Which Medicare Advantage plans are ending in Arizona for 2027?

Twenty-one Medicare Advantage plans sold in Arizona in 2026 are not offered anywhere for 2027, and eight of them are general plans in Maricopa County. That is the result of laying the CMS landscape file for 2027 — the federal spreadsheet of every plan in every county, published September 28 — next to the 2026 edition and matching plan numbers. The members of those plans are getting a letter dated October 2 telling them so. Everyone else in Arizona is getting a different letter, the Annual Notice of Change, which says the plan continues and here is what changed.

The headline from CMS is the opposite of alarming: Arizona has 148 Medicare Advantage plans available for 2027 against 133 this year, the average plan premium fell from $4.47 to $2.81, and every one of the state’s 1,560,534 people with Medicare has access to a $0-premium plan. Both things are true at once. The menu grew; particular dishes came off it. If yours is one of them, the statewide average is no comfort, so here is the list.

The eight general plans ending in Maricopa County

A “general” plan here means an ordinary Medicare Advantage plan — not a Special Needs Plan for people with Medicaid, a chronic condition or an institutional stay. These eight were on the Maricopa County shelf in 2026 and are absent from the entire 2027 file, in every county and every state:

Source: CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files, Maricopa County, MA-PD rows with the SNP indicator set to No, compared by Contract Plan ID on October 3, 2026. Star ratings are the 2026 overall ratings; 2027 ratings are not yet published. Plan names are listed for factual reporting and are not endorsements.

Two Special Needs Plans also leave the county: Wellpoint’s CareMore Home Care institutional plan and SCAN Strive, a chronic-condition plan. And a plan can be discontinued in Maricopa County while continuing elsewhere — none of the eight above is that case, but it happens, and the letter will say which.

A note on what the table does not mean. Aetna is not leaving Arizona: it keeps four general plans in Maricopa County for 2027, including a new Aetna Medicare Prime under a different contract number, H8332-008, with a $3,000 cap. The old Prime, H4835-001, and the new Prime are different plans with the same name, and whether members of one are moved into the other or must enroll is exactly what the October 2 letter is for. Do not assume from the name.

What arrived to replace them

Maricopa County’s general drug-plan menu goes from 46 plans to 45 — eight out, seven in, plus one new medical-only plan — and the number of organizations selling here stays at thirteen. The new arrivals, with their 2027 numbers from the same file:

• Devoted Health: three new HMOs — Devoted Core (cap $2,900), Devoted Giveback ($8,850) and Devoted Giveback Extras ($5,550) — taking Devoted from five Maricopa plans to eight, the biggest single move on the shelf.
• Humana Value Choice (PPO), H7617-124, $0, cap $5,220 — Humana goes from ten plans to eleven.
• SCAN Walmart Medicare Advantage (HMO), $0, cap $2,500.
• Blue Best Life Select (HMO) from AZ Blue, $0, cap $4,450.
• Aetna Medicare Prime (HMO), H8332-008, $0, cap $3,000.
• AARP Medicare Advantage Patriot No Rx (HMO-POS) from UnitedHealthcare — a medical-only plan, no Part D, cap $7,150.

The in-network cap range widened a little: $2,000 to $8,900 for 2027 against $2,000 to $7,900 this year. Thirty-nine of the 45 general plans carry a $0 premium. Special Needs Plans in the county actually grew, from 36 to 40, which is the quiet trend underneath all of this — carriers are concentrating on the plans with the most predictable funding.

Why this lands differently in north Peoria

The plans available are set by county, so a household in Vistancia and one in Westbrook Village see the same 45-plan menu. What differs is which of the eight exits hurts.

In 85383 — Vistancia, Trilogy, Blackstone, the Lake Pleasant Parkway and Happy Valley corridor — the pattern I see is a primary care doctor near home and a specialist in Arrowhead or down in Sun City, where so much Medicare-focused practice is concentrated. For those households the question is not “which plan is cheapest” but “which plan’s network reaches both ends of that drive.” A discontinued plan forces that check to happen now, in October, which honestly is when it should happen every year. How Advantage networks actually work is the background; what to do if your doctor leaves a network is the practical version.

The north end also has a lot of people who arrived in the last three years on a plan they bought somewhere else and picked a Maricopa plan on arrival without a long look. Aetna Medicare Elite was a 4.5-star PPO with a $0 premium, a plan that many recent arrivals chose precisely because a PPO felt familiar. Its members now have a letter and a decision, and “the other Aetna plan” is not automatically the right landing spot.

In 85345 and around Westbrook Village the exits bite narrower and sharper: one physician relationship of fifteen or twenty years, and whether the replacement plan keeps it. And along the Peoria–Glendale–Sun City seam, where the ZIP boundaries are stitched tightly enough that neighbors a mile apart sometimes land in different pricing, comparing letters over the fence is a poor substitute for pricing your own ZIP. The Peoria service-area page and the Glendale page both apply if you sit near that line.

Outside the Valley, the shelf gets thin

Maricopa County can lose eight plans and gain eight. Arizona’s rural counties cannot. Counting organizations selling general Advantage drug plans:

Source: CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files, MA-PD rows with the SNP indicator set to No, organization marketing names counted per county. Every other Arizona county kept the same number of organizations; Pima gained one.

