Sharp Health Plan is pulling the plug on its individual Medicare Advantage coverage for 2027, a move that will force roughly 17,000 San Diego County beneficiaries to pick a new plan before the end of the year. The health system is notifying affected patients now; UnitedHealthcare offers its own Sharp-focused plans, which Sharp will continue accepting.
The shift was detailed by The San Diego Union-Tribune, which reported that Sharp will stop offering its current lineup of individual Medicare Advantage plans but will keep its group Medicare Advantage plans for local companies and continue accepting UnitedHealthcare plans tailored for Sharp patients. Sharp CEO Chris Howard said the goal is to place Medicare Advantage patients into a structure better suited to the capitation model, under which providers receive a bulk payment per beneficiary and must absorb any costs that exceed it — a system that favors plans with large enrollment pools, according to the newspaper.
The numbers explain why Sharp is leaning on its UnitedHealthcare partnership. UnitedHealthcare's Sharp-focused plans had about 38,000 enrollees in 2026, more than twice the collective enrollment of Sharp Health Plan's own Medicare Advantage offerings, which had less than 19,000 members, per enrollment data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services cited by the Union-Tribune. Howard said scale is needed for the capitation model to work, and UnitedHealthcare will offer three Sharp-focused plans for 2027.
How San Diego's Senior Health Market Is Shifting
Sharp's exit adds to a string of disruptions for San Diego's Medicare population. Scripps Health left Medicare Advantage in 2023, a move that forced an estimated 32,000 members to find new doctors, and UC San Diego Health dropped access to its university medical group primary care network earlier in 2026, according to the Union-Tribune's reporting. Pat Salas also highlighted cuts to plans from Aetna and Central Health, changes that will force about 8,000 Medicare Advantage enrollees to seek new coverage this fall.
San Diego County's Medicare Advantage market remains large and competitive, with 219,962 enrollees spread across 60 plan options as of September 2026, according to Medicare.org. Kaiser Permanente Senior Advantage leads local enrollment with nearly 68,000 members, while UnitedHealthcare's Sharp-focused HMO-POS plan, UHC Sharp Medicare Advantage ValueRx, ranks second with 20,800 enrollees. Most of the county's plans, 51 of the 60, offer $0 monthly premiums beyond the standard Medicare Part B fee.
Sharp's decision to end its individual plans is not an isolated case. It's one of eight health-system-affiliated insurers among 12 total payers exiting the Medicare Advantage market for 2027, according to a Becker's Hospital Review analysis of federal enrollment data.
The pattern reflects a broader shift away from the rapid plan expansion of previous years. Research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, cited in an industry report from Senior Medicare Advocates, found that forced Medicare Advantage disenrollments jumped from an annual average of 1% between 2018 and 2024 to 6.9% in 2025 and 10% in 2026 — a trend that saw about 2.9 million enrollees experience plan cancellations in 2026 alone.
What Displaced Sharp Members Need to Know
Sophie Exdell, manager of San Diego's Health Insurance Counseling & Advocacy Program, known as HICAP, said the UnitedHealthcare Sharp-focused plans are roughly similar to Sharp Health Plan's current offerings in terms of premiums and medical copays, per the Union-Tribune. Still, UnitedHealthcare appears to offer $0 doctor-visit copay plans in 2027, and Sharp Health Plan members are advised to compare medical-service copays and prescription-drug costs closely before deciding where to land.
Members also have the option to switch to Original Medicare, which allows visits to any participating doctor but requires supplemental Medigap insurance and separate Part D prescription drug plans, each carrying its own monthly premium. California offers an added safety net here: beneficiaries whose Medicare Advantage plan is discontinued have a guaranteed issue right to buy a standardized Medigap policy without health screening or underwriting, as long as they apply within 123 days after plan benefits end on December 31, according to California Health Advocates. That's notably longer than the 63-day window set by federal law. It's a separate protection from the state's Medigap Birthday Rule, which only applies to seniors who already hold an active Medigap policy, according to an analysis from Matt Medicares.
The federal Medicare Annual Enrollment Period for 2027 coverage runs from October 15 through December 7, giving seniors a deadline to make their coverage choices. HICAP counselors can help Medicare beneficiaries assess supplemental-insurance costs and provide comparison charts for those weighing their options.
Sharp's move fits into a pattern Hoodline has tracked elsewhere this year, including HMSA's Hawaii plan cuts that left 16,000 seniors scrambling for new coverage just days earlier. Whether UnitedHealthcare's Sharp-aligned plans will preserve exact provider continuity for all 17,000 displaced San Diego patients remains an open question as enrollment season begins.
