Plan extras may be leaner in 2027

Here is something worth filing away before the fall shopping season: several industry analysts and insurance executives expect some Medicare Advantage plans to scale back their extra benefits for 2027. These are the perks that draw a lot of people to Advantage in the first place, things like dental, vision, hearing, fitness memberships, meal deliveries, and rides to appointments. They are not part of Original Medicare; they are add ons that each Advantage plan chooses to offer, and that plans can change from one year to the next. The backdrop is a money squeeze. Medicare set the average 2027 payment to Advantage insurers about 2.48 percent higher than this year, but several insurers have said that raise still falls short of their rising costs. Humana has signaled it may need to pare benefits, while UnitedHealthcare said its funding is below where it wants it but did not flag specific cuts. About half of the roughly 70 million people on Medicare are in an Advantage plan, in part because of these extras, so even modest trims are worth watching. None of this is a reason to panic or to switch plans today. It is a reason to read one document carefully this fall: the Annual Notice of Change, which your plan mails by the end of September. It spells out exactly what is changing in your plan for next year, including any cut to a benefit you use. Then, during the Annual Enrollment Period from October 15 to December 7, you can compare plans on what you actually use, not just the headline premium, and switch if a different plan fits better.