Medicare Advantage plans in California

A Medicare Advantage plan (also called Part C) is an all-in-one alternative to Original Medicare, offered by private insurers that Medicare approves and pays. You still have Medicare, but the plan administers your Part A and Part B coverage and almost always folds in Part D drug coverage. Many plans add dental, vision, hearing, an over-the-counter allowance and a gym benefit.

What’s usually included

• Hospital and medical coverage (Parts A and B) with plan copays instead of Medicare’s 20% coinsurance.
• Prescription drug coverage (Part D) in most plans; a few “MA-only” plans leave it out for people with TRICARE For Life or VA pharmacy.
• Extras that vary by plan and were trimmed by several carriers for 2026.
• An annual out-of-pocket maximum on medical costs — something Original Medicare alone does not have.

The California twist: the medical group

In most states an Advantage plan’s network is a list of doctors. In California, most non-Kaiser plans work through delegated medical groups — Optum, Regal, Monarch, Hoag Physician Partners, Sutter, John Muir, Sharp Rees-Stealy and hundreds of others — and the group you are assigned to through your primary doctor decides which specialists and hospitals you can use. Two people on the same plan in the same city can have completely different access. That is the single most important thing to check before you enroll: not just whether your doctor takes the plan, but which group your doctor belongs to and what that group reaches. Kaiser Senior Advantage is the exception; it is one integrated system.

What changed for 2026 in California

• Anthem Blue Cross ended its Medicare Advantage PPO plans in California, which mattered most to people who chose a PPO for out-of-network freedom.
• Aetna closed plans and withdrew from counties, mostly PPOs, as part of a national pullback.
• UnitedHealthcare and Humana exited counties nationwide, and in California the rural North State, the high desert and the mountains felt it most.
• Extras were trimmed almost everywhere; the $0 premium survived, the dental allowance often did not.

Who Advantage tends to fit in California

People who want predictable, lower upfront costs and value bundled extras, who are comfortable inside one medical group and one county, and who stay mostly in California. If you split the year with Arizona or Nevada, or see specialists at Stanford, UCLA or City of Hope that your group may not reach, weigh a Medigap policy carefully — and remember that California’s birthday rule makes Medigap easier to keep affordable here than almost anywhere.

Related: Kaiser Permanente and Medicare, Chronic Special Needs Plans, Institutional SNPs, and Medi-Medi Plans for people with both Medicare and Medi-Cal.