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A review of the 2025 Medicare Advantage plans available for individual enrollment shows that the total number of plans declined by 7% (from 3,959 to 3,699). The average Medicare beneficiary will have the option of 34 Medicare Advantage prescription drug (MA-PD) plans in 2025, just 2 fewer than the 36 options available in 2024. Since 2018, the number of plans available to the average beneficiary has doubled.
The new provider search tool on the Medicare Plan Finder could make it easier for beneficiaries to figure out if their doctors are in a Medicare Advantage plan's network despite some data issues.
Certain insurers must now publicly report specific prior authorization metrics, but the new data offer limited insight, providing no information on what types of services are being approved and denied or why as well as no data on prescription drugs.
The Trump administration this week backed off a key element of its Medicare Advantage rate proposal, resulting in billions of dollars in additional payments to private insurers.
This brief analyzes out-of-pocket limits in Medicare Advantage plans in 2026, variation by plan type, the distribution of enrollees facing different out-of-pocket limits, and trends over time.
This Health Policy 101 chapter explores Medicare, a federal health insurance program covering more than 68 million people, established in 1965 for people age 65 or older and later expanded to cover people under age 65 with long-term disabilities. In addition to detailing Medicare eligibility, coverage, and spending, the chapter examines the increased role of private plans in providing benefits and the financing challenges posed by increasing health care costs and an aging population.
This brief provides information about Medicare Advantage plans in 2026, including premiums, out-of-pocket limits, supplemental benefits, and prior authorization, as well as trends over time.
The private plans that offer the Medicare Part D benefit - stand-alone drug plans and Medicare Advantage drug plans - are increasingly are competing on uneven terms, in part because the payment system for Medicare Advantage plans enables them to lower Part D premiums or reduce Part D cost sharing, making drug coverage from Medicare Advantage plans appear considerably cheaper, or even premium-free, to the beneficiary. This brief discusses the growing instability of the Part…
The Role of Medicare Advantage – Slideshow Download View JAMA Infographic
This fact sheet provides an overview of the Medicare drug benefit and the additional subsidies available to certain eligible low-income beneficiaries. Fact Sheet - December 2009 (.pdf)
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