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This article is for general educational purposes only and is not insurance or medical advice. We are not affiliated with the U.S. government, Medicare, Humana or any Blue Cross Blue Shield company. For official information, visit Medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE. See our Medical & Financial Disclaimer for details.
This comparison has a problem built into it, and it is worth naming before the numbers. Humana is one company with one set of decisions behind it. Blue Cross Blue Shield is not a single company: it is a brand licensed to independent businesses. We counted 509 Blue-branded Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, and they belong to 19 separate parent organizations.
So a sentence like “Humana is better than Blue Cross” cannot be true or false, because the second half does not refer to anything you can buy. What we can do is show you what each side looks like in aggregate on the 2027 plans and the star ratings CMS published on October 8, 2026, explain what that does and does not tell you, and then give you the question that actually decides it in your county.
Side by Side
| From the CMS plan files, share of plans | Humana 2026 | Humana 2027 | Blue-branded 2026 | Blue-branded 2027 | All plans 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Distinct plans on sale | 887 | 861 | 565 | 509 | 5,522 |
| Owned by | One company | One company | 19 companies | 19 companies | — |
| Plans with no monthly premium at all | 66.5% | 78.5% | 49.4% | 54.3% | 69.7% |
| Median in-network out-of-pocket limit | $6,500 | $6,750 | $6,500 | $6,750 | $7,100 |
| Plans at the legal maximum ($9,250 in 2026, $9,850 in 2027) | 25.5% | 26.9% | 20.2% | 22.0% | 28.2% |
| Rated plans at 4 stars or better | 35.5% | 93.6% | 52.0% | 47.5% | 61.2% |
| Mean overall star rating, 2027 | — | 4.16 | — | 3.77 | 3.86 |
| Special needs plans, 2027 | — | 240 | — | 119 | 1,969 |
Every figure in this table is a share of plans, each plan counted once, not a share of members. Each year’s star figure uses that year’s ratings.
For 2026 this table split the difference: Humana was cheaper, the Blue plans were better rated. For 2027 Humana is ahead on both. More than three quarters of its plans are free against just over half of the Blue ones, and 93.6% of its rated plans reach four stars against 47.5%. The Blue plans keep one advantage — fewer of them sit at the legal out-of-pocket ceiling — and their median limits are identical.
But the Blue column is an average of unrelated companies, and that matters more than any single row. Averaging nineteen businesses produces a result that describes none of them; some Blue licensees have every plan at four stars, others have none.
Who the Blue Plans Actually Belong To
Anthem and Highmark plans are included because both companies hold Blue Cross Blue Shield licenses and sell under the Blue name in their states. These are the ten largest of the nineteen owners, by the number of Blue-branded plans each sells for 2027:
| Parent organization | Blue-branded plans, 2027 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Elevance Health (Anthem) | 221 | 212 |
| Highmark Health | 108 | 113 |
| Capital Blue Cross | 35 | 30 |
| Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan | 24 | 27 |
| Blue Shield of California | 20 | 15 |
| Independence Health Group | 17 | 17 |
| Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina | 14 | 15 |
| Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana | 12 | 15 |
| Blue Cross of Idaho | 8 | 8 |
| Health Care Service Corporation | 5 | 59 |
These do not share a network, a formulary, a service center or a star rating. CMS rates contracts, and each licensee holds its own. A good experience with a Blue plan in Michigan carries no information at all about the Blue plan sold in Louisiana, and a bad one carries none either. And the list itself moves: Health Care Service Corporation, which sold 59 Blue plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas for 2026, sells five for 2027.
Humana, whatever else is true of it, is one organization making one set of choices across 861 plans. That is why its numbers cluster — a year ago a genuinely low 35.5% at four stars, for 2027 a genuinely high 93.6%, and both years more free plans than the market. The consistency is informative either way.
What Is Happening at Humana This Year
Two things a shopper should know, and neither has a Blue equivalent because there is no single Blue company for them to happen to.
Humana grew from 17% to 20% of Medicare Advantage enrollment, with 7 million members. Its ratings swung hard in both directions, and here it helps to keep two different measures apart. Counted by plans, our figure in the table above, 35.5% of Humana’s rated plans reached four stars for 2026 and 93.6% do for 2027. Counted by members, the measure the trade press uses, the share of Humana members in four-star-or-better plans fell from 25% to 20% for 2026 and rebounded to about 93% for 2027. The two measures differ because large plans hold more members than small ones, but they point the same way. Separately, eight hospital systems stopped accepting its plans for 2026, including Mayo Clinic, UNC Health and St. Luke’s Health System.
If you are weighing a Humana plan, those are checkable facts about the company you would be joining. If you are weighing a Blue plan, the equivalent facts exist only at the level of your own licensee, and you will have to look them up for that specific contract.
