Medicare open enrollment runs October 15 through December 7, and Rhode Islanders should review their coverage carefully.
Traditional Medicare is run by the federal government and lets you see any doctor or hospital in the country that accepts Medicare. Medicare Advantage plans are run by private insurers and often cost enrollees less up front because Medicare pays those insurers about 14 percent more per enrollee than it would spend on the same people in traditional Medicare.
The less insurers spend on care, the more they keep, which creates an incentive to limit care. A federal Inspector General review found that 13 percent of prior authorization denials by large Medicare Advantage insurers involved care traditional Medicare likely would have covered, including MRIs and rehabilitation stays.
Networks can also shrink. In Rhode Island, for example, UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage enrollees lost in-network access to Brown Health’s hospitals in July 2025 and to its physicians in July 2026.
Medicare choices are complicated. For free, unbiased advice, call Rhode Island’s State Health Insurance Assistance Program at 1-888-884-8721 or The POINT at 401-462-4444.
Senator Linda Ujifusa, District 11 (Portsmouth, Bristol)
J. Mark Ryan, MD, FACP, President, Rhode Island Chapter, Physicians for a National Health Program
