Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is dropping several Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, a move that leaves about 20,000 seniors in Worcester, Middlesex and Essex counties needing new coverage before the end of the year. The state’s largest health insurer told The Boston Globe on Oct. 26, 2026, that the Medicare Advantage cuts follow $275 million in losses on the plans in 2024 and 2025. Blue Cross is also sharply limiting new enrollment in the Medicare Advantage plans it will keep.
The deadline that matters most is Dec. 31, 2026. Members whose plans are ending must pick new coverage by then to avoid a gap. Anyone who does nothing will be moved to Original Medicare on Jan. 1, 2027, and will lose prescription drug coverage, according to Blue Cross.
How big the Blue Cross Medicare Advantage cut is
Federal plan data show seven Blue Cross plan-and-county listings that will not be offered in 2027. The figures were compiled by the independent site IsMyPlanEnding.com from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) landscape, crosswalk and October 2026 enrollment files. Together, those plans covered about 20,000 people.
- Worcester County: five listings with about 13,400 members in total. The largest is Medicare PPO Blue ValueRx, with about 6,000 people. The others are HMO Blue SaverRx (about 4,400), HMO Blue ValueRx (about 1,300), PPO Blue EssentialRx (about 1,100) and HMO Blue FlexRx (about 590).
- Middlesex County: Medicare PPO Blue ValueRx, with about 4,900 members.
- Essex County: Medicare PPO Blue ValueRx, with about 2,100 members.
The same CMS crosswalk shows that about 27,000 Blue Cross members in other counties, including Suffolk, Norfolk, Plymouth and Hampden, are being moved automatically into a replacement plan from the same company rather than losing coverage. Those members should check their Annual Notice of Change for new costs and benefits.
For scale, about 19.9 percent of Massachusetts’ 7.15 million residents were 65 or older as of July 1, 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That is roughly 1.4 million people. The 20,000 affected members are a small share of that group, but they are concentrated in a few counties, with Worcester County hit hardest.
Key dates for affected seniors
Blue Cross says it mailed non-renewal letters between Sept. 30 and Oct. 2. Medicare says members of plans leaving the program should get a plan non-renewal notice in October. The insurer lists these windows:
- Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, 2026: Medicare’s annual election period, when anyone can change plans for Jan. 1.
- Dec. 8 to Dec. 31, 2026: the last chance for members of discontinued plans to enroll with coverage starting Jan. 1 and avoid a Part D late enrollment penalty.
- Jan. 1 to Feb. 28, 2027: members of discontinued plans can still switch, but new coverage begins the month after they enroll.
Blue Cross says the chance of getting a spot in its remaining Medicare Advantage plans for 2027 is “very low” and that it will not offer online Medicare Advantage enrollment on its own website this year. It is pointing members to its Medex Medicare Supplement plans or to other insurers’ plans on Medicare.gov. The company says it intends to reopen Medicare Advantage enrollment in 2028.
Free, unbiased help is available from the state’s SHINE program, whose trained counselors help Medicare-eligible residents and caregivers compare plans and look for savings on premiums and drug costs.
Why Massachusetts insurers are pulling back
Blue Cross is not the only local carrier trimming Medicare Advantage. The Globe reported that Mass General Brigham Health Plan is ending all of its Medicare Advantage PPO plans for 2027, that Point32Health, parent of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, is ending one PPO plan, and that Mass Advantage in Worcester County is leaving the program altogether. Mass General Brigham Health Plan says it is replacing its PPOs with HMO-POS options. The cutbacks come as the region’s health systems also tighten budgets, including recent layoffs at Mass General Brigham.
Medicare Advantage plans are run by private insurers under contract with the federal government, which pays them to cover hospital, doctor and often drug benefits for people 65 and older. According to the Globe, Blue Cross returned to profitability in the first half of 2026 after offering buyouts to hundreds of employees in October 2025 and ending coverage of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss.
What the switch can cost
For some members, leaving Medicare Advantage means buying separate coverage. Somerville resident Tom Stambaugh, 74, told the Globe that he is moving to Original Medicare with two supplemental plans and that his monthly total will rise to $315, close to triple what he pays in 2026. Rising health and housing costs are a recurring strain on household budgets, as our look at how affordable Massachusetts is in 2026 shows. More local company news is collected on our Boston business news page.
What Blue Cross executives said
“We are committed to Medicare Advantage. We are committed to seniors in Massachusetts,” Blue Cross chief executive Sarah Iselin told the Globe. She added that “the cost of care to run the Medicare Advantage program has exceeded the premiums that we’re getting to administer the program from the federal government.”
Krista Bowers, Blue Cross’s senior vice president of government programs, told the newspaper that the company had “to make some tough choices for our members” while trying to avoid raising premiums or cutting benefits for all members.
Sources
- The Boston Globe: Blue Cross cuts Medicare Advantage plans, affecting 20,000 seniors (Oct. 26, 2026)
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts: Your Medicare Advantage plan won’t be offered in 2027
- IsMyPlanEnding.com: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts plans ending in 2027 (CMS data)
- U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Massachusetts
- Medicare.gov: Plan non-renewal notice
- Mass.gov: SHINE program
Additional sources
- Medicare.gov: Special enrollment periods
- CMS: Understanding Medicare Advantage and Part D enrollment periods (PDF)
- Medicare.gov: Compare Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage
- Mass General Brigham Health Plan: 2027 plan changes
- Mass Advantage: member notice
Featured image: Downtown Worcester, Massachusetts. Photo by Quintin Soloviev via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped.
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