The stripped-down truth for 2026 is that we are going to all tighten the belt. 

Medicare Carriers - whether it's Humana, UHC, Aetna, Christus - all of them - have taken it in the gut with the Value Based Insurance Design (VBID) from the last few years.  The expectation was that expanded benefits would cause members to use their healthcare more aggressively, end up spending a bit more on copays, and keep the plans flush.  It didn't work. 

Members used the great benefits for dental, vision, hearing, OTC, grocery cards, transportation and more... but the programs' allocations were not robust enough.  Plans lost a lot of money, smaller carriers are baling out of the system and dropping plans in 2026 leaving 2.3 million people scratching their heads where they will be next year. 

BE SURE YOU HAVE A PLAN. 

YOU CAN'T USE THE OPEN ENROLLMENT CHANGE JAN-MAR IF YOU DON'T HAVE A PLAN BY 1/1/2026.