Medicare Advantage Plans Get High Marks from Customers

Regional Medicare Advantage plans score higher than national alternatives on customer satisfaction.

A picture of Medicare advantage plan word, piggy bank, shield and heart insight. Medicare advantage conceptt
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Medicare Advantage plans, formally Part C of Medicare, offer Medicare beneficiaries an alternative to Original Medicare and have been successful in signing up Medicare-eligible Americans. Medicare Advantage plans are increasingly popular; enrollment in these plans as a share of the eligible Medicare population has jumped from 19% in 2007 to 54% in 2024. That figure represents a huge swath of Americans. In 2024, 54% of eligible Medicare beneficiaries — 32.8 million people out of 61.2 million Medicare beneficiaries with both Medicare Parts A and B — are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans

Not all Medicare Advantage programs are alike, however. Plans that provide an easy way of finding care plus low out-of-pocket costs are more likely to win over subscribers, according to the 2024 U.S. Medicare Advantage Study by J.D. Power.

What Medicare Advantage plans offer

Unlike Original Medicare, which is government insurance, Medicare Advantage plans are administered by private insurance companies. These plans cover the same benefits of Original Medicare and typically include extra coverage such as out-of-pocket maximums, minimal dental or hearing coverage, and fitness benefits. Most Medicare Advantage plans also include prescription drug coverage. 

Subscribe to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

Be a smarter, better informed investor.

Save up to 74%
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hwgJ7osrMtUWhk5koeVme7-200-80.png

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.

Sign up

In 2024, the out-of-pocket limit for Medicare Advantage plans may not exceed $8,850 for in-network services and $13,300 for in-network and out-of-network services combined. While traditional Medicare has no out-of-pocket cap on spending, Medicare Advantage plans have limited provider networks and apply cost management tools such as prior authorization, which traditional Medicare does not.

Starting in 2025, Medicare Advantage plans will be required to send policyholders a personalized “Mid-Year Enrollee Notification of Unused Supplemental Benefits” in July. It will list all supplemental benefits the person hasn’t used, the scope and out-of-pocket cost for claiming each one, instructions on how to access the benefits and a customer service number to call for more information.

What Medicare Advantage enrollees like about their plans

The 2024 U.S. Medicare Advantage study by J.D. Power measured the customer satisfaction of Medicare Advantage enrollees and the most important factors driving customer satisfaction. Although local plans ranked lower in the overall satisfaction ratings, they had higher customer service ratings than national providers such as UnitedHealthcare and Humana which have nearly half (47%) of all Medicare Advantage enrollees nationwide, according to KKF.org

What makes the local plans more appealing? “It can be attributed to the top five drivers of satisfaction in the Medicare Advantage shopping experience, which are: preferred in-network doctors; adequate prescription drug coverage; preferred in-network hospitals and facilities; previous experience with a health plan; and existence of a copay” said Christopher Lis, managing director of global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power.

Key findings of the 2024 study:

  • The factors that drive customer satisfaction:  Respondents gave Medicare Advantage plans an overall customer satisfaction score of 652 (on a 1,000-point scale). The top drivers of customer satisfaction are ease of finding care, low out-of-pocket costs and provider choice.
  • Regional plans score higher for customer satisfaction: Although average overall satisfaction scores are highest among national health plans, individual regional Medicare Advantage plans including UMPC For Life, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Independence Blue Cross, Geisinger Gold and Priority Health Medicare, significantly outperform the top-performing national plans.
  • Medicare Advantage plans get higher marks than commercial member plans: Customers of commercial member plans have a lower overall satisfaction by 87 points. Medicare Advantage customers rated their higher in these areas: plans helps me to save time or money (+128 points); ease of doing business (+93); level of trust (+92); and product/coverage offerings meet my needs (+90).

Overall customer satisfaction index ratings for Medicare Advantage plans in surveyed states

Medicare Advantage subscribers in Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina give the highest satisfaction to the Advantage plans in their states with survey respondents giving plans in Pennsylvania the highest marks among the 10 states surveyed. California, Texas and New York had the lowest overall customer satisfaction scores and New York had the lowest of all states in the study. 

