Medicare Advantage

Does Anthem's Orange County 2027 lineup fit your care?

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Fall 2026. With the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period open from October 15 through December 7, 2026, Anaheim residents weighing an Anthem Medicare Advantage plan for 2027 have a defined menu to review. According to the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source File for the 2027 plan year, Anthem (grouped by CMS as Elevance Health) is offering 12 Medicare Advantage plans in Orange County, the county Anaheim sits in. All 12 include drug coverage, and 6 are Special Needs Plans.

MyMedicarePlans.org is an independent news and education site. We are not Anthem, and 15 other carriers also offer Medicare Advantage plans in Orange County for 2027 — 111 plans in total from all carriers combined. This article focuses on Anthem's lineup because that is what the headline promises.

Which Anthem Medicare Advantage plans are available in Anaheim for 2027?

For the 2027 plan year, Anthem is offering 12 Medicare Advantage plans in Orange County, which includes Anaheim. By plan type, that breaks down to 1 HMO and 11 HMO-POS plans. Every one of the 12 comes with Part D drug coverage built in.

The full roster, in alphabetical order and spelled as CMS lists them, appears in the table below. The plans are:

• Anthem I CareMore Chronic Care (HMO-POS C-SNP)
• Anthem I CareMore Chronic Care 2 (HMO-POS C-SNP)
• Anthem I CareMore Home Care (HMO I-SNP)
• Anthem I CareMore Kidney Care (HMO-POS C-SNP)
• Anthem I CareMore Lung Care (HMO-POS C-SNP)
• Anthem I CareMore Lung Care 2 (HMO-POS C-SNP)
• Anthem I CareMore Medicare Advantage (HMO-POS)
• Anthem I CareMore Medicare Advantage 2 (HMO-POS)
• Anthem I CareMore Premium Savings (HMO-POS)
• Anthem Medicare Advantage (HMO-POS)
• Anthem Prime (HMO-POS)
• Anthem Select (HMO-POS)

We are not listing premiums, copays, deductibles, networks, drug lists or star ratings for any of these plans — those details belong to the plan documents and the Medicare Plan Finder, where you can check them against your own situation.

What Special Needs Plans does Anthem offer in Orange County for 2027?

Anthem's 2027 lineup in Orange County includes 6 Special Needs Plans — 5 Chronic Condition SNPs and 1 Institutional SNP. There are 0 Dual Eligible SNPs (D-SNPs) in Anthem's Orange County roster for 2027.

SNPs are a type of Medicare Advantage plan designed for people who meet specific eligibility rules. A C-SNP is limited to people with certain chronic conditions, an I-SNP is for people who live in or need institutional-level care, and a D-SNP is for people who have both Medicare and Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid). To join an SNP, you have to qualify for its category — meeting the condition or dual-eligibility rules — so these plans are not open to everyone.

What is new or not returning in Anthem's Anaheim lineup for 2027?

Comparing the CMS Landscape files for 2026 and 2027, Anthem has 0 new plans in Orange County for 2027 and 0 plans not returning. No plans have been renamed either.

That does not mean nothing is changing. Each year, every renewing plan sends an Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC, by late September. The ANOC spells out what is different for the coming year — premium, deductible, copays, the drug formulary, provider network and extra benefits can all shift from one plan year to the next, even when a plan keeps the same name. If you have not already read your ANOC, it is the single most useful document to pull out before December 7.

How do I check an Anthem plan against my doctors and prescriptions before December 7?

The fastest way is the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov, which lets you enter your ZIP code, add your prescriptions and the pharmacies you use, and compare any plan offered in Orange County side by side. You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE (TTY 1-877-486-2048), 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

A short checklist that works well in Anaheim:

• Enter your ZIP code and list every prescription with its dose and how often you fill it.
• Add your preferred pharmacy — costs can vary by in-network vs. standard pharmacy.
• Check whether each doctor and specialist you want to keep is in that plan's network for 2027. Networks are set by the plan, not by Medicare, so confirm directly with the plan or the provider's office.
• If you take a specific brand-name drug, confirm it is on the plan's 2027 formulary and check its tier.
• Read the plan's Evidence of Coverage (EOC) and Summary of Benefits for the detail the Plan Finder summarizes.

What are the key dates and 2027 numbers to know?

The Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7, 2026, and any change you make takes effect January 1, 2027. If you do nothing, your current plan renews for 2027 if it is still being offered, with the changes described in your ANOC. After AEP, Medicare Advantage members get a second window — the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, January 1 through March 31, 2027 — to switch to a different MA plan or return to Original Medicare.

A few program-level numbers CMS has confirmed for 2027:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap rises to $2,400 in 2027 (it is $2,100 in 2026).
• The Part D maximum deductible rises to $700 in 2027 (it is $615 in 2026).
• The Part D national base beneficiary premium for 2027 is $41.33 — this is a formula input CMS uses, not what any specific plan charges.

The 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets, have not been announced yet. CMS typically publishes those figures later in the fall, usually in November.

Also worth knowing: the Part D coverage gap (the old "donut hole") was eliminated starting in 2025, so Part D now has three phases — deductible, initial coverage and catastrophic. The optional Medicare Prescription Payment Plan is still available in 2027 for people who want to spread Part D drug costs across the calendar year in monthly bills.