CMS: Medicare enrollment broke 66M in June; Medicare Advantage reached 48.6% of total

Every month for years now, the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) has published a monthly press release with a breakout of total Medicare, Medicaid & CHIP enrollment; the most recent one was posted in late February, and ran through November 2022.

Since December 2022, however, they haven't sent out the normal press release; instead, they included a brief note leading to a Medicaid/CHIP data slideshow , along with another note leading to their new Medicare Monthly Enrollment database.

In any event, according to the spreadsheet I exported, as of June 2023:

• Total Medicare beneficiaries reached 66,064,094...up 109,000 from May.
  • Original Medicare beneficiaries stood at 33,933,044...down 12,500 from May.
  • Medicare Advantage beneficiaries reached 32,131,050...up 121,600 from May.
  • Enrollees 65+ reached 58,429,522 (up 132,200)
  • Enrollees under 65 (for various disabilities): 7,634,572  (down 23,000)

The most significant takeaway here is that traditional Medicare enrollment once again dropped while Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment increased...putting Medicare Advantage enrollment at 48.6% of the total.

Over the past 5 years, Medicare Advantage enrollment has increased from 35.5% of all Medicare enrollment to 48.6% as of June, and is clearly set to take over as the default path very soon...likely sometime this year. Obviously whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your perspective, but unless there are significant policy changes to one or both, it's pretty much inevitable.