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We went through the CMS plan file for 2027 and matched every Medicare Advantage plan Kaiser Permanente sells to the star ratings CMS published on October 8, 2026. There are 117 of them. Of the 115 that carry a published rating, 4 are rated the full five stars, 100 are rated 4.5 and 11 are rated 4. Not one is rated below four — for the second year running.
Across the market as a whole, 61.2% of rated plans reach four stars. Kaiser’s figure is 100%. Among large insurers only Humana, at 93.6% for 2027, comes close, and that single fact is most of what there is to say in Kaiser’s favor. The rest of this review is about the three reasons that might still not make it the right plan for you.
Kaiser in Numbers
| From the CMS plan file | Kaiser Permanente 2027 | All Medicare Advantage plans 2027 | Kaiser Permanente 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distinct plans on sale | 117 | 5,522 | 126 |
| Counties served | 118 of 3,131 (3.8%) | 3,131 | 123 of 3,147 (3.9%) |
| Rated plans at 4 stars or better | 100% | 61.2% | 100% |
| Mean overall star rating | 4.47 | 3.86 | 4.37 |
| Plans with no monthly premium at all | 52.7% | 69.7% | 53.7% |
| Median in-network out-of-pocket limit | $6,400 | $7,100 | $5,900 |
| Plans capped at the legal maximum ($9,850 in 2027, $9,250 in 2026) | 21.4% | 28.2% | 18.3% |
| Special needs plans | 30 | 1,969 | 31 |
Kaiser holds 6% of Medicare Advantage enrollment in 2026, having added nearly 87,000 members over the year. It is not a small insurer. It is a geographically concentrated one.
Reason One: It Probably Isn’t Sold Where You Live
Kaiser Medicare Advantage is available in nine states and the District of Columbia, and within them in only 118 counties for 2027 — under 4% of the country. The plan counts by state, from the CMS file:
| State | Kaiser plans, 2027 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| California | 48 | 48 |
| Washington | 17 | 20 |
| Colorado | 11 | 14 |
| Maryland | 11 | 11 |
| Georgia | 10 | 10 |
| Virginia | 7 | 7 |
| Hawaii | 6 | 6 |
| District of Columbia | 4 | 4 |
| Oregon | 4 | 4 |
| Nevada | 4 | 7 |
The 2027 column adds up to 122 rather than 117, and the 2026 column to 131 rather than 126, because a few Kaiser plans are sold across state lines — in Oregon and Washington, and across DC, Maryland and Virginia — and so appear in more than one row. Counted once each, the totals are 117 and 126.
If your county is not on that map, everything else here is academic. Many published lists of Kaiser’s service area leave Nevada out; the CMS file has four Kaiser plans there for 2027, down from seven.
Reason Two: It Is Not the Cheap Option
Kaiser’s quality reputation quietly creates an assumption that it is also good value on price. On monthly premium it is not, and for 2027 the gap is wider than it was.
Only 52.7% of Kaiser’s 2027 plans charge nothing beyond Part B, well below the market’s 69.7% and Humana’s 78.5%. Of the 53 Kaiser plans that do charge a premium, the average is $78 a month and the median $61 — on top of the Part B premium, $202.90 a month in 2026, which you pay regardless. Our guide to what a $0 premium really means explains why that number matters less than people think, which cuts both ways here.
Where Kaiser does win on money is the figure that matters in a bad year. Its median in-network out-of-pocket limit is $6,400 against $7,100 market-wide, and only 21.4% of its plans sit at the $9,850 legal ceiling, against 28.2% of plans generally. Its lowest is $999. So the honest framing is that Kaiser charges more per month and exposes you to less when something goes wrong — which is the opposite trade to the one most $0-premium plans offer.
It also wins, by a wide margin, on prescriptions. Of Kaiser’s 82 ordinary plans with drug coverage for 2027, 80 have no drug deductible at all (97.6%), against 10.5% of such plans across the market, where the typical deductible is $650. And 85.4% of them charge $0 for the drug part of the premium, against 71.7% elsewhere. For someone who fills several prescriptions every month, that can be worth several hundred dollars a year — money that a comparison of monthly premiums never shows.
Reason Three: You Are Committing to One System
Kaiser is not an insurer that contracts with independent doctors. It is an integrated organization: the health plan, the medical groups and the hospitals belong to the same system, and the doctors are Kaiser’s own. That is why the ratings look the way they do. When the insurer, the doctor’s office, the laboratory, the pharmacy and the hospital share one record, the things star ratings measure — preventive screening, medication adherence, follow-up after discharge, care coordination — are far easier to get right than when a plan is chasing paperwork from a hundred independent practices.
