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by GUY FURAY
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Every day at my brokerage, The Insurance Source, I sit across the desk from seniors trying to navigate their healthcare options. Many of them tell me one of the most important things they value is CHOICE. They want the freedom and the flexibility to select a plan that feels like it fits THEM, not a “one size fits all” kinda scheme.
More than ever, Medicare Advantage plans are giving Medicare beneficiaries that very choice. Older Americans are actively choosing Medicare Advantage (MA) over traditional fee-for-service Medicare because it can consistently deliver better care, lower costs, and peace of mind. Its dependability is why so many South Carolina seniors living on fixed incomes rely on it.
In my experience helping clients find the best coverage, MA plans can offer incredible value. Enrollees could save an average of $3,400 a year on premium costs while also providing essential supplemental benefits like dental, vision, hearing, and even care coordination.
Unfortunately, the stability of MA has been severely tested in recent years. Under the Biden Administration, Medicare Advantage faced consecutive years of funding that failed to keep pace with the skyrocketing costs of medical care. Seniors are now bearing the burden of those policy mistakes. Over the past two years alone, plan availability has plummeted by nearly 14%. As insurers leave the market, roughly one million MA beneficiaries have had to scramble for new coverage in 2026.
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In states like South Carolina, where rural communities rely heavily on these tailored plans for coordinated care, the squeeze has been particularly devastating. At the same time, inflation has already stretched retirement savings to the breaking point. Yet, average premiums for MA-PD plans are expected to spike by 24% this year. These cuts place an unfair burden on the backs of our seniors.
Fortunately, South Carolina has strong advocates fighting back against this trend. Senator Tim Scott has previously assembled the Healthcare Insurance Roundtable with the CEOs of every major hospital in the Upstate. He listens to the experts on the ground, and he deserves immense credit for his unwavering support of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries.
By standing with the Trump Administration to fortify MA, Senator Scott is helping to ensure that the program remains a high-quality, efficient program that puts patients first.
His leadership is critical in defending a system that disproportionately serves clinically complex and lower-income seniors, with 1.6 times more new MA beneficiaries earning under $50,000 annually compared to traditional Medicare enrollees.
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Protecting Medicare requires strong safeguards and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars. I’ve introduced the bipartisan RAMP Act with @SenatorHassan to close loopholes, stop abusive lawsuits, protect seniors, and ensure Medicare dollars are spent wisely.…
— Senator Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) February 19, 2026
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For the individuals sitting in my office, a sudden increase in out-of-pocket costs or the loss of a crucial dental benefit would constitute a full-blown financial crisis. Defending this program is fundamentally about protecting the citizens who have the least room for error in their monthly budgets.
Unfortunately, this successful and popular program is facing a new hurdle. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released the Advance Rate Notice for 2027. The current proposal offers a meager 0.09 percent increase in program funding—effectively flat, in other words.
Through my advocacy work in Washington, D.C., I know that if this rate notice is finalized without changes, it will lead to another round of benefit cuts and higher out-of-pocket costs for millions of seniors when they sit down to renew their MA coverage this fall.
The Trump Administration has a vital opportunity to correct the course set by the previous administration and protect these essential benefits. South Carolina seniors should not be forced to absorb even higher healthcare costs. We need leaders like Senator Tim Scott and MA champions in the Trump Administration to continue prioritizing the integrity of this program. The administration must address the 2027 MA rate notice to prevent further cuts and guarantee that Medicare Advantage remains the stable, affordable choice that 35 million American seniors are counting on.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Guy Furay is a health insurance expert, board member of Health Agents for America, and the owner of The Insurance Source, an independent brokerage specializing in Medicare and employee benefits.
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3 comments
Medicare Advantage is literally downgrading your coverage in many cases. No wonder Republicans love it. Just like Fred Thompson and reverse mortgage scams they just love robbing old people blind.
I recall at his latest State Of The Union Address (I believe), Trumpstein said not to worry about our Social Security; that they were doing things to make sure it stays viable, or words to that general effect. Thing is, as I understand it, by 2033 or thereabouts, if SS gets to a level of depletion outlined in a law signed in the early 1950’s, our SS benefits will automatically be cut by something like 20%. What exactly is Trump doing to fix that? I AM worried. He has promised so much and failed to deliver on so much. Right now, all of his energy is focused on prosecuting an unnecessary and unjust war against Iran so Israel doesn’t let anything embarrassing they might have been provided by their agent Jeff Epstein leak out, he doesn’t care about anything else. He wants ever-increasing, obscene, military budgets which we would not need if we kept our nose out of everyone else’s business. Social Security is likely to be one more of Trump’s conveniently forgotten promises.
Are you kidding? Trump just said three days ago that the US cannot afford Medicare at all. That we need the money to pay for wars. He advises that we have the states take over health care and raise taxes to pay for it. That seems to have been the Republican plan for decades now. Get rid of SS, Medicare, and Medicaid, and use the money to pay defense contractors and give out billionaire tax cuts.
As a Medicare recipient, I don’t believe that crap about people coming into this guy’s office and saying I want choice. That’s a sales pitch. People want simple, comprehensive coverage. They don’t want to decide between rehab benefits and dental benefits, or losing your doctor to get more vision care. MA plans are frequently deficient in coverage because they have to pay for insurance company profits. So they cut back on important coverage to do that. Certainly, if you are very healthy and you don’t care about things like how many days of rehab your coverage will pay for after a hospital stay, you may be able to pay a little less with an MA plan. But for most people, they should probably not be on a MA plan, and to the extent that money going to MA degrades traditional Medicare, they will pay for it in the end. So I am much more concerned with how we are going to protect SS, Medicare, and Medicaid from Republican politicians gutting those programs than I am with how we are going to protect MA. Or make war for that matter.