Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas will stop offering Medicare Advantage (MA) plans after this year. The insurer offered plans in 227 Texas counties in 2026, according to Becker’s Payer Issues. Its parent company, Health Care Service Corp. (HCSC), will keep offering HealthSpring MA plans in 47 Texas counties.
Open enrollment for 2027 coverage runs through Dec. 7. Nationally, UnitedHealth Group is leaving 228 counties and entering nine. Humana is leaving 62 and entering four. HCSC is leaving 498 counties and entering none, and Centene is leaving 359 and entering 15.
Those figures come from a KFF analysis of federal plan data published Oct. 9. Each exit means the insurer no longer offers any MA plan with drug coverage in that county.
A UnitedHealth spokesperson confirmed that about 390,000 members are in plans being discontinued, and Humana has announced cuts affecting about 600,000 enrollees, Bloomberg reported.
UnitedHealthcare President Bobby Hunter has said the company is pulling back in markets where preferred provider organization plans, which carry higher operating costs, make up a larger share of its offerings. “We can’t ignore the realities facing the healthcare system,” Hunter said, according to Newsweek.
KFF counted 193 counties with no MA plan with drug coverage open to general enrollment for 2027, up from 123 this year. None of those counties are in the eight states covered below.