Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas is pulling its individual Medicare plans off the market at the end of 2026. The insurer’s statement, as reported by Fox 7 Austin, names its Medicare Advantage, Dual Care Plus special needs and MedicareRx drug plans. Medicare’s Open Enrollment, which Medicare.gov lists as running through December 7, is the window for choosing replacements.
Three Blue Cross plan families leave Texas
BCBSTX says it will no longer offer “individual or standard Blue Cross Medicare Advantage Plans” for 2027. Fox 7 lists three product lines ending: Blue Cross MedicareRx Prescription Drug Plans, Blue Cross Medicare Advantage Plans, and Blue Cross Medicare Advantage Dual Care Plus HMO Special Needs Plans. A member can match the name on a plan card against that list.
Affected customers were notified by mail before October 2, Fox 7 reports. The insurer issued its first public statement on October 21 and a second on October 22 to clarify what is staying. Coverage under the ending plans stops December 31, and anything chosen during Open Enrollment takes effect January 1, 2027.
The second statement matters for retirees whose coverage comes through a former employer. BCBSTX said it “will continue to offer Medicare Advantage plans to employers, municipalities, and unions.” The exit covers individual enrollment only, so a retiree in a group plan administered through a company, a city or a union is not part of this notice.
Members of the stand-alone MedicareRx plans are on the list too, even though those plans carry no medical coverage. A person on Original Medicare with a Blue Cross drug plan has to find a new drug plan just as a Medicare Advantage member has to find a new medical plan.
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A statewide exit, not a county trim
LiveInsuranceNews reports that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas covered 228 of the state’s 254 counties for 2026 and will offer no Medicare Advantage plan anywhere in Texas for 2027. Because the exit is statewide, moving to another county does not preserve the plan. The report says enrollees can check 2027 availability by county on Medicare.gov’s Plan Finder or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE.
Texas has about 4.9 million Medicare beneficiaries, and about 55 percent of them, roughly 2.7 million, are in Medicare Advantage, according to the same report. BCBSTX has not published a count of how many of those members hold its plans. The statements so far give plan names and dates but no enrollment figure.
Other Texas carriers are cutting back too. The report says CHRISTUS Health Plan is leaving 36 counties in North and East Texas and Memorial Hermann Health Plan is leaving six Houston-area counties. In those counties a displaced Blue Cross member will find fewer carriers to choose from.
BCBSTX’s statement, carried by HPPR, says the company reviews its Medicare products every year, market by market, to decide whether they remain viable, and that it remains committed to the Medicare market. Jeannie Fuglesten Biniek, a researcher at KFF, said the Medicare Advantage market has seen somewhat more disruption over the past two years than before. Vivian Ho of Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine said that for insurers, “it’s less profit for them, so they’re less excited about being in this market.”
December 7 is firm, and the special election period has no dates yet
Medicare.gov says Open Enrollment runs to December 7 and invites shoppers to compare 2027 health and drug plans on the site. For a member whose plan ends December 31, that is the date by which a new Medicare Advantage or drug plan has to be selected to start on January 1.
BCBSTX says affected members will also get a special election period to choose another plan, according to both Fox 7 and HPPR. Neither report gives the dates of that period or how it will be announced. Until the insurer publishes them, December 7 is the only deadline confirmed in writing.
The consequence of waiting is practical. A plan chosen on December 7 starts on the same January 1 as one chosen in October, but the shopper has less time to check each plan’s doctors, hospitals and drug list before the window closes.
A Medigap right that outlasts Open Enrollment
Members who would rather return to Original Medicare have a second, longer clock. LiveInsuranceNews reports that the Medigap guaranteed-issue window opens when the nonrenewal letter arrives and runs 63 days past December 31, through March 4, 2027. Inside it, insurers cannot deny a Medigap policy, charge more because of health history, or add a preexisting-condition waiting period.
The report advises keeping the nonrenewal letter as proof of eligibility. A member who has misplaced it has a reason to ask BCBSTX for a replacement now, since the letter is what starts the window.
Help is available in person. HPPR points to the healthcare navigators at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and to the “Find Local Help” tool on Healthcare.gov, which lists assister organizations by ZIP code. Fox 7 adds that Medicare and licensed insurance agents can walk through the options.
Blue Cross is part of a wider pullback. LiveInsuranceNews cites Johns Hopkins researchers who estimate that as many as 2.9 million enrollees faced forced disenrollment for 2026, and a JAMA analysis that found almost 3 million older Americans dropped after insurers left their counties. About 30,000 of them were left with no Medicare Advantage option at all.
The decision facing a displaced Texas member comes down to two dates and one question. Open Enrollment closes December 7, the Medigap right runs to March 4, and the question is whether the next plan keeps the same doctors and the same prescriptions covered.
Holding a Blue Cross Medicare card with a December 31 end date?
A Blue Cross Medicare plan that stops on December 31 leaves a Texas member picking among whatever carriers remain in the county before Open Enrollment closes December 7. Doctors, hospitals and prescriptions that were covered this year may not be covered the same way next year.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, a prescription-by-plan comparison and a provider call script. It also covers Medigap guaranteed-issue rights when a Medicare Advantage plan leaves, with a call script, which fits the March 4, 2027 window.
Get the plan cost calculator and Medigap call script for a Blue Cross plan ending December 31 →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
