Medicare Advantage

Before you enroll: how to vet a first-year plan by Dec 7

People in San Diego can choose from 85 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, against 93 this year. 26 of this year’s plans are gone, 18 are new to San Diego County, and 48 that continue have changed their premium, deductible, plan type or name, 20 of them under a new name.

SAN DIEGO — When the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period opens on October 15, 2026, San Diego County shoppers will see 18 Medicare Advantage plans that were not sold here for 2026. They come from 10 carriers, and because they are brand new, none of them have a Star Rating history yet — which makes doing your own homework before December 7, 2026 more important than usual.

San Diego sits inside San Diego County, and Medicare Advantage availability is set at the county level. The counts and plan names below come from the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source Files for 2026 and 2027.

What counts as a "new" plan for 2027

For this article, a new plan is one the carrier is offering in San Diego County for the 2027 plan year that was not offered in the county for 2026. That is different from a renaming (same plan, new name) and different from a plan that is simply continuing with changes. CMS also lists 20 renamed plans and 26 plans that will not return for 2027 in the county — a reminder to read the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) that your current carrier mails each fall.

All 18 new plans include Part D prescription drug coverage.

The 18 new Medicare Advantage plans in San Diego County for 2027

Listed alphabetically by carrier. The full table on this page shows every plan sold in the county; what follows are only the ones new for 2027.

• Aetna (CVS Health) — Aetna Medicare Chronic Care (HMO C-SNP); Aetna Medicare Eagle (HMO)
• Alignment Health Plan — Alignment Health Advantage 005 (PPO); Alignment Health Balance Plus 004 (PPO); Alignment Health Honor Plus 060 (HMO)
• Astiva Health — Astiva Health C-SNP Bloom (HMO C-SNP); Astiva Health C-SNP Fountain (HMO C-SNP)
• Blue Shield of California — Blue Shield Advantage (HMO); Blue Shield Value Advantage Plan (HMO)
• Champion Heath Plan — Champion Compass (HMO C-SNP); Champion Home (HMO C-SNP); Champion Secure (HMO C-SNP)
• Clever Care Health Plan — Clever Care Breathe Select+ (HMO C-SNP); Clever Care Total Choice+ (HMO C-SNP)
• Elevance Health (Anthem) — Anthem Kidney Care (PPO C-SNP)
• Humana — Humana Gold Plus H3767-001 (HMO)
• Imperial Health Plan of California, Inc. — Imperial Flex (HMO C-SNP)
• SCAN Health Plan — SCAN Costco Medicare Advantage (HMO)

Of the 18 new plans, 11 are Special Needs Plans (SNPs). Most of those are Chronic Condition SNPs (C-SNPs), which limit enrollment to people living with specific chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart conditions, chronic lung conditions or end-stage renal disease. One is a PPO C-SNP; the rest of the new SNPs are HMO or HMO-POS. If a C-SNP interests you, confirm with the plan that your condition qualifies.

How a new plan is different from a renewing one

A renewing plan has a history in the county: a Star Rating, a provider network you can look up, a formulary you (or your doctor) may already know, and years of CMS data on member experience and complaints. A brand-new plan does not have any of that yet. CMS assigns Star Ratings based on measured performance, and a plan needs time in the market to collect those measurements.

That is a factual difference, not a reason to pick one over the other. It just means the usual shortcut — "my friend has this plan and likes it" — is not available for a new plan. You have to do the lookup work yourself.

How to vet a new plan before December 7

Four steps work for any plan, but they matter more for a plan with no local history:

1. Pull the plan documents. Ask the carrier for the Summary of Benefits and the Evidence of Coverage for 2027. These spell out the premium, deductible, copays, out-of-pocket maximum and rules such as referrals or prior authorization. 2. Check your doctors and hospitals. Search the plan's 2027 provider directory for every doctor you want to keep, and call the office to confirm they will be in-network for that specific plan next year. Directories can lag. 3. Check your prescriptions. Enter each drug (name, dose and quantity) into the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov, or into the carrier's own formulary tool. Look at tier placement, prior authorization and the pharmacies the plan prefers. 4. Look at the SNP rules, if it applies. For a C-SNP or D-SNP, confirm eligibility — a chronic condition diagnosis for a C-SNP, or Medicaid status for a D-SNP.

A quick way to run the comparison is the Plan Finder at medicare.gov, which lets you enter your ZIP code, your drugs and your preferred pharmacies, then shows the plans side-by-side.

The 2027 numbers you can plan around

CMS has confirmed a few program-level figures for 2027 that apply no matter which plan you pick:

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

The 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets, are usually announced by CMS in November. We will update when they are published.