CMS NEWS
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2019
Contact:
CMS Media Relations
(202) 690-6145 | CMS Media Inquiries
Trump
Administration Drives Down Medicare Advantage and Part D Premiums for
Seniors
Medicare Advantage
premiums projected to go down to their lowest level in 13 years
Ahead
of Medicare Open Enrollment, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS), under the leadership of President Trump, announced today
that, on average, Medicare Advantage premiums in 2020 are expected to
decline 23 percent from 2018 while plan choices, benefits and enrollment
continue to increase. The Medicare Advantage average monthly premium will
be the lowest in the last thirteen years for the more than 24 million
people with Medicare who are projected to enroll in a Medicare Advantage
plan for 2020.
“President
Trump has promised American patients a system with affordable,
personalized healthcare, a system that puts you in control, provides
peace of mind, and treats you like a human being, not a number,” said HHS
Secretary Alex Azar. “That is what CMS has been delivering with its
improvements to Medicare Advantage: lower costs, more options, and
benefits tailored to patients’ needs. This proven record of
success—decreasing premiums in both Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part
D—contrasts with proposals for a total government takeover of healthcare,
which would destroy options such as Medicare Advantage that seniors
increasingly choose.”
This
news comes as the agency releases the benefit and cost-sharing
information for Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans for
the 2020 calendar year. Specific highlights include:
- The
Medicare Advantage average monthly plan premium is expected to
decrease 14 percent to $23.00 (estimated) in 2020 from an average of
$26.87 in 2019. Since 2017, the average monthly Medicare Advantage
premium has decreased by an estimated 27.9 percent. This is the
lowest that the average monthly premium for a Medicare Advantage
plan has been since 2007.
- Beneficiaries
will have more plan choices, with about 1,200 more Medicare
Advantage plans operating in 2020 than in 2018.
- The
average number of Medicare Advantage plan choices per county will
increase from about 33 plans in 2019 to 39 plans in 2020. This
represents an increase of 49 percent since 2017.
- Medicare
Advantage continues to be popular, with enrollment projected to
increase to an all-time high of 24.4 million beneficiaries from the
current enrollment of 22.2 million, out of approximately 60 million
people currently enrolled in Medicare. Enrollment in Medicare Advantage
in 2020 is expected to have increased by 30.6 percent since 2017.
- Coupled
with the previously announced 13.5 percent decline in the average monthly
basic Part D premium, beneficiaries have saved about $2.65 billion
in Medicare Advantage and Part D premium costs since 2017. The
projected average monthly basic Part D premium of $30 in 2020 is the
lowest the Part D basic premium has been since 2013.
- The
continued decline in Medicare Advantage and Part D premiums over the
past three years is estimated to save taxpayers nearly $6 billion in
the form of lower Medicare premium subsidies.
“These
dramatically lower costs in Medicare Advantage and Part D, thanks to
President Trump’s leadership, means that we are putting dollars back into
the pockets of our seniors,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “On the
contrast, proposals for more government through Medicare for All or a
public option, would only harm the progress we have made to protect and
strengthen the Medicare program for future generations.”
CMS
has taken several actions over the last two years to protect and strengthen
the Medicare Advantage and Part D programs, driving competition and
lowering costs, including:
- Providing
beneficiaries with more choices due to CMS removing limits requiring
meaningful differences among a Medicare Advantage Organization’s
plans beginning in 2019.
- Reducing
burden for Medicare Advantage and Part D plans through streamlining
government review and approval of marketing materials.
- Expanding
access to reduced cost sharing and additional benefits for enrollees
with certain conditions, such diabetes and congestive heart failure,
due to the agency’s reinterpretation of uniformity in 2018. About
300 plans in 2020 will offer up to 1.3 million Medicare Advantage
enrollees with access to such benefits.
- Expanding
opportunities for seniors to choose Medicare Advantage plans that
are providing new supplemental benefits, or extra benefits, that are
tailored to their specific needs to help them maintain their health.
In 2020, about 500 plans will provide approximately up to 2.6
million Medicare Advantage enrollees with access to expanded
primarily health related supplemental benefits, such as adult care
services or caregiver support services.
- Expanding
opportunities for chronically ill patients to choose Medicare
Advantage plans that offer a broader range of supplemental benefits
that are not necessarily health-related but may help to improve or
maintain their health. For example, chronically ill beneficiaries
enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan can now receive meal delivery
in more circumstances, transportation for non-medical needs like
grocery shopping, and home environment services in order to improve
their health or overall function as it relates to their chronic
illness. About 250 plans in 2020 will offer access to these types of
supplemental benefits reaching an estimated 1.2 million enrollees.
- Implementing
legislation signed by President Trump to give seniors access to
Medicare Advantage additional telehealth benefits so they can use
telehealth technology to access more providers in more parts of the
country. For 2020, over half of all plans will offer additional
telehealth benefits, reaching approximately up to 13.7 million
Medicare Advantage enrollees.
- Providing
clinicians with more information on out-pocket-costs and lower cost
alternatives for prescription drugs so they can discuss with
beneficiaries at the time a prescription is written.
- Providing
beneficiaries with more drug choices and empowering beneficiaries to
select a plan that best meets their needs by allowing plans to cover
prescription drugs differently depending on the reasons for which
they are prescribed, an approach used in the private sector.
Not
only are there additional lower-cost choices, it will be easier than ever
to compare Medicare Advantage and Part D plans on Medicare.gov. As the
2020 Medicare Open Enrollment period approaches, CMS for the first time
in a decade launched a modernized and redesigned
Medicare Plan Finder – the most used tool on Medicare.gov – that allows
users to shop and compare Medicare Advantage and Part D plans as well as
compare pricing between original Medicare, Medicare prescription drug
plans, Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare supplemental insurance or
Medigap policies.
CMS
anticipates updating Medicare.gov with the 2020 Medicare Advantage and
Part D premiums and cost-sharing information and releasing the Star
Ratings for Medicare Advantage and Part D plans in early October.
Medicare
Open Enrollment begins on October 15, 2019, and ends on December 7, 2019.
During this time, Medicare beneficiaries can compare coverage options
like Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage and choose health and drug
plans for 2020. Medicare health and drug plan costs and covered benefits
can change from year to year, so people with Medicare should look at
their coverage choices and decide on the options that best meet their health
needs. They can visit Medicare.gov (https://www.medicare.gov), call
1-800-MEDICARE, or contact their State Health Insurance Assistance Program.
People who want to keep their current Medicare coverage do NOT need to
re-enroll.
To
view the premiums and costs of 2020 Medicare Advantage and Part D plans,
please visit: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Prescription-Drug-Coverage/PrescriptionDrugCovGenIn/index.html.
For
state-by-state information on Medicare Advantage and Part D in 2020,
please visit: https://cms.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/09-24-2019%20FINAL%202020%20MA%20Part%20D%20Landscape%20State-by-State%20Factsheets.pdf.
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