The “vast majority” of the nation’s 67 million seniors eligible for Medicare health insurance won’t shop around for coverage options, let alone switch plans, a new analysis shows.
KFF’s new research, which comes before open enrollment begins Oct. 15 for various Medicare coverage options for 2025 including Medicare Advantage, shows that 69% of those eligible Medicare beneficiaries did not compare their own coverage with other Medicare options during the late fall 2021 open enrollment period for coverage that began in 2022.
“Enrollees in traditional Medicare were slightly more likely to skip shopping around than those in Medicare Advantage plans (73% vs. 65%),” KFF said.
The analysis is surprising given the unprecedented marketing and advertising onslaught each year from record numbers of private health insurance companies offering coverage to beneficiaries. That advertising blitz will soon begin again during open enrollment that runs October 15 to December 7.
“Beneficiaries have no shortage of plans to choose from: in 2024, the average Medicare beneficiary can choose among 43 Medicare Advantage plans and 21 Part D stand-alone prescription drug plans,” KFF said in its analysis.
Next week, health insurance companies that include some of the biggest names in the business including CVS Health’s Aetna, Cigna, Humana, UnitedHealth Group’s UnitedHealthcare and an array of regional insurers as well as Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans will be unveiling their Medicare Advantage benefit options for seniors.
More than half of all Medicare beneficiaries are already enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, which contract with the federal government to provide traditional coverage available in traditional Medicare plus extra benefits and services to seniors, such as disease management and nurse help hotlines with some also offering vision, dental care and wellness programs.
While KFF researchers said the “marketplace of Medicare private plans operates on the premise that people with Medicare will compare plans during the open enrollment period to select the best source of coverage, given their individual needs and circumstances,” that is not happening.
“Among Medicare Advantage enrollees, more than 4 in 10 (43%) did not review their current plan’s coverage to check for potential changes in their plan’s premiums or other out-of-pocket costs, while the remainder (57%) did so,” KFF’s report said. “A similar share (44%) did not review their current plan for potential changes in the kinds of treatments, drugs, and services that would be covered in the following year.”