For years, health insurers battled to gain market share in the lucrative privatized Medicare program. Now, the opposite is true. Some of the companies say they designed their 2025 plans with an eye toward ditching members.
Health insurance has always been cyclical — companies go all-in on certain business lines when they’re profitable and get out when they’re not — but next year will mark a particularly drastic turning point for Medicare Advantage, the form of Medicare run by private companies that contract with the government. When insurers release their 2025 plan offerings on Oct. 1, there likely will be fewer choices and freebies.
“They don’t want these patients anymore,” said Jared Holz, a health care sector strategist with Mizuho Securities. “For a while it was how quickly could you grow Medicare because the business was trending favorably. And now, because the trends are so unfavorable, you’ve got half of this sector making a conscious effort to lose members. We haven’t seen this in a very long time.”
