'We feel blindsided': Minnesota seniors navigate unexpected Medicare cost increases
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Quick Read
Steve Myhro, 71, and his wife, Sarah, 68, moved from Rochester to Nisswa a year and a half ago to be closer to family. He is a retired history and government teacher and she is a professional violinist.
But the couple's new life in Crow Wing County has brought an unexpected financial twist: changes to Medicare coverage that could increase their annual health insurance costs by thousands of dollars.
Starting in 2027, Minnesota’s 1.2 million Medicare enrollees will have fewer Medicare Advantage options. Seniors in Crow Wing, Wadena and Lake of the Woods counties will have no Medicare Advantage plans available, pressuring many to consider more expensive alternatives. And 15 other counties in the state will no longer have Medicare Advantage plan options but Medicare cost plans and original Medicare are still available.
For the Myhros, this change will mean an increase of as much as $7,000 a year.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
“If I knew up front that I'm going to pay $6,000 to $7,000 more a year in healthcare costs in Crow Wing County, as opposed to Cass or Aitkin County, why didn’t I move to Cass County?” he said. “I could have built the house five miles away in Cass County and not be experiencing these kinds of increases. To me, that just makes no sense.”
The disruptions reflect broader pressures in Minnesota's Medicare Advantage market. Insurers say rising medical costs, financial losses and challenges maintaining provider networks, especially in rural areas, are leading them to restructure Medicare Advantage plans.
The Myhros had Medicare Advantage coverage through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota for the past few years and were satisfied with the plan, which met their medical needs and cost $2,900 annually for the two of them.
After learning that the plan would no longer be available in Crow Wing County, they began searching for alternatives. With no Medicare Advantage plans to choose from, their insurance broker recommended a HealthPartners Medicare Supplement policy, known as Medigap, and a separate prescription drug plan.
"It's going to cost us over $9,000 a year instead of less than $3,000," Myhro said. While the new plan provides comprehensive coverage, he added that the additional cost is difficult to absorb, especially for those living on fixed incomes.
With fewer Medicare Advantage plans, seniors encounter costly alternatives
Nicole Converse, a broker at RG Insurance in Baxter, said the changes to Medicare Advantage plans have created meaningful challenges for both seniors and insurance agents trying to find affordable coverage for clients.
She said residents in Crow Wing and Wadena counties are now having to consider Medigap policies, which can cost hundreds of dollars per month.
In previous years, Converse said, seniors could find Medicare Advantage plans with monthly premiums ranging from $0 to about $120. But for 2027, more comprehensive alternatives can cost more than $400 a month.
"Now they have to pay how much money to still not go to the doctor or take the risk and say, ‘I'm just going to take original Medicare, and hopefully I don't get sick, and hopefully something doesn't happen,’” Converse said. "That's not the point of Medicare."
Wadena County ranks among the lowest-income counties in Minnesota, and Converse said some residents rely almost entirely on Social Security, making even modest supplemental insurance premiums hard to afford.
"To show someone a plan of over $300 … it's their entire Social Security check," she said.
Converse attributed the changes to the economics of operating insurance plans in individual counties, not to discrimination against specific communities. She said insurance companies are responding to financial pressures by adjusting their plan offerings, raising out-of-pocket maximums, and reducing additional benefits such as dental, vision and fitness coverage.
Her agency has hundreds of clients on a waiting list and is organizing educational events to help seniors understand their options while they wait for individual appointments. She cautioned that there is no guarantee that a Medicare Advantage option will return to these counties in the coming years.
"It's a disservice because people couldn't afford it in the first place,” Converse said. “That's why they were on those Advantage plans."
‘Those are the people I hurt for’
For Myhro, the issue extends beyond his own family's finances. He regularly meets with other retirees for coffee in Nisswa and Pequot Lakes, where conversations about Medicare have become increasingly common.
Some of the people he has spoken with are in their 90s, have substantial medical needs and cannot afford supplemental coverage. In some cases, they have serious medical conditions. Myhro said these costs will bankrupt them.
"Those are the people I hurt for," he said.
Myhro has written letters to U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber and Gov. Tim Walz, expressing that seniors received little warning and were left scrambling to understand their health insurance coverage options before enrollment deadlines.
"We feel blindsided," he wrote.
In a response dated Nov. 4, Walz’s office pointed to the governor's efforts to support affordable health coverage, including Minnesota's reinsurance program and legislation intended to protect access to insurance. The response also cited federal healthcare changes under the Trump administration and encouraged Myhro to contact his state legislators.
Stauber's office said the congressman was reviewing Myhro's comments and “his voice has been heard.”
In a statement to MPR News, Stauber expressed deep concern over reports that his rural Minnesota constituents are being dropped from their Medicare Advantage plans, and said he heard repeated concerns about healthcare disruptions during his campaign.
Stauber said he is committed to working with both Republican and Democratic colleagues to find practical solutions for affected families, and as the new Congress convenes, “healthcare access and affordability will be priority issues” for lawmakers “on both sides of the aisle.”
Myhro said the responses did little to answer his main question: Why are seniors in some Minnesota counties facing dramatically higher costs than those in neighboring counties?
"I really want to know why we as seniors are having to bear so much of the cost of this kind of market restructuring," he said.
Myhro hopes to bring attention to the issue in order to prompt public officials to look into the discrepancies in coverage options and costs between counties.
"I'm looking to try to get some response and some urgency to what's going on up here," he said. "And maybe this is kind of a strong statement, but it almost feels like those of us that live in Crow Wing, and Wadena, and Lake of the Woods County are being asked to subsidize the healthcare premiums for the rest of Minnesota, and that just doesn't seem fair.”
