Make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option

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Printed page 465 14. Department of Health and Human Services

“Make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option.”

What has happened

Aug 27, 2026 Not started
Medicare's default remains fee-for-service. CMS's Contract Year 2027 Medicare Advantage final rule describes default enrollment as "a process available only for integrated D-SNP enrollments" — the narrow, long-standing dual-eligible mechanism at 42 CFR 422.66(c)(2) — and finalizes no change to it. Making Medicare Advantage the general default would require Congress, and no such bill has been introduced.
- CMS final rule: Contract Year 2027 and certain Contract Year 2026 policy and technical changes to the Medicare Advantage Program (default enrollment remains limited to integrated D-SNPs)
  Primary Executive branch Apr 6, 2026

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Negative searches run 2026-08-27: Federal Register full-text “default enrollment” (CMS, since 2025-01-20) — 2 documents, the CY 2027 Medicare Advantage proposed rule (2025-11-28) and final rule (2026-04-06); the full text of the final rule on govinfo.gov confirms default enrollment is still confined to integrated D-SNPs. The titles of the bills we keep and search, for “Medicare Advantage” — 11 hits, none making MA the default.
Moving the other way: H.R. 6114 (introduced 2025-11-18) would prohibit HHS from using previously appropriated funds “for any activity that makes Medicare Advantage the default under the Medicare program.” It was referred to committee and is recorded here as a lead, not Evidence — an introduced bill changes nothing.