Newsroom · Western Colorado

Colorado Counties With No Medicare Advantage Plans for 2027

Twelve Colorado counties have no general Medicare Advantage plan on the CMS 2027 shelf, up from eight, and two of the five new ones are on the Western Slope: Eagle County loses its last two plans, and Garfield County goes a second year without any. Here is the full list, what the shelf looks like without a plan, and the calendar from the October 2 letter.

Medicare On Main Data Desk

Published October 4, 2026 · 10 min read · Reviewed by Brian Penner

If you live in Garfield, Eagle or Moffat County and you have been told "there are no Medicare Advantage plans here," that is true for most people, and it is less of a problem than it sounds. As of June 2026, 9,480 of Garfield County's 10,983 people with Medicare were already in Original Medicare, and 7,061 had a stand-alone drug plan. That is the shelf. This article lists every Colorado county with no general plan for 2027, shows the Western Slope county by county, walks an Eagle County member through the October 2 letter, and explains what Original Medicare plus Medigap plus Part D actually costs and covers, so the choice is made on numbers rather than on the word "no."

The 12 counties, and the five that are new

The CMS 2027 landscape file, compared against the 2026 file by Contract Plan ID, shows these counties with zero general Medicare Advantage plans with drug coverage. "General" means a plan anyone with Medicare can join; Special Needs Plans for people with Medicaid or a qualifying condition are counted separately and exist in several of these counties.

Source: CMS CY2027 Medicare Advantage / Part D Landscape, general MA-PD rows (Special Needs Plan indicator "No"), compared against the CY2026 file on October 4, 2026. Plan names and counts are reproduced from the public file for information; nothing here is a recommendation of, or a judgment about, any company. Medicare On Main does not offer every plan available in your area.

Five counties are new to the list for 2027: Alamosa, Eagle, Phillips, Rio Grande, Yuma. One, Kiowa, came off it. Three of the twelve are on the Western Slope, and the pattern across the state is the same one you can see in Mesa County and Montrose and Delta: fewer plans almost everywhere, from 800 plan-county offerings statewide to 553, and the thinnest counties going to zero. The number of counties with at least one general plan went from 56 to 52.

The Western Slope, county by county

Source: CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files, general MA-PD rows. Caps are in-network maximum out-of-pocket amounts. 2027 Star Ratings are blank in the file until CMS publishes them this month.

Read the table as three tiers. Garfield, Eagle and Moffat have nothing for a person with Medicare alone. Rio Blanco, Routt, Pitkin, Summit and Gunnison have one or two carriers, which means a plan exists but the comparison is thin: in Rio Blanco both plans are Humana PPOs, in Routt the single plan carries a $9,850 cap, and in Pitkin all five plans are Devoted Health. Mesa, Delta, Grand and Montrose still have a real shelf, even after this year's cuts. A Glenwood Springs reader who looks at Mesa County's ten plans and eight $0 premiums should know that none of them is available at a Garfield County address. Per Medicare.gov, you must "live in the service area of the plan you want to join," and service areas are drawn by county.

Garfield County: a second year without a plan

Garfield County's situation did not start this fall. In October 2025, Rocky Mountain Health Plans, a UnitedHealthcare subsidiary based in Grand Junction, told its members it would no longer offer Medicare Advantage plans in Garfield and other western Colorado counties for 2026, and it had been the only carrier selling general plans there. The Colorado State Health Insurance Assistance Program estimated about 1,200 members were affected, and Glenwood Springs's High Country Volunteers reported a one-to-two-week backlog for counseling appointments (The Sopris Sun). The 2027 file simply confirms that nobody came in behind them: the only two Garfield County rows are UnitedHealthcare Dual Complete Special Needs Plans at $18.40 a month, for people who have both Medicare and Colorado Medicaid.

The enrollment data shows how the county adjusted. In June 2026, 10,983 Garfield County residents had Medicare; 9,480 were in Original Medicare and 1,503 were in "Medicare Advantage and other" plans, a category that includes the D-SNPs and other non-standard coverage, about 14%. In Mesa County the same share is 41% (17,134 of 41,709). 7,061 Garfield residents had a stand-alone drug plan. The county's two hospitals, Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs and Grand River Hospital District in Rifle, both accept Original Medicare, which is the point: with no network to check, the question in Garfield County is purely a cost question.

Eagle County: what the October 2 letter means

Eagle County had two general plans in 2026, and both are gone:

UnitedHealthcare's own provider FAQ for its 2027 service-area reductions is unusually plain about what happens next, so I will quote it. Notices are "dated Oct. 2, 2026." Members who want another plan may enroll October 15 through December 31 for a January 1 start, but in Eagle County there is no other general plan to enroll in. And: "If they do not enroll, they will automatically return to Original Medicare on Jan. 1, 2027." The line that matters most for a PPO member with drug coverage: "If an affected member's discontinued plan included prescription drug coverage, they'll also lose Part D benefits in 2027. Whether the member resumes Part D benefits in 2027 is dependent on the health plan coverage the member elects" (UnitedHealthcare, PDF). In other words, doing nothing leaves you on Original Medicare with no drug plan on January 1, which is the one outcome to avoid. In June 2026, 1,402 of Eagle County's 8,094 Medicare beneficiaries were in Medicare Advantage or other plans, about 17%; the other 6,692 were already where the rest of the county is going.

The letter also decides your Medigap rights. Federal rules require it to be mailed at least 90 days before the plan ends (42 CFR § 422.506), and a plan that "stops serving your area" is one of the situations that gives you a guaranteed-issue right to Medigap (Medicare.gov). How to confirm your letter is a non-renewal and not a benefit change.

