reports that Blue Cross ended coverage of GLP-1 medications for obesity and offered buyouts to hundreds of employees in October 2025, as rising GLP-1 popularity added to cost pressures across the industry. Massachusetts separately approved a 13 percent increase in average Blue Cross premiums for non-Medicare Advantage plans sold on the state's Health Connector, according to the Globe.
Other Insurers Are Also Pulling Back
Blue Cross isn't alone in retreating from Medicare Advantage. The Globe reports that Mass General Brigham Health Plan is terminating all of its Medicare Advantage PPO plans for 2027.
The pullback extends well beyond Massachusetts. Nationally, 193 counties will have no Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans available for general enrollment in 2027, up from 123 counties in 2026, according to KFF. The average beneficiary will still have 28 such plans to choose from in 2027, but the share of beneficiaries with more than 40 options is falling from 27 percent in 2026 to 20 percent in 2027, per KFF's analysis. KFF points to a combination of local market characteristics, cost pressures, shifts in insurer strategy, and companies' own profitability assessments as drivers behind the retreat. Elsewhere, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is exiting 177 counties and will offer Medicare Advantage prescription drug plans only in Michigan and Wyoming next year, while UnitedHealth Group is exiting 228 counties and Humana is exiting 62, according to the same KFF report.
What Affected Members Need to Know
Blue Cross says members whose current plan remains available in 2027 will be automatically re-enrolled, but those whose plan is discontinued must choose a new Medicare option before their old plan ends, per the insurer's enrollment guidance. The company says it is not maintaining a waiting list for new 2027 Medicare Advantage applicants, though new members can still enroll in the surviving plans on a very limited, first-come, first-served basis, the Globe reports. Blue Cross Medicare Supplement plans, by contrast, have no enrollment limits for 2027.
The Medicare Annual Enrollment Period runs from October 15 through December 7, 2026. Blue Cross says it intends to reopen its Medicare Advantage plans for enrollment in 2028 and expects the current reduction to be temporary.
