Anthem Medicare Advantage Plans 2027: Coverage, Costs and What's Changing

Reviewed by Russell Noga, Licensed Medicare Insurance Broker (all 50 states) — Last updated September 2, 2026

Anthem covers about 5% of the Medicare Advantage market — roughly 1.8 million members across 14 states. That makes it the fifth largest carrier in the country, well behind UnitedHealthcare and Humana, and it is easy to read that as a reason to look elsewhere.

For the 2027 plan year, size is the wrong thing to be looking at.

Anthem is one of the very few major carriers that has not announced Medicare Advantage plan cuts for 2027. It already made its cuts — a year ago, for 2026 — and its quality ratings moved further in the right direction than any large carrier except Centene while Humana’s and Aetna’s went backwards. In a year when about one in ten Medicare Advantage members is losing their plan, a carrier that has already finished contracting is worth understanding properly.

This is the single most useful thing to know about Anthem going into this enrollment season, and it is a result of timing rather than generosity.

Anthem’s parent company, Elevance Health, made its contraction a year early. In September 2025, CFO Mark Kaye told the Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference that the company would exit the standalone Part D market entirely and drop selected Medicare Advantage plans and counties for the 2026 plan year, affecting roughly 150,000 members. His explanation was blunt: “We made the decision to exit some plans and counties where we did not see a path to attractive economic performance.”

That was painful for the members involved. But it means Anthem entered the 2027 bidding cycle having already shed its unprofitable business, while competitors were only starting.

On Elevance’s second-quarter 2026 earnings call in July, Aimée Dailey, President of Government Health Benefits, described the 2027 bids as submitted “with a prudent view of trend and a continued focus on sustainable margin improvement” and said “the actions we took in 2026 are performing as we expected.” The company reaffirmed it is on track for at least a 2% Medicare Advantage margin. No county exits and no plan withdrawals were announced for 2027.

Compare that with Humana, which announced on its own July 2026 earnings call that it is exiting plans covering roughly 600,000 members for 2027 — about 8% of its 7.2 million members — and expects to recapture only around 240,000 of them. That is Humana’s second consecutive year of cuts.

Two cautions, because “no announced exits” is not the same as “guaranteed to renew.” Carriers announce material footprint changes on earnings calls, but individual plan consolidations surface only when the non-renewal notices go out. And Anthem’s stated focus is on HMO and dual-eligible special needs plans, which is where it sees margin — if you are in an Anthem PPO in a thin market, that is the profile most likely to be quietly folded into another plan. Your own mail is the only authority. Every carrier must notify affected members by October 1. Our guide to Medicare Advantage plans going away in 2027 explains how to tell a non-renewal notice from the routine Annual Notice of Change.

Anthem is not a national carrier. It offers Medicare Advantage plans in parts of 14 states, and only in parts — availability is set county by county, not statewide.

The 14 states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.

If you live outside those 14 states, Anthem is not an option for you and no amount of comparison shopping will change that. If you live inside one, you still need to confirm that Anthem sells plans in your specific county, because large parts of several of these states have no Anthem Medicare Advantage presence at all.

This confuses more people than any other aspect of shopping for an Anthem plan, and it is worth two minutes to get straight.

Blue Cross Blue Shield is not a company. It is an association of independent, locally operated insurers, each holding the Blue Cross and Blue Shield license for its own territory. Elevance Health holds those licenses in 14 states, and it trades under the Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield name in most of them — and simply Anthem Blue Cross in California.

So in Ohio, “Anthem” and “Blue Cross Blue Shield” are the same insurer. In Michigan, Blue Cross Blue Shield is an entirely different company that has nothing to do with Anthem. Someone in Texas comparing “Anthem” to “Blue Cross” is comparing a carrier that does not operate in their state to one that does.

The practical consequences are real. Your Anthem plan’s network is the local Blue network, so provider participation depends on your region rather than on a national roster. And if you move to a state where a different company holds the Blue license, your plan does not travel with you — you are changing insurers, not addresses. If you are researching the Blue system more broadly, our overview of Blue Cross Medicare Advantage plans covers how the licensees differ from one another.

Anthem offers five plan structures, marketed under the MediBlue name. Which are available to you depends entirely on your county.