It is also the cost. Of Kaiser’s 117 plans for 2027, 61 are HMOs, 26 HMO-POS and 30 D-SNPs; it no longer sells a single PPO, where for 2026 it sold three. For routine care you use Kaiser doctors in Kaiser facilities, with emergencies the main exception. If you have a specialist or a hospital outside the system that you are not willing to give up, that is the reason to walk away, and it is not a small one. Our HMO versus PPO guide covers what you are giving up.
There is a subtler version of the same problem. Because Kaiser is a closed system, changing plans later usually means changing doctors as well, not just cards. That makes the decision stickier than an ordinary Medicare Advantage choice, even though the enrollment rules are identical.
The Extras: Rides on Every Plan, Hearing Aids on Few
Extras are where Kaiser differs most from the rest of the market, and not always in the direction its reputation suggests. Every plan files its extra benefits with CMS in the PBP Benefits files; these are Kaiser’s ordinary plans, without the special needs plans, in the 2026 and 2027 filings.
| Share of plans with the benefit | Kaiser 2026 | Kaiser 2027 | Market 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transportation to medical appointments | 32.2% | 100% | 19.0% |
| Over-the-counter allowance | 71.1% | 73.6% | 58.3% |
| Typical OTC amount per year | $140 | $140 | $200 |
| Eyewear | 61.1% | 62.1% | 94.5% |
| Typical eyewear allowance per year | $200 | $250 | $200 |
| Hearing aids | 35.6% | 37.9% | 93.7% |
| Meal benefit | 0% | 0% | 45.0% |
Our own count from the CMS PBP Benefits files. “Typical” is the median among plans that file a dollar amount.
The headline change for 2027 is transportation. A year ago fewer than a third of Kaiser’s ordinary plans paid for rides to medical appointments. For 2027 all 87 do, and in 79 of them the number of trips to plan-approved locations is unlimited. Across the market fewer than one plan in five offers this at all, and the share is falling. For someone who has stopped driving, inside a system where the doctor, the lab and the pharmacy are often in the same building, that is a practical advantage that rarely appears in any comparison.
The gaps run the other way on hearing and vision. Fewer than four in ten Kaiser plans include hearing aids, where nine in ten plans elsewhere do, and about a third have no eyewear allowance. Kaiser offers no meal benefit on any ordinary plan. None of that outweighs the quality record for most people, but if hearing aids or glasses are a regular cost for you, price them in before you decide.
Who It Suits
Kaiser suits someone inside its service area who does not have strong existing ties to doctors outside it, who values coordination and consistency over choice, and who would rather pay a predictable monthly premium than carry a higher ceiling in a bad year. For someone managing several chronic conditions across multiple specialists, the integration is worth more than any benefit card.
It suits badly anyone outside those 118 counties, anyone who travels for months at a time, and anyone whose main criterion is the lowest monthly cost — in most Kaiser counties a rival will beat it on premium, though usually not on rating. Compare them side by side rather than assuming; our state-by-state figures show what else is on offer in each of Kaiser’s markets. Where Humana is the rival, our Humana versus Kaiser comparison sets the two side by side.
The 2027 filings sharpen both lists. Kaiser now suits particularly well someone who takes regular prescriptions, since almost none of its plans have a drug deductible, and someone who no longer drives, since every one of its ordinary plans now pays for rides to medical appointments. It suits less well someone who relies on hearing aids or buys glasses every year, because most of its plans cover neither as an extra, and that cost lands on you. Neither point changes the main trade-off — quality and coordination in exchange for choice — but each can tip a close decision one way or the other, and both are easy to check in a plan’s Summary of Benefits before you enroll.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Kaiser Medicare Advantage available? In California, Washington, Colorado, Maryland, Georgia, Virginia, Hawaii, Oregon, Nevada and the District of Columbia, and within them in 118 counties out of 3,131 nationally for 2027.
Do all Kaiser plans really have four stars or more? Every Kaiser plan with a published 2027 rating does: 4 at the full five stars, 100 at 4.5 and 11 at 4. Two of its 117 plans have no published rating. It was also true of every rated Kaiser plan for 2026.
Is Kaiser cheaper than other Medicare Advantage plans? On monthly premium, usually not: 52.7% of its 2027 plans charge nothing beyond Part B against 69.7% market-wide, and those that charge average $78 a month. On out-of-pocket exposure it is better than average, with a median limit of $6,400 against $7,100.
Can I see a doctor outside Kaiser? Not for routine care. Kaiser’s 2027 plans are all HMOs or HMO-POS plans — it sells no PPO — so care outside the system is generally not covered except in an emergency.
