"Humana is cutting plans" is a headline. Here is what it actually means for you.
September 2, 2026
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Show Notes
Eddie and Betty's Conversation
Welcome to The American Retirement Advisor. I'm Betty, and Eddie's here with me in the studio today, and we are talking about something that I think has caused a lot of unnecessary stress for a lot of people this week. You may have seen a headline floating around about Humana cutting Medicare Advantage plans, and if you or someone you love is on one of those plans, I can imagine your heart rate went up a little the moment you read it. So we wanted to sit down today and actually work through what's going on, because there's a real story here and then there's the headline, and those are not the same thing.
And that distinction really is the whole ballgame. Ian Schaeffer wrote a piece about this that I thought was really well done, because he didn't just say don't worry about it and move on. He actually walked through the numbers and showed you why the scale of what's happening is very different from what the headline implies. So let's do the same thing.
Start with what's actually going on, because I do think people deserve a straight answer on that.
Humana is exiting some Medicare Advantage markets for 2027. That is real. The number of members affected is approximately 600,000 nationwide. That is also real. And 600,000 people is not nothing, I'm not trying to wave that away.
Right, that sounds like a lot when you just say the number out loud.
It does. But here's what puts it in perspective. Humana has roughly 7.2 million Medicare Advantage members total. So 600,000 is about 8 percent of their membership. The other 92 percent are not part of this story at all. Their plans are not going away. Nothing is changing for them based on this news.
So if you're sitting there thinking your plan might be on the chopping block, the odds are actually pretty strongly in your favor that it isn't.
Statistically, yes. And there's another layer to this that I think matters a lot. The plans being retired are specifically the lowest rated ones, the plans that were rated three and a half stars or below. So these are not high-performing plans being cut for purely financial reasons. These are the plans that were already underperforming by the industry's own quality measures.
That's a meaningful detail that did not make it into the headline.
Not even close. And the other thing that got buried is that Humana has said it expects to move about 40 percent of the affected members into its other plans on its own. So they're not just saying goodbye and closing the door. They're actively working to transition a significant portion of those people.
So some of them in that 600,000 may not have to do anything at all, because Humana's going to move them.
That's the expectation Humana has communicated. Now, that doesn't mean everyone sits back and does nothing, we'll get to what people should actually do. But the picture is considerably less alarming than 600,000 people suddenly without coverage.
I keep thinking about the phrase Ian used in the piece, that a headline's only job is to get you to stop scrolling. It's not paid to calm you down. I thought that was a really honest way to put it.
It is. And the problem is that our brains process a scary headline before we've had a chance to ask any questions about it. So your stomach drops first and your critical thinking shows up about ten seconds later. What Ian's piece is trying to do is give your brain a chance to catch up.
Okay, so let's say someone is in that 8 percent. Let's say they're one of the 600,000. What does their situation actually look like right now?
It looks like this: they have time, and they have options. Nobody's coverage is being pulled out from under them tomorrow. The Annual Enrollment Period runs through December seventh, and that is the deadline by which anyone who needs to make a new choice has to do it. That's a real runway. That's not urgent to the day.
December seventh is the date people need to have in their heads.
Write it down. And something else worth saying clearly: if your plan is not renewed, that is not a penalty. It is not something you did wrong. It is not a mark against you. Plans get retired. It happens in this industry. You have every right to go find something better.
I think that's worth saying twice, because I know some people feel like a plan change is some kind of failure on their part, or they worry it means they're going to be harder to insure going forward.
That's a really common fear and it's not how this works. A non-renewal is the plan exiting, not you being rejected. Those are entirely different things.
Now here's something in the article that I thought was really important and I want to make sure we give it its due. Ian makes the point that until October first, nobody, not an advisor, not an article, not an insurance company representative, can tell you for certain what your specific plan looks like next year.
That October first date is the key. That's when the official 2027 plan information gets released. Before that, anyone telling you exactly what your options are for next year is guessing. They may be an informed guess, but it's still a guess. The most honest thing any advisor can say to you right now is, we'll have the real picture in a few weeks, and here's how to be ready for it.