One point that matters more than it looks. Anthem has said publicly that HMO and D-SNP are the product lines it is prioritizing. That is a reasonable signal about where its 2027 benefit design and network investment are going — and, by the same logic, where they are not. It is not a prediction that PPOs will be withdrawn, but if you are choosing between an Anthem HMO and an Anthem PPO in a market where Anthem is thin, it belongs in the decision.

Every Anthem Medicare Advantage plan covers everything Original Medicare Parts A and B cover, because federal law requires it. The differences are in what gets added on top, and Anthem names these benefits specifically:

Anthem also caps insulin at $35 per month with no deductible applied, matching the federal requirement, and updated behavioral health cost sharing for 2026.

CMS rates every Medicare Advantage contract from 1 to 5 stars on clinical quality, member experience and customer service. Ratings matter beyond bragging rights: contracts at 4 stars and above earn bonus payments that fund richer benefits, which is why a carrier’s star trajectory is a reasonable proxy for whether its plans are about to get better or worse.

For 2026, 53% of Elevance’s Medicare Advantage members are in plans rated 4 stars or higher, up from roughly 40% the year before. That is a substantial one-year improvement, and only Centene moved further.

The context is what makes it interesting. Over the same period Humana fell to around 20% from 25%, and Aetna fell to about 81% from 89%. The industry’s weighted average barely moved, from 3.96 to 3.98 stars. Anthem was gaining ground while the two carriers making the deepest cuts were losing it.

Two honest qualifications. At 53%, Anthem still trails UnitedHealthcare at over 77%, Aetna at 81% and Kaiser at nearly 100% — the direction is excellent, the absolute level is mid-pack. And ratings are assigned per contract, not per carrier, so the plan available in your county may be rated well above or below Anthem’s average. Check the star rating on the specific plan, which appears on the Medicare Plan Finder once 2027 data is live. Our 2027 carrier comparison puts these figures side by side across all eight major carriers.

These are federal parameters, so they apply identically to every Anthem plan and every competitor’s plan. They are also confirmed, which makes them the one part of your 2027 costs you can plan around today.

The annual out-of-pocket maximum for prescription drugs rises from $2,100 in 2026 to $2,400 in 2027. Once you hit it, your covered drugs cost you nothing for the rest of the year. The maximum allowable Part D deductible rises from $615 to $700 — that is a ceiling, and many Anthem plans set theirs lower or waive it on preferred tiers.

The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which spreads your annual drug costs across monthly installments rather than front-loading them, renews automatically for anyone already enrolled. If you opted in for 2026 you do not need to do anything for 2027.

Do not confuse the drug cap with your medical cap. They are separate limits. The $2,400 applies only to Part D prescriptions. Your medical out-of-pocket maximum is a different number set by your specific plan, and in 2027 it can go as high as $9,850 for in-network care or $14,800 counting out-of-network. A plan advertising a low drug deductible can still carry a high medical cap.

Your county, first. Anthem operates in 14 states but not in every county within them. Everything else is academic until you confirm plans are sold where you live.

Your doctors, by name, in the 2027 directory. Anthem networks are the local Blue networks and they change annually. A physician in-network this year may not be next year, and on an HMO that is the difference between a copay and the full bill.

Every prescription, at its tier. Formularies are rebuilt each year. A drug moving from tier 2 to tier 3 can cost you hundreds annually without any change to your premium.

The medical out-of-pocket maximum, not the premium. The premium is what you pay when nothing goes wrong. The maximum is what protects you when something does.

The specific plan’s star rating. Anthem’s carrier-level improvement does not guarantee the contract in your county improved.

Your mail, through early October. Even with no announced 2027 exits, individual plan consolidations are only disclosed in the non-renewal notices.

Annual Enrollment runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, with coverage starting January 1, 2027. This is the window in which most people switch into or out of an Anthem plan, and enrolling within it is the only way to guarantee continuous coverage on January 1.

If you are already in a Medicare Advantage plan, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period from January 1 to March 31, 2027 lets you make one further change — switch to a different Medicare Advantage plan or drop back to Original Medicare with a standalone Part D plan.

A Special Enrollment Period may apply outside those windows if you move out of your plan’s service area, become eligible for Medicaid or Extra Help, or your plan is discontinued. If you are new to Medicare, your Initial Enrollment Period runs from three months before through three months after the month you turn 65.

For a broader view of the 2027 landscape across all carriers, start with our 2027 Medicare Advantage plans guide.