Medicare Advantage

Your Santa Ana Medicare review before Dec. 7: a plain-English checklist for 2027

Orange County has 111 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027. Compared with 2026, 21 plans are not coming back, 28 are new, and 51 continuing plans changed in some way you should check before December 7, 19 of them under a new name. This guide covers what those numbers mean for Santa Ana, not which plan to pick.

Santa Ana, Calif. — It is fall 2026, and the mail from Medicare plans has started arriving in Orange County mailboxes. 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 simply renews next year with whatever updates it listed in its Annual Notice of Change. That is not always a problem — but it is the reason to open that envelope now, not in January.

Here is a step-by-step checklist to help Santa Ana residents review coverage for 2027 before the Dec. 7 deadline.

What should Santa Ana residents review before the Dec. 7 Medicare deadline?

Start with the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) your plan mailed in late September. For 2027 coverage, the ANOC is the single most important document you will get — it compares your plan today with the same plan next year, line by line: premium, drug deductible, copays, extra benefits, and the drug formulary.

Set aside 20 minutes with the ANOC and a highlighter. If anything on the "2027" column surprises you, that is your cue to compare other plans in Orange County before December 7.

How do I read the Annual Notice of Change for my 2027 Medicare plan?

The ANOC follows the same order every year, so you can skim to the parts that matter to you. Look for the summary table near the front that shows 2026 next to 2027 for premiums, the Part B giveback (if any), the Part D deductible, primary and specialist copays, hospital costs, and the annual out-of-pocket maximum.

Then flip to the drug list changes. Plans add and drop medications every year, and a drug that was Tier 2 in 2026 can land on Tier 3 or require prior authorization in 2027. If your plan is a Medicare Advantage plan, also check the section on supplemental benefits — dental, vision, hearing, over-the-counter, transportation and fitness benefits can shift from one year to the next.

Keep the ANOC. If you want more detail on any rule it mentions, the longer Evidence of Coverage document explains it in full.

How do I check that my Santa Ana doctors, hospitals and drugs are covered in 2027?

Make three short lists before you compare anything: your doctors (primary care, specialists), your hospitals (for most Santa Ana residents that includes systems like MemorialCare, Providence St. Joseph, Hoag or Kaiser facilities, depending on your plan), and every prescription you take with the dose and how often you fill it.

Then check each list three ways:

• Doctors and hospitals: Call the plan's member services number on your card, or search the plan's online provider directory for 2027. Verify by also calling the doctor's office and asking which plans they will accept in 2027 — networks for the new year are usually loaded by October or November.
• Prescriptions: Use the 2027 formulary on the plan's website, or enter your drugs into the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov. Plan Finder shows your estimated yearly drug cost at each plan and the pharmacies in network.
• Pharmacy: Confirm your pharmacy is a "preferred" or at least "in-network" pharmacy for 2027 — the difference can change what you pay at the counter.

How many Medicare Advantage plans and carriers can Santa Ana residents choose from?

Santa Ana is in Orange County, where 17 Medicare Advantage carriers offer 104 plans for the 2026 plan year, according to the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source File. Of those, 98 include Part D drug coverage and 40 are Special Needs Plans (for people with specific chronic conditions, who have both Medicare and Medi-Cal, or who live in an institution).

By plan type, the county has 75 HMO plans, 21 HMO-POS plans and 8 PPO plans. The carriers available in Orange County are:

Aetna (CVS Health), Align Senior Care, Alignment Health Plan, Astiva Health, Blue Shield of California, CalOptima Health OneCare, Centene (WellCare), Central Health Medicare Plan, Champion Health Plan, Clever Care Health Plan, Elevance Health (Anthem), Humana, Imperial Health Plan of California, Kaiser Permanente, Providence Medicare Advantage Plans, SCAN Health Plan and UnitedHealthcare.

The table below lists every plan available in the county. CMS will publish the 2027 county figures in October; the shape of the market in Orange County usually looks similar from one year to the next, but the plan-by-plan details will not.

What is changing in Medicare for 2027 that I should know about?

Two Part D figures are already confirmed for 2027:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap will be $2,400 (up from $2,100 in 2026). Once your out-of-pocket spending on covered drugs hits that number, you pay $0 for covered drugs the rest of the year.
• The Part D maximum deductible will be $700 (up from $615 in 2026). Plans can set their deductible lower, but not higher.

The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, which lets you spread your drug costs across the year in monthly installments instead of paying a big bill at the pharmacy, continues in 2027. You can opt in through your Part D or Medicare Advantage plan.

CMS has not yet announced the 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, or the 2027 IRMAA income brackets. Those figures are typically released in November — add them to your review when they are published.

What happens if I do nothing by December 7?

If your current plan is being offered in Orange County in 2027, you stay in it automatically, with the changes described in your ANOC. If your plan is not being offered — the ANOC and a separate non-renewal letter will say so clearly — you have a Special Enrollment Period to pick a new plan, and Original Medicare steps in if you do not act.

Even if your plan is returning, "doing nothing" is only a safe choice once you have read the ANOC and confirmed your doctors and drugs are still covered the way you expect. Between December 8 and March 31, 2027, people already in a Medicare Advantage plan can still make one change during the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period, but your options are narrower than during AEP.