BELLINGHAM, Wash. When patients in Whatcom and Skagit counties re-enroll in Medicare Advantage plans this fall, they will have fewer options for 2027 than they did in 2026, Cascadia Daily News reported.
Kaiser Permanente and Wellcare are pulling their individual Medicare Advantage plans from Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties for 2027. A Kaiser Permanente spokesperson declined to specify why the insurer is leaving or how many people are expected to be affected, and Wellcare did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Both insurers will still offer group or dual-eligible special needs programs, though those are quite limited.
The retractions land during annual enrollment, which runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7. Whatcom County has 25,211 Medicare Advantage enrollees this year and Skagit County has 15,929, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In 2026, 50 percent of Medicare beneficiaries in Whatcom County and 47 percent in Skagit County are enrolled in Advantage plans, per CMS data analyzed by KFF.
Enrollees in the two counties will be mostly limited to Humana and UnitedHealthcare, the two largest Advantage providers nationwide, with some Devoted Health plans also available in Skagit County. According to KFF, Whatcom County drops from 14 Advantage plans with prescription drug coverage in 2026 to just four in 2027, while Skagit County falls from 20 to 10. The exits follow Premera's departure, which left nearly 32,000 Washingtonians without their Advantage provider in 2025.
In a related shift, Bellingham-based Family Care Network will begin accepting patients with commercial insurance through UnitedHealthcare on Nov. 1, reversing its 2023 decision to end that contract. That earlier decision, which took effect Jan. 1, 2024, affected an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 patients. The move comes as FCN acquires a Bellingham clinic formerly owned and run by Optum, which is owned by UnitedHealth Group.
Even so, FCN will stop contracting with UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans beginning in 2027. "Unfortunately, the plans they are offering on the individual market changed drastically, and we were unable to secure an alternate option for our patients for 2027," FCN spokesperson Michele Anderson said in a written statement to CDN. In 2027, FCN will accept four Advantage plans: Fenyx Health MSA and Kaiser Permanente as group plans only, and Molina and Wellcare for dual-eligible members only, alongside original Medicare.