UHC dropping "rural" Advantage plans. Especially affects Idaho, Oregon, and Colorado.

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Based on reports from HP Alumni Association members who have completed enrollment. Join forums: https://www.hpalumni.org  Not officially endorsed or supported. Question? Email us: info@hpalumni.org  (Updated Dec 5, 2025)

Deadline extended if losing your health plan (because HPInc or HPE dropped your group plan -- or because your current insurer in no longer offering plans in your county) you have another week or two after the Dec 7 national policy-change deadline to buy a plan for 2026. Buy your new policy well before Dec 31 to avoid having a gap in coverage due to delays or errors. If you join a new plan after Dec 31, coverage in the new plan won't start until the month after you join. (As stated in the notice from your current insurer.)

Idaho, Oregon, and Colorado: UHC dropping "rural" Advantage plans.

Situation:

Group plans are purchased from an insurance carrier or HMO by the employer. The retiree pays the employer. HPInc has been buying group Medicare Advantage plans from UnitedHealthcare, Kaiser, and Tufts.

Premiums reflect the cost of care only for the employer's retiree population -- and have been dramatically increasing for several years. No group Medicare plans will be offered by HPInc for 2026.

Publicly-available individual plans are available through insurance sales agencies, directly from health systems, and from insurers such as UnitedHealthcare.

More coverage choices are available. Premiums are based on the highly-competitive open market and across all customers of the insurer.

UnitedHealthcare recently announced that they are dropping Medicare Advantage plans in 109 counties. "Most plan closures will occur in rural areas." --UHC spokesman in Reuters article

This is impacting HP retirees in Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, and other areas.

Action:

To see all Advantage, Medigap, and Drug plans available in your county from any source -- go to the official US Government site and enter your ZIP code and county. Notes: Some are small local or regional plans. The plan names indicate that some are for veterans or other specific groups. Some plans only sell direct or through a single agency. https://www.medicare.gov/plan-compare  (Non-Medicare: https://www.healthcare.gov )

No sales agency -- including AlightRHS -- offers all policies available in your county.

(HPAA member advice on AlightRHS phone appointments: https://www.hpalumni.org/enroll-alightrhs-appointment )

If you are not able to buy an Advantage plan from AlightRHS that fits your requirements, you may want to buy a Medigap plan instead of an Advantage plan.

If you are converting from an HPInc or HPE private group Medicare plan to an individual plan, you have a one-time opportunity to change your Medicare strategy.

Depending on your financial and health situation, your preference for your current doctors and medical system, and your personal tolerance for risk, you may want to take advantage of this one-time opportunity to move from your current Advantage group coverage to a Medigap plan -- without the normally-required "medical underwriting." evaluation of your current health. How to prevent medical underwriting: https://www.hpalumni.org/enroll-guaranteed-issue

You may see any provider that accepts Medicare and, if you are new to the provider, accepts new patients. In 2024, 98% of physicians participated in Medicare. (Because any provider that accepts Medicare must accept any Medigap plan, specific Medigap plans are not listed on a provider's website.)

For AARP/UHC Medigap plans. Many are not specifically listed on the AlightRHS plan selector, but are available by asking your AlightRHS agent -- as indicated in list of plans available to you. Alight agents may not understand this -- or may not know how to sell you an AARP/UHC plan.

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