How is Medicare Advantage developing in Texas?

Q: How is Medicare Advantage developing in Texas?

Texas MA penetration is 54.9% (rank 32 of 52) with 3.072M MA enrollees of 5.595M Medicare beneficiaries, February 2026.

Data through February 2026 · Updated June 15, 2026 live

Texas's MA penetration is 54.9% — below the 57.8% national share by 2.9 points, ranking 32 of 52 with 3.072M MA enrollees of 5.595M Medicare beneficiaries as of February 2026.

54.9%

MA penetration

February 2026

#32

National rank (of 52)

February 2026

3.072M

MA enrollees

February 2026

20%

SNP share of MA (D-SNP 16%)

February 2026

15.2%

Dual-eligible share of Medicare

2025 Q4

Tracked counties in Texas — drill down

County table with momentum

County	Penetration	YoY pts	D-SNP %	Carriers	Top carrier
El Paso	62.8%	+0.93	28%	4	Centene
Bexar	59.1%	+0.9	21%	5	UHC
Galveston	58.4%	+0.87	17%	3	Centene
Harris	57.8%	+0.87	18%	6	UHC
Lubbock	56.8%	+0.87	20%	2	UHC
Dallas	55.4%	+0.87	16%	5	Centene
Tarrant	53.2%	+0.87	15%	5	UHC
Travis	48.4%	+0.87	12%	4	Aetna

Tracked carrier positions in Texas

Carrier	Enrollment (K)	Plans	Stars	YoY trend	Note
UHC	842	16	3.8	-6.2%	DFW and Houston under pressure from Humana $0-premium capture
Humana	780	14	3.5	-6.2%	Significant exits in DFW and Houston metro
Centene	698	12	3	+16.8%	Fastest growing in TX via Medicaid alignment
BCBS	528	9	4	+3.2%	Texas market through HCSC affiliate
Aetna	398	8	3.5	+2.8%	Houston and Austin markets

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 Texas?.” CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment (data.cms.gov, public API), data through February 2026. https://medicareinsights.org/market/states/tx/.

Sales playbook one-pager

↓ Download the Texas 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

Texas 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.