Intense Healthcare Report Medicare Advantage enrollments will continue to grow through 2022, while traditional fee-for-service Medicare declines. They wrote:

A new study found that Medicare Advantage plans, which now account for 45% of all Medicare enrollments, signed up another 2.3 million beneficiaries in the 2022 insurance year.

…total enrollment in Medicare increased by 1 million beneficiaries in 2022, a 1.6% increase over 2021. The MA program added 2.3 million beneficiaries overall, some of which came at the cost of 1.3 million transitioning from traditional Medicare to MA.

Plan choices have also grown due to the large number of beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average Medicare beneficiary can now choose between 39 health plans. Additionally, in many urban areas, the number of plan options is even greater (see chart below). In 2020, 20 insurance companies entered the Medicare Advantage market for the first time, while only 7 exited the market,

in a Frontiers Review of Health Affairs, J. Michael McWilliams claims that Medicare Advantage is attractive because it “takes advantage of a manipulable risk adjustment system”. However, Medicare Advantage plans do offer real benefits to beneficiaries. Common additional benefits include access to vision/glasses insurance, fitness apps, telehealth services, hearing aids, and dental insurance. Some plans (37% of individual plans, but 87% of MA special needs plans) provide transportation for patients to health care visits. These patient benefits should not be underestimated.