Why does Kaiser score so much better than everyone else? Because it owns the whole chain. The measures star ratings are built from depend on screening, follow-up and coordination, and those are structurally easier when the plan, the doctors, the pharmacy and the hospital are one organization sharing one record.
Do Kaiser plans have a drug deductible? Almost never. 80 of Kaiser’s 82 ordinary plans with drug coverage for 2027 have no drug deductible at all, against about one plan in ten across the market, and 85.4% charge $0 for the drug part of the premium.
Do Kaiser plans cover hearing aids? Most do not. Only 37.9% of its ordinary plans for 2027 include hearing aids as an extra benefit, against 93.7% across the market. If you already wear them or expect to, check this before anything else.
Bottom Line
Kaiser Permanente has the best quality record in Medicare Advantage and one of the narrowest footprints. Every rated plan it sells is four stars or better for the second year running, its out-of-pocket limits are lower than the market’s, and its model is genuinely different rather than differently marketed.
What you pay for it is choice: a noticeably higher chance of a monthly premium, and a hard commitment to one system’s doctors. If you live in its 118 counties and that trade sounds acceptable, it is one of the strongest options in American Medicare. If you would resent it, the rating will not make up for it.
Check which Kaiser plans are sold at your address on the official Medicare Plan Finder, or ask your State Health Insurance Assistance Program, which is free and independent.
How We Counted Kaiser’s Plans
One thing worth stating plainly, because it is the denominator behind every percentage on this page. Kaiser sells 117 Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, but five of them carry no premium figures in the CMS file and two carry no star rating. So the premium percentages are worked out over the 112 plans that have a premium figure — 59 of 112 charge nothing beyond Part B, which is the 52.7% — and every rated plan being four stars or better means 115 of 115. For 2026 the same applied to 121 of 126 plans.
The plan figures here are our own count of the CY2027 and CY2026 Landscape files published by CMS in September 2026. The 2027 star figures come from matching each plan’s contract to its overall rating in the 2027 Star Ratings data tables published on October 8, 2026; the 2026 star figures use the ratings carried in the 2026 file. The full method — which plan categories we keep, and how we reduce a county-by-county file to one entry per distinct plan — is set out on our editorial methodology page.
For Kaiser specifically, that leaves 117 distinct plans out of the 5,522 on sale nationally for 2027, and 126 out of 5,553 for 2026. Percentages are shares of plans, not of enrollment. “No monthly premium” means the combined Part C and Part D premium is zero; the Part B premium is payable on every plan regardless.
Sources
- CY2027 and CY2026 Medicare Advantage and Part D Landscape files — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, September 2026 versions. Source for the plan counts, the state and county coverage, the 2026 star distribution, the premium shares and averages, the out-of-pocket limits including the $9,850 ceiling for 2027, and the plan-type mix. All calculations from them are our own, by the method above.
- 2027 Star Ratings Data Tables — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, published October 8, 2026. Source for the 2027 star distribution, matched contract by contract.
- Medicare Advantage in 2026: Enrollment Update and Key Trends — KFF. Source for Kaiser’s 6% share of Medicare Advantage enrollment and its increase of nearly 87,000 members over the year.
- Medicare Advantage in 2026: Premiums, Out-of-Pocket Limits, Supplemental Benefits, and Prior Authorization — KFF. Source for the $9,250 statutory maximum in-network out-of-pocket limit for 2026.
- 2026 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Source for the $202.90 standard Part B premium in 2026. The 2027 figure has not yet been announced.
- PBP Benefits – 2027 and PBP Benefits – 2026 — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The benefit filings each plan submits. Source for the extra-benefit table and the transportation figures (our own count of Kaiser’s ordinary plans, 87 for 2027 and 90 for 2026, and of all ordinary plans).
All figures on this page were checked against the sources above on October 12, 2026; the drug-coverage figures and the extra-benefit table were added on October 17, 2026 from the CMS Landscape and PBP Benefits files. Plan availability changes; confirm current details on Medicare.gov before enrolling.
Disclaimer: Star ratings, costs and plan figures reflect 2027 and 2026 data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and vary by state, county and plan. Always confirm current details directly with Medicare.gov, 1-800-MEDICARE, or a licensed agent before making a decision.
Unai Sampedro founded and edits Medicare Plan Compass. He is not a licensed insurance agent or broker and takes no commission from any insurer; the site is funded by advertising. Articles are written from CMS and Medicare.gov documents and reviewed each year when new figures are published. Nothing here is personalized advice: the goal is to explain the rules in plain language so readers can ask better questions before they speak to someone who can advise them.