Medicare plan quality · 2026 CMS Star Ratings
How good is your Medicare Advantage or drug plan?
Every Medicare Advantage and Part D plan is rated 1 to 5 stars by Medicare on clinical quality, member experience, complaints, and customer service. The rating carries real stakes: a 5-star plan can be joined almost any time of year (a Special Enrollment Period), and plans at 4 stars or above earn federal quality-bonus payments. For 2026, 516 Medicare Advantage contracts carry an overall rating.
How the ratings are spread
Overall star ratings across 516 Medicare Advantage contracts (2026). Most land at 3.5–4; a 5-star rating is rare. This counts each contract equally; CMS's own headline average is enrollment-weighted (and runs higher, ~3.9), because the biggest contracts skew higher.
Which big insurers run the highest-rated plans?
Parent organizations with at least 5 rated Medicare Advantage contracts, by average overall stars (unweighted across their contracts — so a parent with a few small, high-rated contracts can outrank a larger insurer most members actually experience).
The 21 five-star plans
Contracts that earned a perfect overall (or, for standalone drug plans, Part D) rating for 2026.
Every one of the 769 rated contracts has a page at /coverage/star-ratings/<contract>
(linked above and in the sitemap). To find your
plan's contract and compare plans in your area, use Medicare Plan Finder.
RECORDED — the star ratings and each contract's organization, parent, type, and SNP flag are CMS-published values (2026 Star Ratings). DERIVED — the distribution, the five-star roster, and the per-parent averages (unweighted across each parent's rated contracts).
Machine-readable: JSON-LD · Markdown · Source: CMS — Medicare Advantage & Part D Star Ratings, 2026
What this is — and is not
A star rating summarizes a contract's measured quality across all its enrollees — it is not a guarantee of your own experience, not a statement that a plan is available where you live, and not advice. Ratings change yearly. A plan's network, drugs covered, and cost matter just as much as its stars. To see plans in your area, compare costs, and enroll, use Medicare.gov.