How to Actually Decide
Find out which company sells the Blue plan in your county — the plan documents name it — and then stop comparing brands entirely. From that point it is a comparison between two specific plans, and four things settle it.
Are your doctors in each plan’s network, confirmed by telephone rather than by directory. Are your prescriptions on each formulary, and at what tier. What is each plan’s own out-of-pocket maximum, held against the $7,100 market median for 2027. And what is each contract’s own 2027 star rating, which the Medicare Plan Finder shows next to the plan.
If you want the fuller picture on either side first, we have separate pieces on Humana and on why there is no such company as Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Blue Cross better than Humana? The question has no answer, because Blue Cross is a brand shared by nineteen separate companies with separate networks and ratings. Humana is one company, so it can be compared as one.
Which is cheaper? Humana, on monthly premium: 78.5% of its 2027 plans charge nothing beyond Part B against 54.3% of the Blue-branded plans.
Which has better ratings? For 2027, Humana: 93.6% of its rated plans reach four stars against 47.5% of the Blue plans taken together. For 2026 it was the other way around. The Blue figure is an average across unrelated companies rather than a rating you can buy.
Is Anthem a Blue Cross plan? Yes. Anthem plans are Blue-branded and owned by Elevance Health, the largest single owner in the group with 221 plans for 2027.
Which protects me better in a bad year? Their median out-of-pocket limits are identical at $6,750. The Blue plans put fewer of their plans at the $9,850 legal ceiling, 22.0% against 26.9%. Check the specific plan rather than relying on either figure.
Bottom Line
For 2027 Humana is cheaper, better rated and knowable: one company, 861 plans, a consistent set of choices you can read off the data. The Blue plans are slightly more protective at the ceiling on average, but that average belongs to nineteen businesses and describes none of them.
So the real comparison is never Humana against Blue Cross. It is a named Humana plan in your county against a named plan from whichever Blue licensee operates there, judged on networks, formularies, cost caps and contract ratings. Everything above is context for that, not a substitute for it.
What We Counted for This Comparison
Nothing in either column came from a press release. We counted it in the CY2027 Landscape file that CMS published in September 2026: 861 distinct plans under Humana, and 509 whose organization marketing name in the CMS file contains Blue Cross, Blue Shield, BCBS, Anthem, Wellpoint or Highmark (565 by the same test for 2026), from the 5,522 on sale nationally. 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, and cover the 842 Humana and 488 Blue-branded plans that carry one; the 2026 row uses the CY2026 file.
That Blue-branded definition is ours, and it is a judgment rather than a fact: it follows the name a shopper actually sees on the plan, not any formal licensing list, which is the honest way to count something that is a badge rather than a business. Everything else — what we keep, what we exclude, and why a share of plans is not a share of members — follows the standard method set out on our Editorial Methodology page.
Update history
- October 17, 2026 — Published, with figures counted on October 12, 2026, from the 2027 plan file and the 2027 star ratings.
- October 18, 2026 — Added the 2026 figures to the comparison table so the year-over-year statements can be checked, labeled every percentage as a share of plans or a share of members, explained why Anthem and Highmark count as Blue plans, and noted that the owners table shows the ten largest of nineteen. No 2027 figure changed.
Sources
- CY2027 and CY2026 Medicare Advantage and Part D Landscape files — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, September 2026 versions. Source for both comparison tables other than the 2027 star ratings, including the plan counts, the parent organizations, the premium shares, the out-of-pocket limits and the $9,850 ceiling for 2027. All calculations and the definition of “Blue-branded” are our own, by the method above.
- 2027 Star Ratings Data Tables — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, published October 8, 2026. Source for every 2027 plan-level star figure, matched contract by contract.
- Humana rebounds, Aetna slips: Winners and losers in the 2027 MA star ratings — Fierce Healthcare, October 9, 2026. Source for the share of Humana members in four-star-or-better plans for 2027.
- Medicare Advantage in 2026: Enrollment Update and Key Trends — KFF. Source for Humana’s rise from 17% to 20% of enrollment and its 7 million members.
- Humana’s Medicare Advantage star ratings lawsuit dismissed again — Healthcare Dive. Source for the fall from 25% to 20% of Humana members in four-star-or-better plans for 2026.
- Health systems dropping Medicare Advantage plans in 2026 — Becker’s Hospital Review. Source for the eight systems that stopped accepting Humana Medicare Advantage, read on September 23, 2026. Becker’s adds to this list through the year.
The plan and rating figures on this page were counted from the CMS files on October 12, 2026, before the article was published on October 17, and rechecked on October 18, 2026. The Becker’s list was read on September 23, 2026. Plan availability and network status change; confirm current details on Medicare.gov before enrolling.
Disclaimer: 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.