Medicare Advantage

Before you renew in Sacramento: a plain-English way to compare 2027 Medicare Advantage plans

Sacramento County has 32 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 13 plans are not coming back, 7 are new, and 23 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 9 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for Sacramento, not which plan to pick.

SACRAMENTO — The Annual Enrollment Period is open from October 15 through December 7, 2026, and the choices you make now take effect January 1, 2027. If you live in or near Sacramento and have a Medicare Advantage plan, this is the stretch of the year to read your mail, compare what is on offer, and decide whether to stay put or switch. Doing nothing is a choice too: if your plan is offered again next year, it renews on its own with the changes spelled out in your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC).

Sacramento is in Sacramento County, where plan availability is set. For 2027, CMS's Medicare Advantage Landscape file lists 32 Medicare Advantage plans from 10 carriers in the county, down from 38 plans a year earlier. Seven plans are new for 2027 and 13 are not returning. Every plan on next year's list includes drug coverage.

What is on offer in Sacramento County for 2027

The 2027 lineup is 29 HMO plans and 3 HMO-POS plans. There are no local PPOs on next year's county list — a change from 2026, when PPOs were part of the mix. Special Needs Plans (SNPs) make up a sizable share: 12 Chronic-Condition SNPs (C-SNPs) for people with qualifying conditions such as diabetes or heart disease, and 4 Dual-Eligible SNPs (D-SNPs) for people who have both Medicare and Medi-Cal. There are no Institutional SNPs in the county.

The 10 carriers offering Medicare Advantage in Sacramento County in 2027 are, in alphabetical order: Aetna (CVS Health), Alignment Health Plan, Blue Shield of California, Centene (WellCare), Elevance Health (Anthem), Imperial Health Plan of California, Inc., Kaiser Permanente, Molina Healthcare of California, SCAN Health Plan, and UnitedHealthcare. Blue Shield of California is new to the county for 2027. The table on this page lists every plan by carrier.

What is actually new for 2027

Two things are worth flagging. First, the county's plan count fell from 38 to 32, and the plan-type mix shifted — PPOs are gone from the county's 2027 list, and the HMO-POS count dropped from 5 to 3. Second, the Part D drug benefit itself keeps changing: the annual out-of-pocket cap on covered Part D drugs rises to $2,400 in 2027 (up from $2,100 in 2026), and the maximum Part D deductible a plan can charge rises to $700 in 2027 (up from $615 in 2026). The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan — the option to spread drug costs across the year in monthly bills — continues.

CMS has not yet announced the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible or the 2027 IRMAA income brackets. Those usually come out later in the fall. We will update our coverage when they are posted.

A step-by-step way to compare plans

You do not need to be an expert. You need a short checklist and about an hour.

1. Read your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC). Your current plan mailed this in late September. It compares your 2026 plan to its 2027 version: premium, deductible, copays, drug tiers, extra benefits and network changes. If something you rely on is changing, that is your signal to shop. 2. List what matters to you. Write down your doctors and hospitals, every prescription (name, dose, how often), your usual pharmacy, and the extras you actually use — dental, vision, hearing, transportation, OTC allowance, fitness. 3. Open the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov. Sign in to your medicare.gov account so your drug list carries over. Enter your Sacramento ZIP code, add your medications, and pick your preferred pharmacy. The Plan Finder will show each plan's estimated yearly cost for your specific drugs — this is the single most useful number on the screen. 4. Check the provider network. Click into any plan you are considering and use its online directory, or call the plan, to confirm your primary care doctor, specialists and hospital are in-network for 2027. Networks can change year to year. 5. Check the pharmacy network and drug tiers. The same drug can sit on a different tier at a different plan, and your pharmacy may be "preferred" at one plan and "standard" at another. Both affect what you pay. 6. Match the plan type to how you use care. HMO plans ask you to stay in-network and usually require referrals. HMO-POS plans let you go out-of-network for some services, usually at a higher cost. If you have a chronic condition or both Medicare and Medi-Cal, see whether a C-SNP or D-SNP you qualify for fits better than a general plan. 7. Confirm the plan is still offered. If your current plan is one of the 13 not returning to Sacramento County in 2027, you will get a non-renewal notice from your plan and you need to pick a new one during AEP or you will fall back to Original Medicare.

If you want help, use official channels

Call 1-800-MEDICARE (TTY 1-877-486-2048), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Compare plans at medicare.gov/plan-compare. For questions about a specific plan's rules, call that plan directly or read its Evidence of Coverage — that is the binding document.