Medicare Advantage

Before Dec 7: how to compare Miami's 2027 Medicare plans

For 2027, Miami is looking at 101 Medicare Advantage plans: 16 new, 30 gone since 2026, and 61 still here but changed on premium, deductible, plan type or name, 20 of them under a new name. Below, how the lineup shifted in Miami-Dade County and what to compare, with no plan ranked or recommended.

MIAMI — Fall 2026 is Medicare's choosing season, and in Miami-Dade County the 2027 lineup looks a little different than this year's. The county will have 101 Medicare Advantage plans from 16 carriers for 2027, with 16 new plans and 30 plans not returning, according to the CMS Medicare Advantage Landscape Source File. If you are on a plan that is leaving, you have until December 7, 2026 to pick a new one for coverage that starts January 1, 2027.

Here is a plain, step-by-step way to compare what is on offer — and what to check before you decide.

What Miami-Dade's 2027 lineup looks like

Medicare plan availability is set by county, and Miami is in Miami-Dade County. For 2027, the county will have:

• 101 Medicare Advantage plans from 16 carriers
• By plan type: 70 HMO, 10 HMO-POS, 21 PPO
• All 101 plans include prescription drug coverage
• Special Needs Plans (SNPs): 34 D-SNP (for people with both Medicare and Medicaid), 20 C-SNP (for certain chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease or kidney disease) and 6 I-SNP (for people living in long-term care)

The 16 carriers offering plans in Miami-Dade for 2027, in alphabetical order, are Aetna (CVS Health), Align Senior Care, AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care, Centene (WellCare), Devoted Health, Doctors HealthCare Plans, Elevance Health (Anthem), Florida Blue, Florida Blue HMO, Florida Complete Care, Gold Kidney Health Plan, Humana, Leon Health, Longevity Health Plan, Solis Health Plans and UnitedHealthcare. The full table on this page lists every plan by carrier.

What's new for 2027

Three things to know before you open the Plan Finder:

1. 16 plans are new to Miami-Dade for 2027 — options that did not exist in your county this year. 2. 30 plans are not returning. If one of them is yours, your carrier will send a non-renewal notice and you'll need to pick a new plan by December 7 (or you'll default back to Original Medicare). 3. 20 plans have been renamed. Same plan, new name — the Annual Notice of Change will spell out which.

At the program level, CMS has also confirmed a few Part D numbers for 2027: the out-of-pocket drug cap rises to $2,400 (up from $2,100 in 2026), and the maximum Part D deductible is $700 (up from $615 in 2026). The 2027 Part B standard premium and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets have not been announced yet; CMS usually publishes them in November.

A six-step way to compare plans

Comparing isn't about finding the "best" plan — it's about finding the plan that fits your doctors, your prescriptions and how you use care. Here is the order that saves the most backtracking.

1. Read your Annual Notice of Change (ANOC). If you already have a Medicare Advantage or Part D plan, your carrier mailed (or emailed) an ANOC by late September. It shows what is changing for 2027 — premium, deductible, copays, drug tier placement, provider network and extra benefits. Read it before you shop. If nothing in it bothers you and your plan is returning, you don't have to do anything.

2. List your doctors and hospitals. Write down every provider you want to keep seeing — primary care, specialists, your preferred hospital. Networks change every year, so a plan that worked in 2026 may drop a doctor for 2027.

3. List your prescriptions, with doses. Each drug plan has its own formulary (list of covered drugs) and its own tiers. The same medicine can be a $5 generic in one plan and a higher-cost tier in another. Have the exact drug name, dose and quantity ready.

4. Note your preferred pharmacies. Many plans have "preferred" pharmacies where cost-sharing is lower, plus mail-order options. If you always use the pharmacy around the corner, check that it is in-network.

5. Open the Medicare Plan Finder at medicare.gov. Enter your ZIP code, add your drugs and your pharmacies, and the tool will show every Miami-Dade plan with your estimated yearly cost, the star rating, and whether each drug is covered. You can save the comparison and come back to it.

6. Confirm with the plan itself. Before you enroll, call the plan (or your doctor's office) to confirm your doctors and hospitals are in-network for 2027. The Plan Finder is accurate, but provider directories update constantly.

Which plan type fits you?

Miami-Dade's 2027 options span three familiar types:

• HMO (70 plans) — You pick a primary care doctor and usually need referrals; out-of-network care generally isn't covered except for emergencies.
• HMO-POS (10 plans) — Like an HMO, with a limited "point of service" option to see some out-of-network providers at a higher cost.
• PPO (21 plans) — More flexibility to see out-of-network providers, usually at higher cost-sharing.

If you have both Medicare and Medicaid, a chronic condition like diabetes or kidney disease, or you live in a nursing home, a Special Needs Plan may be a fit. The county has 60 SNPs for 2027 across the D-SNP, C-SNP and I-SNP categories.

Key dates to put on the fridge

• October 15 – December 7, 2026: Annual Enrollment Period. Changes made here start January 1, 2027.
• January 1, 2027: New coverage begins.
• January 1 – March 31, 2027: Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment — if you're already in a Medicare Advantage plan, you get one chance to switch to another MA plan or back to Original Medicare.

Doing nothing is a valid choice: your current plan renews for 2027 if it is still being offered, with the ANOC changes applied.