Wellcare’s two statewide HMOs, Wellcare Simple and Wellcare Giveback, were sold in eleven counties each in 2026 and are gone from all of them, which is why so many rural rows show Wellcare. UnitedHealthcare’s AARP Medicare Advantage Access PPO, a $295-a-month plan in twelve rural counties, also ends. Mohave and Navajo counties are down to Humana and UnitedHealthcare. If you winter in Lake Havasu or Prescott and summer somewhere else, the Medigap door below deserves a longer look than it would in Phoenix.

What the big carriers have said

The national picture is pullback, not collapse, and it is consistent with the Arizona file:

• UnitedHealthcare told its provider network it is “reducing some service areas and discontinuing some plans” effective January 1, 2027, with non-renewal notices dated October 2, 2026. Members who do not enroll elsewhere “will automatically return to Original Medicare on Jan. 1, 2027,” and those who do may use a special election period through February 28, 2027.
• Humana told investors in July it would exit plans covering roughly 600,000 members nationwide for 2027 — about 8% of its Medicare Advantage enrollment — concentrating on higher-performing plans. In Maricopa County, Humana’s plan count goes up, not down; its exits are elsewhere.
• Aetna has signaled a shift from membership growth toward margin for 2027. Four Maricopa general plans ending, and the county losses in Coconino, Yavapai and Mohave, are what that looks like here.
• Eleven insurers are leaving the individual Medicare Advantage market entirely for 2027, by Modern Healthcare’s October 1 count — mostly hospital-system plans in other states. None of them is an Arizona carrier.

The thing to hold onto: every carrier that trimmed is still selling in Maricopa County for 2027. The exits are plan-level, and the letter is the only document that says whether yours is one of them.

Non-renewal letter or Annual Notice of Change? The difference matters

Two letters arrive within days of each other every fall and only one asks you to do anything.

The Annual Notice of Change must reach every member by September 30. It says the plan continues and lists what changes on January 1 — premium, copays, drug tiers, network, extras. It requires reading, not action. What the Annual Notice of Change contains is the full treatment.

The non-renewal notice comes only from a plan that is ending. Federal rules require it by mail at least 90 calendar days before the plan ends, which for December 31 means a letter dated October 2, and the plan must also describe other options available in your area. If you got one, your plan is in the tables above or in your county’s version of them. If you did not, your plan continues — read the other letter.

The three doors a discontinued plan opens

1. Another Medicare Advantage plan, enrolled between October 15 and December 7, 2026 so it starts January 1. Compare in this order: your doctors, your prescriptions, the in-network out-of-pocket maximum, then the premium. The 45-plan Maricopa menu has a $0 plan with a $2,500 cap and a $0 plan with an $8,850 cap; the premium tells you nothing about which is which.
2. Original Medicare plus a Medicare Supplement plus a stand-alone drug plan. This is the door the exit opens that nothing else does. A plan leaving Medicare is a guaranteed-issue situation: Medicare.gov says you may buy Plan A, B, D, G, K or L with no health questions, applying as early as 60 days before and no later than 63 days after your coverage ends — November 1, 2026 through March 4, 2027. Arizona has no birthday rule and an ordinary supplement application is underwritten, so for many people this is the one window in years when that door is open. Switching from Advantage to a supplement in Arizona covers the trade-offs; Plan G versus Plan N prices the two most common choices. Arizona has nine stand-alone drug plans for 2027, from $5.30 a month.
3. Original Medicare plus a drug plan, no supplement. Lowest premium, no network, no annual cap on your 20% share. Price it against your own health before accepting it.

If December 7 passes, a discontinued plan gives you a Special Enrollment Period from December 8 through February 28, 2027 to join another Advantage plan. The catch is the start date: a plan chosen in January starts February 1, and you spend January in Original Medicare — with no drug coverage if your old plan had Part D. Special Enrollment Periods explains the clock; treat this one as a safety net.

The numbers that do not change with your plan

Higher-income households have one more thing to carry across a plan change: IRMAA, the income-related surcharge on Part B and Part D, follows you to any plan, and the 2027 determination is Social Security’s, not the plan’s. IRMAA explained covers the appeal if a one-time event pushed your income up.

A working plan from here

• This week: find both letters. If one is a non-renewal notice, put it where you can find it in March — it documents the Medigap right.
• Before October 15: write down every doctor, every prescription and the pharmacy you use. Nothing else about comparison matters until that list exists.
• Decide the door before the plan. Advantage versus supplement is the bigger decision; if you are leaning supplement, the window opens November 1 and there is no reason to wait for December.
• Ignore the phone. A discontinued plan is a magnet for marketing. Nobody can enroll you in a 2027 plan before October 15, and no legitimate agent needs your Medicare number to “check” anything.
• Enroll between October 15 and December 7. Earlier is fine. CMS treats the last enrollment request as the one that counts, so you can change your mind inside the window.

If you would rather someone else did the checking

Bring me the letter. Running your prescriptions, your doctors and your pharmacy against the plans I offer in your ZIP — and reading what the letter actually says against what the mailers claim — takes about twenty minutes with someone who does it weekly. I do not offer every plan available in Maricopa County; for the full 45, use Medicare.gov’s plan finder or call 1-800-MEDICARE, and I will tell you plainly when that is the better first stop.

There is no charge, and I have no interest in moving anyone whose plan still fits. The office is in Anthem, about 25 minutes from north Peoria out the Carefree Highway and down Lake Pleasant Parkway, and most of this gets done by phone. Call (602) 844-6002 or book a time — and if you call or text, that is your consent for me to reply the same way.

October is the month for this. Not December 5.