And that honesty is actually a feature, not a bug. If someone is being very definitive with you right now about what your 2027 plan looks like before that information has been released, that should give you pause.
Confidence without the data isn't expertise. It's a sales pitch.
So what should people be doing between now and October first?
A few things. If a letter shows up in your mailbox this fall, don't throw it away. Don't panic either. Read it. Note the date. Get a sense of whether your plan is in the affected group. And then, critically, don't rush into anything. Do not enroll in the first plan you see advertised on television.
Oh, the TV commercials. There are so many of them during enrollment season.
There really are. And they're designed to create urgency that may not reflect your actual situation. The right move is not to respond to a TV ad. The right move is to sit down with someone who can actually look at your specific circumstances.
Ian made a point in the piece about the difference between a rushed choice and a good one, and I thought it was pretty striking. He said it's almost never about more money. It's about having one unhurried hour with someone who does this for a living.
And that's the step that most people skip. Not because they don't want to make a good decision, but because the enrollment period feels overwhelming and the path of least resistance is to just go with whatever comes in the mail or whatever the commercial said. And that can cost you, not necessarily in dollars upfront, but in coverage that doesn't fit, in networks that don't include your doctor, in benefits you didn't realize you were giving up.
Can you give people a sense of what that comparison conversation with a real advisor actually looks like? Because I think some people imagine it's very complicated.
It really isn't. It's about sitting down with your current plan information, talking through what you use, who your doctors are, what your medications are, and having someone who understands the landscape help you compare what's available. That's it. The complexity is on their side. You just have to show up with your situation.
Which is a much lower bar than people think. You don't have to become a Medicare expert yourself. You just have to be willing to sit down and talk it through.
Exactly. And for anyone who wants a structured, no-pressure way to do that, the team at American Retirement Advisors is putting on some workshops that I think are really well timed for this.
Tell people about these, because the timing is genuinely perfect.
So on Friday, October second -- right on the heels of that October first release date we've been pointing to all episode, when the real numbers finally land -- American Retirement Advisors is hosting two no-cost Medicare workshops. One is in Glendale at the Foothills Library at 10:30 in the morning. The other is in Scottsdale at the Mustang Library at 2:30 in the afternoon. And the framing Ian used for what these workshops are about stuck with me: the goal is to teach you how to read the year in front of you, so the next scary headline finds you already informed.
I love that framing. Because the goal isn't just to get through this particular Humana situation. It's to come out the other side actually understanding how this system works so you're not starting from zero every single enrollment season.
That's the whole point. And importantly, Ian was very clear about what these workshops are not. They're not going to pitch you a plan. They're not going to hand you an application. This is education, not a sales event.
And they're at public libraries, which I think says something about the spirit of what they're trying to do.
It does. For anyone who wants to register, you can go to 123easymedicare.com/oct-workshop. Or you can call 877-220-1089. Those are the two ways to get a seat.
Let's go back to the big picture for a second, because I want to make sure we've really honored the people who are genuinely worried right now. Because even if statistically most people aren't affected, if you're in the 8 percent, that 92 percent number doesn't feel very comforting.
No, and it shouldn't have to. That concern is legitimate. What I want anyone in that situation to take from this conversation is that having your plan not renewed is not the worst outcome. A panicked, rushed enrollment into a plan you didn't examine, one that doesn't cover your doctors or doesn't fit your situation, that's the outcome worth worrying about. A thoughtful transition into a better plan is not a disaster.
So the risk isn't the plan change. The risk is the rushed response to the plan change.
That's it. That's the thing to protect against. And the protection is just not moving fast before you have the information you need.
Let's talk about what people might get from their own insurance company between now and December. Because I think a lot of people get letters and don't really know what they're looking at.
So if your plan is among the ones being discontinued, you should receive a non-renewal notice. That letter is important. Don't throw it away. It will tell you what's happening with your specific plan. After October first, when the new plan information is out, you'll start to have actual options to compare. Between October first and December seventh, that's your window to make a decision with real information in hand.
And for people who are not in the affected group, is there anything they should be doing?
