CMS Raises FY 27 Medicare Advantage Payment Rates 5%

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Advantage payment ⁠rate effectively determines how much insurers will charge enrollees for monthly premiums and insurers' profit margins.  Team Pocahontas certainly knew of this decision when they challenged further Medicare Advantage enrollments.  Obama's disciples are anxious to loot Medicare FICA tax revenue to fund PPACA subsidies:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/health-insurers-rise-after-us-lifts-2027-medicare-advantage-payment-rates-2026-04-07/

Health insurers rise after US lifts 2027 Medicare Advantage payment rates
By Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru - April 7, 2026

April 7 (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. health insurers climbed in premarket trading on Tuesday after the government said it plans a ​larger-than-expected increase in 2027 payment rates for Medicare ‌Advantage plans.

Insurance giant UnitedHealth (UNH.N) jumped 6.9%, while CVS Health (CVS.N), Elevance Health (ELV.N), Centene (CNC.N), and Molina Healthcare (MOH.N) climbed between 3.6% and 6%.

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Medicare-focused insurer Humana (HUM.N) surged 10.7% and ​was the best-performing stock among the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab early ​on.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said late on ⁠Monday it would raise payments to private insurers offering Medicare ​Advantage plans to older adults in 2027 by 2.48% ​on average, higher than the 0.09% increase it proposed in January.

RBC Capital Markets analysts said the rise is meaningfully above their expectations of 1% ​to 1.5%.

"We view the revision more as righting an ​actuarial wrong, not CMS backing off its disciplinarian attitude towards MA," Jefferies ‌analysts ⁠said in a note.

A Medicare agency official said on a call with reporters that insurers would also get a 2.5% benefit from a change to risk assessment payments related to ​health status, for ​a total ⁠increase of about 5%.

CMS said the increase would result in more than $13 billion in additional ​payments to Medicare Advantage plans in 2027.

The ​government payment ⁠rate affects how much insurers charge for monthly premiums, which plan benefits they offer and, ultimately, how much they ⁠can ​profit and is used by insurers ​to prepare bids for contracts for Medicare Advantage plans they will sell ​in 2027.