119 Plans. One Big Problem: Which Ones Will Actually Be Open to You When You Turn 65 in Broward County?

If you turn 65 in 2026 and live in Broward County, Florida, you are about to make one of the most consequential financial decisions of your life during your Initial Enrollment Period (IEP). You have a seven-month window. The market has 119 plans. Some of them rated 4.5 stars. Some of them rated nothing at all. And at least one carrier has already signaled — through actions elsewhere in South Florida — that the 2027 plan year is not going to look like 2026.

I pulled the CMS Medicare Plan Finder data for Broward County. Here's what the spreadsheet actually says, stripped of the marketing language.

How Many Medicare Advantage Plans Are Available to Newly Eligible Seniors in Broward County Right Now?

CMS Medicare Plan Finder shows 119 total Medicare Advantage plans available in Broward County, FL as of April 2026. Of those, the plan types visible in the active market include HMO, HMO-POS, PPO, Regional PPO, HMO C-SNP (Chronic Condition Special Needs Plans), and HMO D-SNP (Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans).

Here's the catch for newly eligible 65-year-olds who don't qualify as dual-eligible or have a qualifying chronic condition: the D-SNP and C-SNP plans are not open to you. They are restricted enrollment plans. That immediately narrows the field. And among the plans that remain open, the quality gap is significant.

Which Carriers Are Operating in Broward County — and What Are Their Star Ratings?

Three carrier families dominate the Broward Medicare Advantage landscape in the current plan year data. Let me give you the unvarnished version:

The star-rating gap between Aetna (4.5 across the board) and UnitedHealth (3.5 for both Regional PPO offerings) is not a rounding error. That's a full star of separation. In CMS quality scoring, one star can mean the difference between a plan that proactively manages your chronic conditions and one that... technically covers them.

What Does the "No Star Rating" Flag on AmeriHealth Caritas Mean for New Enrollees?

AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care (H6378_001, operated by Independence Health Group) lists "Not Enough Data Available" for its star rating in Broward County. This plan is a D-SNP — so it's restricted to dual-eligible seniors — but it's worth flagging because it's a new market entrant (Independence Health Group is a Philadelphia-based insurer expanding into South Florida), and its quality record in this market is, by CMS's own accounting, unknown.

For context: CMS withholds star ratings when a plan doesn't have enough enrollees or years of data to calculate a meaningful score. That doesn't mean the plan is bad. It means you are being asked to trust a brand-new product with no performance record in this county. (I've seen that movie. It doesn't always end well.)

Why Is the $62/Month UnitedHealth Plan a Warning Sign for New Enrollees?

Two AARP-branded plans from UnitedHealth Group are available in Broward County right now. Let me put them side by side so you can see what you'd be paying for:

R0759_001 — AARP Medicare Advantage from UHC FL-0031 — is a Regional PPO with Part D drug coverage and a $62.00 monthly premium. It carries a 3.5-star rating.

R0759_002 — AARP Medicare Advantage Patriot No Rx FL-MA01 — is also a Regional PPO, also 3.5 stars, but has no Part D coverage and lists "Not Applicable" for premium (meaning it may offer a Part B giveback or be premium-free without drug coverage).

Here is the part that matters for a newly eligible 65-year-old: if you need prescription drug coverage — and as we reported in our Broward carrier exit story, the drug formulary is where carriers hide the real costs — choosing the "Patriot No Rx" plan means you either pay for a standalone Part D plan separately or go without. For someone turning 65 with hypertension (and remember: 32.1% of Broward County adults have it), "no Rx" is not an abstract concern. That's medication for blood pressure, statins, diabetes drugs.

What Does Broward County's Health Profile Mean for Which Plans Newly Eligible Seniors Should Actually Need?

The CDC PLACES 2023 data for Broward County (population: 1,962,531) tells a specific story about the health needs of people aging into Medicare here. 32.1% of Broward County adults have high blood pressure (confidence interval: 28.7%–35.6%). Of those adults, only 60% are taking medication to control it (confidence interval: 55.9%–64.3%).

Do the math: roughly 40% of hypertensive Broward adults are unmedicated. A portion of those people are turning 65 this year, gaining Medicare for the first time, and potentially seeking treatment for a condition they've been managing — or not managing — without insurance or with inadequate coverage.

Additionally, 3.1% of Broward County adults have had a stroke (confidence interval: 2.7%–3.4%). Source: CDC PLACES, 2023. These are not abstract statistics. These are the health needs that will arrive in a doctor's office the moment a newly eligible senior activates their Medicare card.

This is why the HMO-versus-PPO question matters more in Broward than in many other counties. HMO plans require you to stay in-network. If your cardiologist, your neurologist, your stroke rehabilitation specialist — isn't in the plan's network, you pay out-of-network rates or you find a new doctor. The Aetna HMO plans (H1609_018, H1609_028) carry impressive 4.5-star ratings, but a star rating measures average quality across all enrollees — it doesn't tell you whether your specific physician is in the network.

The Regional PPO options from UnitedHealth (R0759_001, R0759_002) offer more flexibility on providers but come with lower star ratings and — in one case — a $62/month premium that doesn't buy you better quality by CMS metrics.

What Should Broward County Seniors Turning 65 in 2026 Do Right Now?

I'm not going to recommend a plan. That's not what we do here. But I will tell you what the data says you need to verify before you enroll in anything:

1. Confirm your specific physicians are in-network for any HMO plan you're considering. Call the plan directly, not just the doctor's office. Physician rosters change.

2. Check that your medications are on the plan's formulary — especially if you manage hypertension, diabetes, or heart disease. The plans with $0 premiums are not free if your medication is Tier 4 or excluded entirely.

3. Do not let the "Not Enough Data Available" star rating on H6378_001 (AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care) be the only thing you notice about that plan. Absence of data is not a safety rating. (It is also a D-SNP, so if you're not dual-eligible, this doesn't apply to you — but if you are, ask hard questions.)

4. If you turn 65 between now and September 30, 2026, your Initial Enrollment Period ends before the 2027 Annual Enrollment Period begins. You may need to enroll in a 2026 plan and then reassess during AEP (October 15 – December 7, 2026) for a 2027 start. The 2027 rate environment shifted significantly after CMS's $13 billion reversal — expect plan changes.

5. Watch for carrier exits announced in the fall. As we documented in our previous Broward County coverage, carriers have been pulling plans from this county. That trend did not stop in 2026. When you enroll in October, you may be enrolling in a plan that has already announced it won't be here in January.

For Haitian American seniors in Broward County, our colleagues at the Bureau Solèy have