How is Medicare Advantage developing in North Carolina?

Q: How is Medicare Advantage developing in North Carolina?

North Carolina MA penetration is 57.9% (rank 20 of 52) with 1.335M MA enrollees of 2.305M Medicare beneficiaries, February 2026.

Data through February 2026 · Updated June 15, 2026 live

North Carolina's MA penetration is 57.9% — above the 57.8% national share by 0.1 points, ranking 20 of 52 with 1.335M MA enrollees of 2.305M Medicare beneficiaries as of February 2026.

57.9%

MA penetration

February 2026

#20

National rank (of 52)

February 2026

1.335M

MA enrollees

February 2026

19%

SNP share of MA (D-SNP 15%)

February 2026

16.1%

Dual-eligible share of Medicare

2025 Q4

Tracked counties in North Carolina — drill down

County table with momentum

County	Penetration	YoY pts	D-SNP %	Carriers	Top carrier
Guilford	54.6%	+0.87	21%	4	Humana
Forsyth	53.2%	+0.87	20%	4	Centene
Mecklenburg	52.8%	+0.87	18%	5	BCBS
Durham	51.8%	+0.87	23%	4	BCBS
Wake	50.4%	+0.87	14%	4	BCBS
Greene	44.8%	+0.87	26%	2	Centene

Tracked carrier positions in North Carolina

Carrier	Enrollment (K)	Plans	Stars	YoY trend	Note
Humana	318	9	3.5	-5.6%	Exiting 4 rural NC counties

Carrier coverage is the curated major-carrier extract (March 2026) — not all carriers in the state.

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Citation: MedicareInsights. “How is Medicare Advantage developing in North Carolina?.” CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment (data.cms.gov, public API), data through February 2026. https://medicareinsights.org/market/states/nc/.

Sales playbook one-pager

↓ Download the North Carolina sales playbook (PNG): a branded snapshot of penetration, runway class, carrier positions, D-SNP gap, and contestable members for this state. Runway class and score are a MedicareInsights modeled index, never citable as CMS data; source vintages are printed on the image.

So what / Now what

North Carolina is a switcher market — expansion means winning members from incumbent MA plans on benefits, network, and brand.

Compare against neighboring states on the national table.
Drill into the county table above; velocity, D-SNP share, and top-carrier columns show where and how growth is happening.
Check 2026 plan exits for orphaned membership contestable in this market.
Sales teams: see where this state ranks on the growth runway index and which competitive facts apply on the carrier battlecards.

Provenance — MA enrollment & penetration by state

Source file: CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment (data.cms.gov, public API)
Vintage: February 2026
Last updated: June 15, 2026
Refresh cadence: Monthly (CMS publishes ~3 months in arrears)
Method: State-level rows pulled from the Medicare Monthly Enrollment API; MA share = MA_AND_OTH_BENES / TOT_BENES. Refreshed via automated pipeline from the CMS public API.
Known limitations: Penetration here is share of all Medicare beneficiaries (Parts A and/or B), not the KFF eligible-only basis, which runs ~4pts higher.