For anyone on a Medicare Advantage plan, the Annual Enrollment Period is always worth treating as an annual checkup on your coverage, not just a time to renew automatically. Your health situation changes. Your doctors may change. The plan's benefits may change from year to year. So even if your plan isn't going anywhere, October first through December seventh is a good time to make sure what you have still fits.
Which is actually a great habit to build, rather than just renewing on autopilot every year.
Right. A lot of people just do that, and sometimes it works out fine. But you don't actually know if it worked out fine until you look. And looking once a year is a pretty small investment of time.
I want to come back to something you said earlier about the star ratings, because I don't think we fully unpacked that. The plans being retired are the three and a half star plans and below. What does that actually mean to a regular person?
Medicare uses a star rating system to measure how well they perform on things like quality of care, customer service, and how well they manage chronic conditions. Five stars is the best. Three and a half and below means the coverage has been underperforming on those measures. So in a real sense, the members who were on those may end up with access to better coverage after this transition, not worse.
That is a complete flip of how the headline reads.
It really is a different story altogether. The fuller picture says lower-quality plans are being replaced with the opportunity to access better ones. Those are not the same story.
Now I do want to ask, and I want to be careful here because I know there are details in this area that depend on someone's specific situation, but what about people who are worried they won't be able to get comparable coverage in their area? Is that a real concern or is that more fear than reality?
It's a fair question, and the honest answer is that it varies by geography. What's available in one market isn't the same as what's available in another. For someone who's genuinely worried about what their options look like specifically where they live, that's exactly the kind of conversation to have with one of our advisors, because they know the local landscape in a way that a general article or a general podcast can't replicate.
So don't try to answer that question in the abstract. Get a real person to look at your zip code and your situation.
That's the right move. The specifics matter too much to generalize.
Let me ask you this, because we've spent a lot of time on what people should do, and now I really feel like we owe listeners the flip side of that coin, the things people should absolutely not do. If you had to name the two or three things to avoid between now and December seventh, what are they?
First, don't throw away any mail from your insurance company this fall. Even if it looks like junk mail, it may be your non-renewal notice and missing it costs you time. Second, don't respond to a TV commercial by calling the number on screen and enrolling in whatever they're offering without comparing it to your actual options. Third, don't assume that because your neighbor or your friend's plan is fine, yours is too. Get your own information.
And don't let cheap or familiar fool you into thinking it's right for you.
Very much so. The cheapest plan and the best plan for your situation are often not the same plan.
I want to circle back to the workshops one more time before we close, because I think there's something worth naming about the timing. October second is the day after the official plan information comes out.
That's by design. The first is when you finally have the actual data on what's available for 2027. The next day is when these workshops are happening. So you're not sitting in a room hearing people speculate about what plans might look like. You're getting educated with real information already on the table.
And then you still have two full months before December seventh to make a decision without feeling rushed.
Which is exactly how this process should work. Informed, not panicked. Deliberate, not reactive.
Glendale, Foothills Library, 10:30 in the morning on October second. Scottsdale, Mustang Library, 2:30 in the afternoon on the same day. And for registration, same links and numbers we mentioned a moment ago, so just scroll back if you need those. No charge to attend.
And if you're in neither of those areas but you have questions, you can still call that number. The team is there to help.
The thing I keep coming back to from Ian Schaeffer's piece is the idea that the same set of facts can produce two completely different stories depending on how they're framed. 600,000 people lost coverage is one frame. 8 percent of Humana's members are in plans being retired, 40 percent of whom the company expects to transition directly, with a clear enrollment window through December seventh, is a completely different frame. Both are drawn from the same facts. One of them leaves you in a panic. The other leaves you with a list of things to do.
And that list is so much more useful.
So if you heard that headline this week and you've been carrying that worry around, I hope this conversation has at least given you a little bit of that back. You're not in a crisis. You're in an enrollment season. Those are different things. The next right step is to find out whether your specific plan is affected, and if it is, to make sure you're sitting down with someone before December seventh who can help you look at your real options. Not a TV commercial, not a rushed phone call, but an actual conversation with someone who knows this space and isn't in a hurry to push you anywhere. That's what the workshops on October second are built for, and that's what the team at American Retirement Advisors is there for year round. Take care of yourselves and we'll see you next time.