Medicare Advantage enrollment growth slows drastically – STAT

The number of people enrolled in a private Medicare Advantage plan grew just 3.1% from 2024 to 2025 — well below projections from the federal government and Wall Street, and one of the slowest years of growth ever in the program.

A little more than 34.4 million older adults and people with disabilities were paying into a Medicare Advantage plan as of Feb. 1 compared with the 33.4 million people in a plan at the same time last year, according to new federal data analyzed by STAT. 

While the data show Medicare Advantage plans gained 1 million people since last February, the gains are much smaller when compared with October, right before Medicare’s annual enrollment window opens for two months and people can shop for policies. The Medicare Advantage program netted just 560,000 people since October. The data do not detail whether the people enrolling are newly eligible for Medicare or switching from traditional Medicare.