Medicare Advantage Gains Enrollee Share

The program did especially well east of the Rockies.

By Allison Bell | January 28, 2020 at 02:14 PM

(Credit: Allison Bell/ALM)

Medicare Advantage coverage providers have started the year with 24 million enrollees, or about 9.2% more than they had a year ago.

The total number of people eligible for Medicare grew 6.4%, to 68 million.

The Medicare Advantage program’s share of all people eligible for Medicare increased to 35%, from 34% last year.

Resources

·         Links to collections of detailed Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Medicare enrollment data are available here.

·         An article about Medicare Advantage enrollment period Google search activity is available here.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that runs the Medicare program, has published the latest Medicare eligibles data and the Medicare Advantage enrollee numbers in the Monthly Enrollment by State 2020 01 data file.

The data file also gives information about related matters, such as the number of people with stand-alone Medicare Part prescription drug coverage. The number of people with stand-alone drug coverage fell 1.1%, to 25 million

The data file provides data for all 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.

The Medicare Advantage program gives commercial health insurers and managed care companies a chance to provide the an alternative to what CMS calls “Original Medicare” coverage.

Some Medicare enrollees use Medicare supplement insurance to fill in the gaps in Original Medicare programs. Other people use Medicaid; sign up for new or experimental programs, such as PACE plans; or have no protect against health care costs other than Original Medicare itself.

We compared the latest data with the year-earlier data and created a map showing where the Medicare Advantage program’s share of all Medicare-eligible people grew, shrank or held steady in the 50 states. You can see the map above. In states with big, bright green dots, Medicare Advantage plans increased their share of those state’s Medicare-eligible residents more than about 2%.

In states with bigger, darker red dots, Medicare Advantage plan issuers reported weak enrollee share growth, or a small drop in enrollee share.

For data on all 50 states, see the table below.

State	2020 Medicare Eligible Population	2020 MA Enrollees	2020 MA Enrollee Share	2019 MA Enrollee Share	MA Enrollee Share Change
Alabama	1,145,997	469,362	41.0%	39.1%	1.9%
Alaska	111,653	1,243	1.1%	1.1%	0.0%
Arizona	1,488,153	565,969	38.0%	37.5%	0.5%
Arkansas	711,544	184,533	25.9%	24.1%	1.8%
California	6,972,641	2,721,137	39.0%	39.7%	-0.6%
Colorado	1,054,792	385,683	36.6%	36.7%	-0.1%
Connecticut	741,609	298,817	40.3%	37.9%	2.4%
Delaware	227,070	37,624	16.6%	14.5%	2.1%
Florida	5,132,645	2,210,426	43.1%	42.8%	0.3%
Georgia	1,966,018	727,162	37.0%	36.3%	0.7%
Hawaii	294,374	130,560	44.4%	44.5%	-0.1%
Idaho	375,374	122,792	32.7%	31.5%	1.2%
Illinois	2,445,483	598,491	24.5%	22.8%	1.6%
Indiana	1,385,965	440,430	31.8%	29.5%	2.3%
Iowa	684,155	143,273	20.9%	19.2%	1.7%
Kansas	589,268	110,431	18.7%	17.1%	1.6%
Kentucky	1,023,238	342,788	33.5%	30.7%	2.8%
Louisiana	958,371	359,883	37.6%	35.6%	1.9%
Maine	374,260	133,063	35.6%	32.5%	3.1%
Maryland	1,148,141	129,900	11.3%	11.0%	0.3%
Massachusetts	1,454,459	319,951	22.0%	21.6%	0.4%
Michigan	2,264,501	930,362	41.1%	37.6%	3.5%
Minnesota	1,142,917	431,218	37.7%	36.8%	1.0%
Mississippi	669,734	136,500	20.4%	18.7%	1.7%
Missouri	1,378,401	486,126	35.3%	34.4%	0.8%
Montana	257,227	46,860	18.2%	17.9%	0.3%
Nebraska	381,207	64,491	16.9%	14.9%	2.0%
Nevada	595,481	213,178	35.8%	35.2%	0.6%
New Hampshire	333,482	62,597	18.8%	16.6%	2.2%
New Jersey	1,789,725	511,429	28.6%	27.3%	1.3%
New Mexico	468,665	164,557	35.1%	33.9%	1.2%
New York	3,972,806	1,564,491	39.4%	38.6%	0.7%
North Carolina	2,217,921	793,099	35.8%	34.5%	1.3%
North Dakota	144,803	5,687	3.9%	3.2%	0.7%
Ohio	2,536,828	994,840	39.2%	37.9%	1.3%
Oklahoma	832,902	177,317	21.3%	19.8%	1.5%
Oregon	969,097	406,939	42.0%	42.6%	-0.6%
Pennsylvania	2,958,453	1,203,148	40.7%	40.4%	0.3%
Rhode Island	241,012	91,268	37.9%	36.8%	1.1%
South Carolina	1,185,056	328,870	27.8%	26.4%	1.4%
South Dakota	200,999	16,130	8.0%	7.1%	0.9%
Tennessee	1,505,999	574,234	38.1%	37.6%	0.5%
Texas	4,646,695	1,719,265	37.0%	36.4%	0.6%
Utah	440,621	159,016	36.1%	35.3%	0.8%
Vermont	164,825	19,900	12.1%	10.9%	1.2%
Virginia	1,711,898	351,749	20.5%	18.3%	2.3%
Washington	1,517,678	491,585	32.4%	31.5%	0.9%
West Virginia	481,867	147,635	30.6%	28.5%	1.9%
Wisconsin	1,287,226	493,015	38.3%	37.1%	2.2%
Wyoming	122,816	4,141	3.4%	3.3%	1.2%
Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

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