UnitedHealthcare topped the overall satisfaction rating for four states and Wellcare finished last in every state in the survey. Wellcare's ratings were significantly lower than the plans that precede it in the rankings.  

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Overall Customer Satisfaction Index Ratings for CA, FL and GA
Header Cell - Column 0 CaliforniaFlorida Georgia
Region averagesCalifornia region average- 643Florida region average- 655Georgia region average-653
Providers and score out of 1,000Kaiser Permanente- 666UnitedHealthcare- 689UnitedHealthcare-671
Row 2 - Cell 0 Alignment Health Plan- 665Freedom Healthcare Inc.- 672Humana-663
SCAN Healthcare- 652Aetna Medicare- 668Aetna Medicare- 637
Row 4 - Cell 0 Blue Shield of California- 626Florida Blue- 651Wellcare-580
Row 5 - Cell 0 UnitedHealthcare- 622Humana-639Row 5 - Cell 3
Row 6 - Cell 0 Anthem Blue Cross- 621Wellcare- 538Row 6 - Cell 3
Row 7 - Cell 0 Humana- 613Row 7 - Cell 2 Row 7 - Cell 3
Row 8 - Cell 0 Wellcare- 581Row 8 - Cell 2 Row 8 - Cell 3
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Overall Customer Satisfaction Index Ratings for IL, MI and NY
Header Cell - Column 0 IllinoisMichiganNew York
Region averageIllinois region average- 641Michigan region average-664New York region average- 624
Providers and score out of 1,000UnitedHealthcare- 677Priority Health Medicare- 677 Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield- 654
Row 2 - Cell 0 Aetna Medicare- 638Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan- 676Healthfirst Medicare Plan- 625
Row 3 - Cell 0 Humana- 628HAP Senior Plus- 669UnitedHealthcare- 624
Row 4 - Cell 0 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois- 625Humana- 612Aetna Medicare- 621
Row 5 - Cell 0 Wellcare- 526Row 5 - Cell 2 Humana- 596
Row 6 - Cell 0 Row 6 - Cell 1 Row 6 - Cell 2 Row 6 - Cell 3
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Overall Customer Satisfaction Index Ratings for NC, OH, PA and TX
Header Cell - Column 0 North CarolinaOhioPennsylvaniaTexas
Region averageNorth Carolina region average- 665Ohio region average- 658Pennsylvania region average- 675Texas region average- 629
Providers and score out of 1,000UnitedHealthcare- 690Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield- 663UPMC For Life- 699Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas- 665
Row 2 - Cell 0 Aetna Medicare- 680Aetna Medicare- 660Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield- 691Cigna Healthcare- 655
Row 3 - Cell 0 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina- 645Humana- 653Independence Blue Cross- 678UnitedHealthcare- 632
Row 4 - Cell 0 Humana- 644UnitedHealthcare- 652Geisinger Gold- 677Aetna Medicare- 621
Row 5 - Cell 0 Row 5 - Cell 1 Row 5 - Cell 2 UnitedHealthcare- 644Wellcare- 552
Row 6 - Cell 0 Row 6 - Cell 1 Row 6 - Cell 2 Aetna Medicare- 622Row 6 - Cell 4
Row 7 - Cell 0 Row 7 - Cell 1 Row 7 - Cell 2 Humana- 635Row 7 - Cell 4

How the study was conducted:

The tenth annual U.S. Medicare Advantage Study is based on eight factors (in order of importance): level of trust; able to get health services how/when I want; helping to save me time or money; product/coverage offerings meet my needs; ease of doing business; people—representatives, call center agents; resolving problems or complaints; and digital channels. 

The 2024 U.S. Medicare Advantage Study is based on the responses of 10,718 members of Medicare Advantage plans in 10 market-based U.S. regions: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. It was fielded from January through June 2024.

Related Content

Donna LeValley
Retirement Writer

Donna joined Kiplinger as a personal finance writer in 2023. She spent more than a decade as the contributing editor of J.K.Lasser's Your Income Tax Guide and edited state specific legal treatises at ALM Media. She has shared her expertise as a guest on Bloomberg, CNN, Fox, NPR, CNBC and many other media outlets around the nation. She is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School and the University at Buffalo.