Medicare Advantage Market Still Looks Great: UnitedHealth Executives

What You Need to Know

The annual election period for 2023 coverage starts Saturday.
One small, high-profile player recently announced a big market area reduction.
The UnitedHealth Medicare unit chief sees any competitor concerns about Medicare Advantage sales as a them problem.

UnitedHealth Group executives expect Medicare Advantage enrollment to boom in 2023, and they expect their own Medicare Advantage sales growth to exceed industry sales growth.

The executives talked about their optimistic view of the Medicare Advantage plan market Friday, during a conference call the company held to go over results for the third quarter with securities analysts. The third quarter ended Sept. 30.

Tim Noel, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s Medicare and retirement unit, said that UnitedHealth believes that overall Medicare Advantage enrollment will continue to grow more than 8% more year, and that UnitedHealth will be in a great position to increase its own sales.

“I like my changes of outperforming the industry in 2023 and gaining share,” he said.

What It Means

For a financial advisor or insurance agent, growth of Medicare Advantage program enrollment might mean getting more client questions about whether the clients should stick with Medicare supplement insurance or sign up for Medicare Advantage plans.

From the perspective of insurers, a strong Medicare plan annual election period would mean that, in a time of geopolitical uncertainty and financial market turmoil, at least one thing would be going right.

The Medicare Plan Market Now

The Medicare Advantage program gives private insurers a chance to sell coverage that looks to the enrollee like an alternative to the traditional Medicare Part A hospitalization plan and Medicare Part B physician and outpatient services plan.

The plan providers fill many of the patient cost-sharing holes in “Original Medicare,” often for a low or $0 monthly premium, in exchange for the enrollee accepting a lower reimbursement rate for out-of-network providers and agreeing to accept the plan’s care management efforts.

The annual election period for Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans starts Saturday and runs through Dec. 7.

BrightHealth, a 6-year-old, Minneapolis-based insurance startup, announced earlier this week that it will focus on Medicare Advantage plan sales in Florida and California, and give up on efforts to sell Medicare Advantage plans in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho and Illinois in 2023.