➤ Who has the best Medicare Advantage plan in Minnesota?
There is no single best plan in Minnesota, and any page that names one is guessing at your situation. Star ratings are assigned per contract rather than per company, so a carrier with a strong statewide reputation can still have a weaker plan in your county and the reverse is equally common. Minnesota is also one of the few states where the local nonprofit plans — UCare, HealthPartners, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and Medica — compete on even footing with UnitedHealthcare and Aetna (Humana is leaving Minnesota for 2027), so the strongest option in Hennepin County may not be the strongest in Beltrami. The best plan for you is the one that covers your doctors, covers your prescriptions at a reasonable tier, and has an out-of-pocket maximum you could absorb in a bad year.
➤ What Medicare Advantage plans are leaving Minnesota?
Humana is leaving Minnesota entirely for 2027. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is discontinuing most of its current Medicare Advantage plans, replacing them with a new lineup and exiting 15 counties. HealthPartners is ending three plans, including Journey Steady and Journey Stride, and leaving seven counties, affecting about 24,500 members, and Allina Health | Aetna is shrinking its footprint. Statewide, plans fall from 68 to 53 and 18 counties have no standard Medicare Advantage plan. Nationally, Humana has said plans covering roughly 600,000 members will not be offered. The documents that answer it for your own plan are the non-renewal notice your carrier mailed in early October 2026 and the full 2027 plan data published on October 1, 2026, now on Medicare Plan Finder. If your plan is discontinued you may also qualify for a Special Enrollment Period that extends your window past December 7.
➤ What will happen to Medicare Advantage plans in 2027?
The industry is contracting rather than expanding for 2027. Multiple carriers are exiting counties, discontinuing lower-rated contracts and adjusting supplemental benefits, with dental, vision, hearing and over-the-counter allowances the categories most commonly trimmed across the industry. What is already confirmed at the federal level applies to every plan regardless of carrier: the Medicare Advantage out-of-pocket maximum and the annual Part D out-of-pocket cap are set nationally. Each plan’s own premium, copays, network and benefit package published on October 1, 2026, and they vary by plan and county, so check the plan’s 2027 documents rather than any estimate quoted before that date.
➤ Why do people say to stay away from Medicare Advantage plans?
The criticisms are real and worth understanding rather than dismissing. Medicare Advantage plans use networks, so the doctor you want may not be covered. Many require prior authorization for procedures Original Medicare would simply pay. Costs arrive as copays during a bad health year rather than as a predictable monthly premium. And the decision is harder to reverse than to make — going back to Original Medicare with a supplement later usually means answering health questions and being subject to underwriting. The counterargument is equally real: every Medicare Advantage plan caps your annual out-of-pocket spending, which Original Medicare alone does not, and many carry no additional premium. In Minnesota this trade-off deserves extra thought, because so many members arrived from Medicare Cost plans that behaved very differently on networks and travel.
➤ How many Medicare Advantage plans are available in Minnesota?
The average Minnesota county has around 19 Medicare Advantage plans available. That number is much higher in the Twin Cities metro and considerably lower in rural counties in the north and west. Because availability is set at the county level, the only figure that matters to you is how many plans are sold in your own ZIP code.
➤ Are Medicare Cost plans still available in Minnesota?
Yes, but only in 21 counties, and only through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and Medica. Federal law required Cost plans to end in counties where enough Medicare Advantage competition existed, which eliminated them in 66 Minnesota counties at the end of 2018. Statewide enrollment fell from more than 40% of Medicare beneficiaries to roughly 6%.
➤ Which companies offer Medicare Advantage plans in Minnesota?
Minnesota-based carriers include UCare, HealthPartners, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and Medica. National carriers selling here include UnitedHealthcare, which is headquartered in Minnetonka, along with Aetna. Humana sold Medicare Advantage here through 2026 but is leaving Minnesota for 2027. Minnesota is unusual in that the local nonprofit plans compete on genuinely even footing with the national carriers rather than being a secondary option.
➤ Do Medicare Advantage plans in Minnesota cover me when I travel?
Emergency and urgently needed care is covered anywhere in the United States on any Medicare Advantage plan. Routine care is a different matter. On an HMO, routine care outside the network is generally not covered at all. On a PPO, it is covered at a higher cost share. If you winter out of state, this is the single most important thing to check before enrolling, and it is where former Cost plan members are most often caught out.
➤ Why are Medicare Supplement plans different in Minnesota?
Minnesota is one of three states operating under a federal waiver, so it uses its own supplement plan designs — Basic, Extended Basic and Medicare SELECT — rather than the standardized Plans A through N sold in most of the country. Minnesota also prohibits pricing these policies based on age. If you are weighing a supplement against a Medicare Advantage plan, confirm the Minnesota-specific designs with a licensed agent rather than relying on national comparisons.
➤ When can I enroll in a 2027 Medicare Advantage plan in Minnesota?
The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, with coverage beginning January 1, 2027. If you are already in a Medicare Advantage plan, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period from January 1 to March 31, 2027 gives you one additional change. Turning 65 or experiencing a qualifying event such as a move or a loss of employer coverage opens its own enrollment window.
➤ When will 2027 Minnesota plan details be available?
They are available now. Carriers published their 2027 plan details on October 1, 2026, two weeks before the Annual Enrollment Period opened, and every Minnesota plan is listed by ZIP code on Medicare Plan Finder. Premiums, copays, networks, formularies and extra benefits are now final for 2027. Anything published about 2027 benefits ahead of October 1 should be checked against the plan’s own documents, and extras such as dental, vision and hearing may or may not be included depending on the plan and county.