Enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans increased for the 13th consecutive year in 2017 and now represents one-third of all Medicare beneficiaries, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Currently, 19 million beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage, more than triple the number who were enrolled when the program hit its low point of 5.3 million (13% of all beneficiaries) in 2003 and 2004 and 71% higher since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, Kaiser said in a recent report.
That growth is expected to continue. Congressional Budget Office projections suggest that Medicare Advantage enrollment will reach 41% of all beneficiaries by 2027, the Kaiser investigators said.
As growth continues, however, so does concentration among the private firms administering the plans. In 2017, UnitedHealthcare and Humana together account for 41% of enrollment in Medicare Advantage, “and, in 17 states, one company has more than half of all Medicare Advantage enrollment – an indicator that these markets may not be very competitive,” they noted.
