By Luisa Loi
La Conner Community News
Thousands of older Skagit County residents face a narrowing set of health insurance choices for 2027 as major insurers abandon Medicare Advantage plans, forcing many to find new coverage — and potentially new doctors.
The number of Medicare Advantage plans that include prescription drug coverage in Skagit County will fall by half, from 20 this year to 10 in 2027, according to health policy research organization KFF.
Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealthcare and Wellcare are among the insurers withdrawing individual plans from Skagit County. Other insurers are pulling plans from elsewhere in Washington, although every county will retain at least one Medicare Advantage option, according to Stephanie Marquis, a spokesperson for the state Office of the Insurance Commissioner.
Unlike traditional Medicare, which is administered by the federal government, Medicare Advantage plans are run by private insurers. Rising medical costs and shrinking profits are driving companies to retreat from the market.
“We sometimes make changes to our offerings to help ensure affordability, maintain quality, and support the long-term sustainability of our programs,” a spokesperson for Kaiser Permanente wrote in an email. “We recognize this news may be disappointing for the Medicare Advantage members in these counties who have entrusted us with their care, and we are committed to supporting them throughout this transition.”
Wellcare did not return a request for comment by press time.
The issue disproportionately affects rural counties, where programs like the Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors are grappling with an unprecedented volume of requests for free assistance.
Celeste Virago, volunteer coordinator at the program serving Skagit and Snohomish counties and Camano Island, said her team has received four times the normal number of calls and emails, forcing them to reluctantly turn scared and confused people away.
“This feels like all the glaciers are melting at once,” she said. “We’ve never seen this… People, especially in Skagit, they reach out and they’re like ‘Can you hire more people?’”
Impacts felt in La Conner area
Bernard Robinson, who lives in Shelter Bay, has to find five new doctors: a general practitioner, a neurologist, a cardiologist, an optometrist and an audiologist, all of which he’s conveniently had in one place under Kaiser.
“Now I don’t know where I’m gonna find that again,” said the 83-year-old, who underwent brain surgery in 2025 to remove a tumor “larger than a golf ball” and is gradually regaining his ability to walk, but cannot drive.
Like others with Medicare Advantage plans, Robinson is on a fixed income, relying on Social Security payments. On top of financial concerns, he worries he won’t be able to find doctors as skilled and caring as his current ones. When he called Kaiser Permanente for help, things only got more confusing.
“They told me, ‘We can’t help you, just call the state.’ And the state’s response is ‘We can’t help you, call your plan administrator.’ Well, that plan administrator is Kaiser,” he said. “We’re caught in that bureaucratic loop. It’s not fun.”
Sue Reilly, a 75-year-old La Conner resident, got emotional as she spoke about no longer being able to see the primary care physician that she and her husband have been seeing for over eight years. While their current physician is intimately familiar with their medical history, including her husband’s stroke, seizures and other neurological challenges, she will now have to go through the stress of finding new doctors and re-explain everything.
As someone who has been with Kaiser her whole life, other options feel “foreign,” but she hopes that whatever plan she chooses will cover her husband’s neurologist and the 11 prescriptions he has to take twice a day, which she estimated can cost over $55,000 a year without coverage.
Once she makes the change, she expects their monthly expenses will rise from $74 to a minimum of $500 to $1,000.
“That takes a big chunk of our money,” she said.
Roberta Gregory, a 73-year-old Shelter Bay resident whose Advantage plan was canceled by UnitedHealth, said she is already struggling to cover life expenses with her fixed income and occasional money from book sales, and was recently hospitalized four times in the span of about six months.
Calvin Ott, 66, of La Conner had already gone through two plans (Kaiser and UnitedHealth) when he had to switch again to an Advantage plan under Devoted Health.
“It is time consuming to have to go through selecting a new plan every year,” he said.
Cate Grinzell and her husband, who live in Shelter Bay, are switching to Original Medicare with a Part D drug plan and a Medigap after Kaiser and UnitedHealth canceled their respective Advantage plans.
Brett Powers, a 69-year-old who lives on Channel Lane, expects he and his wife will be able to navigate the changes and manage any additional costs, but worries for other seniors.
“Some elderly people are by themselves, and could possibly have difficulties understanding what to do and where to turn,” he wrote in an email. “There are free services out there for them, but also scams are so prevalent these days, one has to be so cautious.”
Luisa Loi is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
Shelter Bay resident Bernard Robinson had brain surgery last year. This year, like many seniors in our area, he learned his Medicare Advantage plan was leaving Skagit County and he will have to find new physicians.
