➤What company has the highest rated Medicare Advantage plan?
CMS rates every Medicare Advantage plan on a 1 to 5 star scale and republishes those ratings each October. Kaiser Permanente has consistently held the highest ratings of any carrier, and every plan it offers for 2027 carries 4 stars or higher. The catch is availability: Kaiser only sells in eight states plus the District of Columbia.
Among the national carriers, star ratings move by plan and by county rather than by company, so a carrier can hold 4.5 stars in one state and 3.5 in the next. A 5 star plan you cannot buy where you live is worth nothing to you. Check the rating attached to the specific plans offered in your own county, not the carrier’s national reputation.
One practical benefit worth knowing: if a 5 star plan is available in your area, you can switch into it once between December 8 and November 30 using a special enrollment period, outside the regular fall window.
➤What are the Medicare Advantage rates for seniors in 2027?
Plan level premiums for 2027 are not public until October 1, 2026. Anything quoted before that date is an estimate. Many Medicare Advantage plans carry a $0 monthly premium, and that is likely to remain common in 2027, but the figure that matters more is the one underneath it.
You pay the Medicare Part B premium regardless of which plan you choose. It is projected at $209.50 a month for 2027, up from $202.90. A $0 premium plan means $0 to the insurer, not $0 for Medicare.
The drug cost figures for 2027 are already final. The Part D standard deductible rises to $700 from $615, and the annual out of pocket cap on prescriptions rises to $2,400 from $2,100. Those apply to the drug coverage built into a Medicare Advantage plan as well as to standalone drug plans. Everything else, including copays, provider networks and extra benefits, varies by county and will not be confirmed until October 1.
➤Which Medicare Advantage plan denies the most claims?
Medicare Advantage insurers made 52.8 million prior authorization determinations in 2024 and denied 4.1 million of them in full or in part, an overall denial rate of 7.7 percent. Across the largest firms the rate ranged from 4.2 percent at the low end to 12.8 percent at the high end.
Those numbers are less comparable than they look. Insurers decide for themselves which services need prior authorization at all, so a company that reviews far more requests will usually show a lower denial percentage simply because more of what it reviews is routine. The firm with the highest denial rate in 2024 required only one prior authorization per enrollee, while the firm with the lowest required three. Judging a carrier on denial rate alone rewards the companies that ask for approval on everything.
The more useful number is what happens afterward. Only 11.5 percent of denied requests were appealed in 2024, and more than 80 percent of those appeals were overturned in the patient’s favor. That pattern has held every year since 2019. If your plan denies something your doctor says you need, appealing it is far more likely to work than most people assume.
➤What does Dave Ramsey say about Medicare Advantage plans?
Ramsey Solutions has generally favored Original Medicare paired with a Medicare Supplement policy over Medicare Advantage for people who can comfortably afford the additional monthly premium. The reasoning centers on provider freedom and cost predictability: a supplement lets you use any doctor who accepts Medicare, and your costs are largely fixed in advance.
It is a fair argument, and it is also not the right answer for everyone. That approach costs meaningfully more each month and requires a separate drug plan on top. Medicare Advantage suits people who want a lower monthly outlay, drug coverage bundled in, a hard annual cap on medical spending, and extras like dental or vision. The honest version is that the two are different trades rather than a right and a wrong choice, and the deciding factors are usually your budget, whether your doctors are in network, and how much you travel.