Medicare Advantage coverage providers have started the year with 24 million enrollees, or about 9.2% more than they had a year ago. The total number of people eligible for Medicare grew 6.4%, to 68 million.

The Medicare Advantage program’s share of all people eligible for Medicare increased to 35%, from 34% last year. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that runs the Medicare program, has published the latest Medicare eligibles data and the Medicare Advantage enrollee numbers in the Monthly Enrollment by State 2020 01 data file.

The data file also gives information about related matters, such as the number of people with stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage. The number of people with stand-alone drug coverage fell 1.1%, to 25 million

The data file provides data for all 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.

The Medicare Advantage program gives commercial health insurers and managed care companies a chance to provide an alternative to what CMS calls “Original Medicare” coverage.

Some Medicare enrollees use Medicare supplement insurance to fill in the gaps in Original Medicare programs. Other people use Medicaid; sign up for new or experimental programs, such as PACE plans; or have no protection against health care costs other than Original Medicare itself.

We compared the latest data with the year-earlier data and created a map showing where the Medicare Advantage program’s share of all Medicare-eligible people grew, shrank or held steady in the 50 states. You can see the map above. In states with big, bright green dots, Medicare Advantage plans increased their share of those state’s Medicare-eligible residents more than about 2%.

In states with bigger, darker red dots, Medicare Advantage plan issuers reported weak enrollee share growth, or a small drop in enrollee share.

For data on all 50 states, see the table below.

State 2020 Medicare Eligible Population 2020 MA Enrollees 2020 MA Enrollee Share 2019 MA Enrollee Share MA Enrollee Share Change
Alabama 1,145,997 469,362 41.0% 39.1% 1.9%
Alaska 111,653 1,243 1.1% 1.1% 0.0%
Arizona 1,488,153 565,969 38.0% 37.5% 0.5%
Arkansas 711,544 184,533 25.9% 24.1% 1.8%
California 6,972,641 2,721,137 39.0% 39.7% -0.6%
Colorado 1,054,792 385,683 36.6% 36.7% -0.1%
Connecticut 741,609 298,817 40.3% 37.9% 2.4%
Delaware 227,070 37,624 16.6% 14.5% 2.1%
Florida 5,132,645 2,210,426 43.1% 42.8% 0.3%
Georgia 1,966,018 727,162 37.0% 36.3% 0.7%
Hawaii 294,374 130,560 44.4% 44.5% -0.1%
Idaho 375,374 122,792 32.7% 31.5% 1.2%
Illinois 2,445,483 598,491 24.5% 22.8% 1.6%
Indiana 1,385,965 440,430 31.8% 29.5% 2.3%
Iowa 684,155 143,273 20.9% 19.2% 1.7%
Kansas 589,268 110,431 18.7% 17.1% 1.6%
Kentucky 1,023,238 342,788 33.5% 30.7% 2.8%
Louisiana 958,371 359,883 37.6% 35.6% 1.9%
Maine 374,260 133,063 35.6% 32.5% 3.1%
Maryland 1,148,141 129,900 11.3% 11.0% 0.3%
Massachusetts 1,454,459 319,951 22.0% 21.6% 0.4%
Michigan 2,264,501 930,362 41.1% 37.6% 3.5%
Minnesota 1,142,917 431,218 37.7% 36.8% 1.0%
Mississippi 669,734 136,500 20.4% 18.7% 1.7%
Missouri 1,378,401 486,126 35.3% 34.4% 0.8%
Montana 257,227 46,860 18.2% 17.9% 0.3%
Nebraska 381,207 64,491 16.9% 14.9% 2.0%
Nevada 595,481 213,178 35.8% 35.2% 0.6%
New Hampshire 333,482 62,597 18.8% 16.6% 2.2%
New Jersey 1,789,725 511,429 28.6% 27.3% 1.3%
New Mexico 468,665 164,557 35.1% 33.9% 1.2%
New York 3,972,806 1,564,491 39.4% 38.6% 0.7%
North Carolina 2,217,921 793,099 35.8% 34.5% 1.3%
North Dakota 144,803 5,687 3.9% 3.2% 0.7%
Ohio 2,536,828 994,840 39.2% 37.9% 1.3%
Oklahoma 832,902 177,317 21.3% 19.8% 1.5%
Oregon 969,097 406,939 42.0% 42.6% -0.6%
Pennsylvania 2,958,453 1,203,148 40.7% 40.4% 0.3%
Rhode Island 241,012 91,268 37.9% 36.8% 1.1%
South Carolina 1,185,056 328,870 27.8% 26.4% 1.4%
South Dakota 200,999 16,130 8.0% 7.1% 0.9%
Tennessee 1,505,999 574,234 38.1% 37.6% 0.5%
Texas 4,646,695 1,719,265 37.0% 36.4% 0.6%
Utah 440,621 159,016 36.1% 35.3% 0.8%
Vermont 164,825 19,900 12.1% 10.9% 1.2%
Virginia 1,711,898 351,749 20.5% 18.3% 2.3%
Washington 1,517,678 491,585 32.4% 31.5% 0.9%
West Virginia 481,867 147,635 30.6% 28.5% 1.9%
Wisconsin 1,287,226 493,015 38.3% 37.1% 2.2%
Wyoming 122,816 4,141 3.4% 3.3% 1.2%

Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

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