What the shelf looks like with no Medicare Advantage plan

Three pieces, each optional except the first.

1. Original Medicare (Parts A and B). Federal, every county, every doctor and hospital that accepts Medicare, no network, no referrals, no prior authorization from a plan. In 2026 the standard Part B premium is $202.90 a month and the Part B deductible is $283 (CMS); the 2027 figures come in November. After the deductible you owe 20% of the Medicare-approved amount, and, in Medicare.gov's words, there is "no yearly limit on what you pay out-of-pocket, unless you have supplemental coverage" (Medicare.gov).
2. A stand-alone Part D drug plan. Colorado has 8 for 2027, down from ten, with premiums from $5.30 to $260.20 a month. The 2027 standard deductible is up to $700, and the yearly cap on what you pay for covered drugs is $2,400 (Medicare.gov). Price your actual prescriptions, not the premium; the plan at $5.30 and the plan at $260.20 can cost the same person very different amounts over a year. What is changing in Part D for 2027. Skipping drug coverage for more than 63 days adds a permanent late-enrollment penalty, so this piece is optional only on paper.
3. A Medigap policy, if you want a cap. This is the piece that replaces the "maximum out-of-pocket" a Medicare Advantage plan had. Plan G pays everything Original Medicare does not except the Part B deductible; Plan N trades a lower premium for small office and ER copays. The premium is the trade. If your plan was discontinued, you can buy Plan A, B, D, G, K or L with no health questions from 60 days before your coverage ends to 63 days after it, which for a December 31 end date is November 1 through March 4 (Medicare.gov). Plan N is not on that list, and Colorado has no birthday rule to re-open the door later. Colorado's Medigap guaranteed-issue rules after a plan ends.

For someone in Garfield County who has been on Original Medicare for a year already, none of this is new, and the guaranteed-issue window from the 2026 exit closed on February 28. For an Eagle County member reading an October 2 letter, the window is open and the choice is live.

Sources: CMS landscape files · CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment (Garfield County, June 2026: 10,983 with Medicare, 9,480 in Original Medicare; Eagle County: 8,094 and 6,692).

Pricing the Medigap decision honestly

The argument for a Medicare Advantage plan was always the $0 premium against a cap. With no plan on the shelf, the comparison in Garfield, Eagle and Moffat counties is between two versions of Original Medicare: with a Medigap policy, and without one. Without one, your worst year is open-ended: 20% of a hospital stay, an outpatient surgery, a round of infusions, with nothing stopping the meter. With one, your worst year is roughly the Medigap premium times twelve plus the Part B deductible. The CDC's county health data suggests why that matters here: in Garfield County, 25.3% of adults have high blood pressure and 8.1% have diabetes; in Eagle County, 23.0% and 7.5% (CDC PLACES, 2023). Those are the conditions that produce the specialist visits and procedures where 20% adds up. For a healthy 66-year-old the premium can feel like money for nothing. For a 74-year-old with a cardiologist, it is the cap that came with a $0 premium, bought outright. Plan G versus Plan N, priced the same way.

The calendar from here

Two things about that calendar. First, the Special Enrollment Period a discontinued plan gives you (42 CFR § 422.62) lets you join another Medicare Advantage plan through February 28; in a county with none, it is a door into an empty room, unless you move. Second, the Medigap window runs later than the Part D deadline, so the order is drug plan first, by December 7, then Medigap, before March 4, and a January 1 start for the Medigap policy requires applying in November or December.

What I would do this week

1. Find the letter and confirm what it is. A non-renewal notice dated October 2 means your plan ends December 31 and your Medigap right is live. An Annual Notice of Change means your plan continues with different benefits, and none of the windows above apply.
2. Write down every prescription and your pharmacy. Then price them under Colorado's 8 drug plans on Medicare Plan Compare or with an agent. The lowest premium is rarely the lowest yearly cost.
3. Decide on the cap. Ask one question: if I had a bad year, could I pay 20% of it? If the answer is no, price Plan G and Plan N now, and apply in November so the policy starts January 1.
4. Do not shop plans in another county. Service areas are by county. If a relative in Grand Junction has a $0 plan, that is their shelf, not yours, and an agent who tries to enroll a Glenwood Springs address in a Mesa County plan is making a mistake you will pay for.
5. Ignore the phone calls. A county losing its plans is a magnet for marketing. No legitimate agent needs your Medicare number to "check your options," and nobody can enroll you in anything for 2027 before October 15. Medicare does not call you at home.

How we know all this: the Medicare On Main Data Desk frames every article with public data — here, the CMS CY2026 and CY2027 landscape files compared by Contract Plan ID on October 4, 2026, UnitedHealthcare's published provider FAQ on its 2027 service-area reductions, The Sopris Sun's November 2025 reporting on Garfield County, CMS's county enrollment data, CMS's hospital directory, CDC PLACES, and the Medicare.gov pages and federal rules on service areas, Original Medicare costs, Part D, non-renewal notices, enrollment periods and Medigap guaranteed-issue rights. County counts use the same general MA-PD definition as every 2027 county post on this site. 2027 Star Ratings and 2027 Part B figures are not yet published and none are stated. Medicare On Main is a licensed independent insurance agency. We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to the plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options. Not connected with or endorsed by the U.S. government or the federal Medicare program. Mentioning a carrier is not an endorsement or a criticism; plan availability is a fact of the market. This is education, not advice; confirm your plan, costs and eligibility with a licensed agent or Medicare.gov.