2027 Medicare Shopping and Switching Study - Deft Research
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Medicare Shopping and Switching Study

Available: January 29, 2027

Overview

Understand what drove the AEP and what it means.

For nearly 20 years, the Medicare Shopping and Switching Study has been the industry’s gold standard for senior consumerism during the AEP. Product managers, marketers, distributors, agencies, and consultants await it each year because it traditionally marks the start of next year’s decision-making.

 

*Local Market Add-On – Available for this study!

Our local market oversample studies show how beneficiaries in specific service areas uniquely behave compared to the national data, providing plan managers with deeper insight for nuanced product, marketing, and sales needs. The local market oversample for this study is for the analysis of AEP shopping and switching.

 

What’s New

  • Inter-coverage switching analysis. After several years of historic disruption, why hasn’t there been more MA-to-MedSupp switching, or MedSupp-to-MA?
  • MedSupp switching deep dive. Compares switch rates in birthday-rule and non-birthday-rule states. It also examines the health and utilization profiles of MedSupp switchers in each.
  • Consumer trust analysis. Shows how benefit disruption has affected trust in consumers’ own carriers and in the market overall. It also shows where carriers are succeeding or falling short at building that trust, and what it means for AEP consumerism.
  • A new two-part AEP-OEP analysis. Along with the core AEP report, purchasers now receive an OEP addendum, the 2027 Open Enrollment Period (OEP) Addendum Study: MSS Part 2. It illustrates consumerism across the January to March OEP.

Explore Last Year’s Insights

2026 Medicare Shopping and Switching Study SIP

Insights from the 2026 Report

Record Medicare Advantage Switching Reached New Highs
Nearly three in ten Medicare Advantage (MA) members changed coverage for 2026, pushing the MA switch rate to 29%, a 26% increase from the prior year and the highest level observed to date.

Plan Terminations Fueled Market Disruption
An unprecedented 12% of MA members were terminated from their 2025 plans, placing more than 2.7 million beneficiaries back into the market and making plan terminations the single largest driver of switching activity.

 

Watch a Segment of the 2026 Presentation

5-Minute Take: 2026 Medicare Shopping and Switching Study

To learn how you can access the presentation’s complete video, please visit our Deft on Demand page.

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