August enrollment shows MA continues to grow, with SNPs a majority of the increase
In a February 16 blog, I detailed the growth in Medicare Advantage (MA) from February 2025 to February 2026 after a delay from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in posting the annual data. As I noted, the January enrollment statistics in both years seemed off so many analysts are comparing February to February each year. Each month since then, I have updated with monthly growth numbers. Now, we have August results. For those who may have missed earlier blogs, I am refreshing on some of the annual results.
The annual statistics show some of the financial struggles the industry continues to have. Annual growth is way down compared with prior years in the 2020s due to major geographic contractions as well as plan benefit reductions by major MA players the past few years.
As the chart below shows, February 2025 to February 2026 enrollment growth was just 874K or 2.5% — way down from annual growth from January 2020. MA enrollment continues to grow due to aging in America each month as well as the secondary enrollment process from January through March of each year.
What do the latest statistics show?
Enrollment in MA reached 35.815M in February 2026. From February to August, enrollment climbed by about another 451K. From July to August, enrollment grew about 72K. In August enrollment was about 36.266M.
How did Big MA do?
From February 2025 to February 2026, Big Plan MA enrollment grew by about 861K or 3.4%. Big MA enrollment hit 26.511M in February 2026. Big MA’s penetration was 74.02% in February 2026. Big MA plans grew about 207K from February to August 2026. Big MA plans now have about 26.718M enrollees.
However, hidden in these numbers is a very poor open enrollment season. From December 2025 to February 2026, Big MA contracted by about 328K. That contrasts with non-Big MA, which grew by about 443K in open enrollment.
Non-Big MA grew by about 244K from February to August, adding 38K from July to August. Non-Big MA plans now have about 9.548. Non-Big MA plans have taken 54% of all enrollment growth since February and 54% of new enrollees in August.
United Healthcare has contracted by about 33K between February and August 2026, with a growth of about 8K in August. Humana has grown by about 164K from February to August 2026, with growth of about 9K in August.
CVS grew by about 65K from February to August 2026, with a growth of about 13K in August. Kaiser grew by about 53K from February to August 2026, with growth of about 6K in July. Elevance Health has shed about 13K since February, with a growth about 1K in August. Centene has lost about 34K since February, with a loss of about 6K in August. Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) has grown about 15K since February, with Molina contracting about 9K.
Special Needs Plans continue to explode.
Special Needs Plans (SNPs) continued to see a healthy increase in enrollment. From February 2025 to February 2026, SNPs grew to about 8.200 million, a gain of about 647K or 8.56%. SNPs grew about 259K in open enrollment. SNP enrollment now stands in August at 8.437M. SNPs have grown by about 237K since February, with 39K of that in August. SNPs took 55% of all enrollment growth in August and 53% since February. SNPs are now over 23% of all MA enrollment.
PPOs vs. HMOs
Over the years, PPOs began growing and competing well with HMOs in terms of raw numbers as well as percentage growth. While PPOs’ sheer number and percentage growth were beating HMOs over the past several years, that trend changed beginning in 2025. From January 2023 to January 2024, HMOs grew about 853K (4.8%) and PPOs 1.861 million (14.8%). From January 2024 to February 2025, HMOs grew more than PPOs in terms of numbers and percentage: HMOs up about 882K (4.7%) vs. PPOs up about 580K (4%). From February 2025 to February 2026, HMOs were up about 937K (4.8%), while PPOs were down by about 103K (-0.7%).
From February to August 2026, PPOs grew by about 80K, with about 16K growth in August. From February to August, HMOs grew by about 367K, with about 54K new enrollees in August. HMOs took 76% of growth in August and 81% since February. The meager growth in PPOs can be traced to the major contraction of PPO products as MA plans financially realign.
#medicareadvantage #enrollment
— Marc S. Ryan
