Four organizations are entering the Medicare Advantage market for 2027, and one is a tribal nation and two are health systems rather than long-established insurers. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is offering a plan in 11 Oklahoma counties, and St. Luke’s Health System of Boise is offering one in seven Idaho counties. Open enrollment for 2027 coverage runs through December 7.
The other two newcomers are MultiCare Health System in three Washington counties and MedCare Partners Health Plan of Texas in Harris County. Medicare beneficiaries who live in any of those places now have another plan to weigh against the one they have, and the new plans start January 1, 2027, so the comparison belongs in the next six weeks.
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Who are the four new insurers?
The list comes from Becker’s Payer, where Jakob Emerson reported on September 30, 2026 that “there will be four new entrants to the Medicare Advantage market in 2027, according to CMS data.” CMS is the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency that runs Medicare.
- Muscogee (Creek) Nation: one HMO called Native Advantage, in 11 Oklahoma counties.
- St. Luke’s Health System, Boise, Idaho: one HMO with drug coverage, in seven Idaho counties.
- MultiCare Health System, Tacoma, Washington: one HMO with drug coverage, in three Washington counties.
- MedCare Partners Health Plan of Texas: three plans in Harris County, one HMO and two C-SNPs.
What kind of plans are these?
An HMO is a plan that generally keeps members inside a network of doctors and hospitals. St. Luke’s and MultiCare each list an HMO that includes drug coverage, and Becker’s describes Native Advantage as one HMO. Members would need to confirm which doctors and pharmacies are in each network.
A C-SNP is a chronic condition special needs plan, built for people with specific long-term health conditions. MedCare Partners is the only newcomer on the list offering two of them, alongside one standard HMO, all in Harris County.
MultiCare, the Tacoma health system, is a case of a provider becoming an insurer. In a separate October 1 Becker’s report, the plan is described as MultiCare Health Plan, a Medicare Advantage HMO with prescription drug benefits and the system’s first insurance product. A health system selling its own plan can mean its own doctors are in network, though members still need to confirm each provider.
Why does a new plan in a county matter?
A plan that did not exist last year has no track record with a household’s own doctors, drugs or pharmacies. A brand-new insurer’s network may be thin in some towns and broad in others, and the only way to learn that is to look up each doctor and each prescription by name.
Becker’s did not name the Washington counties or give plan benefits, premiums or star ratings for any of the four. Those details appear in Medicare’s online Plan Finder, and a call to 1-800-MEDICARE reaches the federal help line.
What should a beneficiary in these counties do before December 7?
Open enrollment ends December 7, 2026. A person who likes the current plan can leave it alone, and a person tempted by a new name should check the drug list, the doctor list and the total yearly cost first.
Beneficiaries in Harris County have the most to sort through, since MedCare Partners lists three plans there. The two chronic condition plans are meant for people with specific diagnoses, so a member without one would look at the standard HMO instead.
The open question is whether any of the four new plans beats what a household already has, county by county, once real drugs and real doctors are checked against it.
Does a new plan in the county beat the one already in place?
The detail that gets missed with a brand-new plan is a doctor or a drug that turns out to be outside it, and the new insurers entering Oklahoma, Idaho, Washington and Harris County, Texas have no history to check.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, plus the Open Enrollment calendar for the October 15 to December 7 window. Its Excel calculator is built so a household can keep, switch or wait with a written reason.
Test a new 2027 plan against the current one in the Open Enrollment Decision Kit calculator →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
