Medicare Advantage

Huntington Beach's 2026 Medicare Advantage choices: 17 carriers, plan by plan

People in Huntington Beach can choose from 111 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 104 this year. 21 of this year’s plans are gone, 28 are new to Orange County, and 51 that continue have changed their premium, deductible, plan type or name, 19 of them under a new name.

Medicare AdvantageHuntington Beach, CA

For Huntington Beach residents sorting through Medicare mail this fall, here is a plain look at what is actually on the shelf for 2026 — organized carrier by carrier, with each plan's type and whether it includes drug coverage.

Huntington Beach is in Orange County, where Medicare Advantage availability is set at the county level by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). For plan year 2026, CMS lists 104 Medicare Advantage plans from 17 carriers offered in Orange County. Every one of them includes prescription drug coverage. The full carrier-by-carrier lineup is in the table below this article.

What's on offer in Orange County for 2026

The 104 plans available to Huntington Beach residents come from a mix of national insurers and California-focused carriers. In alphabetical order, the 17 carriers are:

• Aetna (CVS Health): 7 plans (HMO, HMO-POS, PPO)
• Align Senior Care: 3 plans (HMO; 2 Special Needs)
• Alignment Health Plan: 17 plans (HMO, PPO; 7 Special Needs)
• Astiva Health: 4 plans (HMO; 2 Special Needs)
• Blue Shield of California: 4 plans (HMO)
• CalOptima Health OneCare: 1 plan (HMO; 1 Special Needs)
• Centene (WellCare): 6 plans (HMO; 2 Special Needs)
• Central Health Medicare Plan: 7 plans (HMO; 3 Special Needs)
• Champion Heath Plan: 7 plans (HMO, HMO-POS; 6 Special Needs)
• Clever Care Health Plan: 4 plans (HMO; 2 Special Needs)
• Elevance Health (Anthem): 12 plans (HMO, HMO-POS; 6 Special Needs)
• Humana: 7 plans (HMO, PPO)
• Imperial Health Plan of California, Inc.: 3 plans (HMO; 1 Special Needs)
• Kaiser Permanente: 4 plans (HMO; 2 Special Needs)
• Providence Medicare Advantage Plans: 1 plan (HMO)
• SCAN Health Plan: 10 plans (HMO; 4 Special Needs)
• UnitedHealthcare: 7 plans (HMO, HMO-POS; 2 Special Needs)

The table below this story lists each individual plan by name, its plan type, and confirms drug coverage.

How to read the plan types

Medicare Advantage plans in Orange County come in three shapes this year:

• HMO (Health Maintenance Organization). You pick doctors and hospitals inside the plan's network and usually need a referral to see a specialist. Most plans in the county — 75 of the 104 — are HMOs. Examples on the roster include Blue Shield 65 Plus (HMO), Kaiser Permanente Senior Advantage LA, Orange Co. (HMO) and SCAN Classic (HMO).
• HMO-POS (Point of Service). Like an HMO, but with a limited option to see some out-of-network providers, typically at higher cost. There are 21 of these, including several Anthem and AARP Medicare Advantage from UHC plans.
• PPO. More flexibility to go out of network, again usually for more money. Orange County has 8 PPO options, from Aetna, Alignment Health Plan and Humana.

Special Needs Plans in the mix

Of the 104 plans, 40 are Special Needs Plans (SNPs). These are Medicare Advantage plans limited to people who meet specific criteria and are marked on the roster as C-SNP, D-SNP or I-SNP:

• C-SNP — for people with certain chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart conditions or lung disease.
• D-SNP — for people who are "dually eligible" for both Medicare and Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California).
• I-SNP — for people who live in an institution such as a nursing home, or need that level of care at home.

Carriers with SNPs in the Orange County roster include Alignment Health Plan, Anthem, Astiva Health, CalOptima Health OneCare, Centene (WellCare), Central Health Medicare Plan, Champion Heath Plan, Clever Care Health Plan, Imperial Health Plan of California, Kaiser Permanente, SCAN Health Plan and UnitedHealthcare. If you don't meet a SNP's eligibility rules, you can't enroll in that plan, so pay attention to those labels on the full list.

Drug coverage is built in — and Part D rules changed

Every Medicare Advantage plan on the Orange County 2026 roster is an "MA-PD," meaning drug coverage is bundled in. CMS also lists 0 stand-alone Part D plans specific to this county roster; if you stay in Original Medicare and want Part D, you'll shop for it separately on medicare.gov.

A few program-wide 2026 numbers worth knowing as you compare drug coverage:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026. Once your covered drug spending hits that ceiling, you pay $0 for covered drugs for the rest of the year.
• The maximum Part D deductible is $615, though many plans set theirs lower.
• The old "donut hole" coverage gap was eliminated in 2025. Part D now has three phases: deductible, initial coverage and catastrophic.
• The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan lets you spread your out-of-pocket drug costs across the calendar year in monthly installments, at no extra charge. It's optional and you have to opt in.
• IRMAA — the income-related surcharge on Part B and Part D premiums — starts above $109,000 in income for a single filer in 2026.

Star Ratings, briefly

CMS rates Medicare contracts on a 1-to-5 scale each year. For the current release covering Orange County, 0 contracts in the area carry a rating of 4 stars or higher. Ratings can shift year to year and are one input among many — network, drug list, cost-sharing and your own doctors matter at least as much. You can look up the current rating for any specific plan on medicare.gov.

Dates and deadlines

• Oct. 15 – Dec. 7, 2025: Medicare Annual Enrollment Period. You can join, switch or drop a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan. Changes take effect Jan. 1, 2026.
• Jan. 1 – March 31, 2026: Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment. If you're already in a Medicare Advantage plan on Jan. 1, you get one chance to switch to a different Advantage plan or return to Original Medicare (with a Part D plan if you want one).