Wellcare

Plan year 2027 · Source: CMS · Checked October 29, 2026

What Wellcare offers

Wellcare is part of Centene Corporation, and for 2027 it filed 210 Medicare Advantage plans with Medicare. Its plans are sold in 29 states, and the exact plans on offer change from one county to the next.

The company sells these kinds of plans:

• HMO-POS plans (112)
• HMO plans (67)
• PPO plans (31)

Most of its plans are HMO-POS plans. These keep most care inside the plan's network. For some care you can go outside it, but you often pay more. Its HMO plans keep care inside the network, and you choose a main doctor. Its PPO plans let you see doctors outside the network in many cases, but you pay more when you do.

It also sells 100 special needs plans. These plans are built for people in a set group. That can mean people who have both Medicare and Medicaid. It can also mean people who live with a long-term health condition that needs steady care.

What its plans cost

Of the 210 plans, 179 charge no monthly premium at all, although you still pay your Part B premium each month, just as you would with any Medicare Advantage plan. Plan premiums across the company run from $0 to $206 a month.

A $0 premium does not mean $0 care. Each plan has its own copays. Each plan also has its own yearly limit on what you pay out of pocket for covered care. Those numbers change from plan to plan. The plan pages in this section show the exact numbers for each plan, straight from Medicare's own files.

Star ratings

Medicare rates each contract from 1 to 5 stars, and Wellcare contracts run from 2.5 to 4.0 stars for 2027, because the rating belongs to the contract and not to the brand as a whole. Two plans with the same company name can sit under contracts with very different ratings, so check the star rating on the plan page and not just the company name.

How to shop this company

Start with your county, because Medicare Advantage plans are sold by county and the plan a friend has in one state may not exist in yours, or may cost more where you live. Then check three things before you decide: your doctors are in the plan's network, your drugs are on the plan's drug list, and the yearly cost limit fits your budget.

Some care needs approval before the plan will pay for it, so read how approval for home health works in a Medicare Advantage plan before you count on care at home. If you ever need hospice care, Medicare covers hospice under Part A in every plan — see what Medicare hospice covers, in the hospice guide.

This page is a guide, not a sales tool, and Care and Living Guide does not sell or enroll anyone in a plan. When you are ready to sign up, use Medicare.gov, call 1-800-MEDICARE, or talk with a licensed insurance agent.

More detail about this company

Wellcare sells Medicare Advantage plans under its parent, Centene Corporation, and Medicare's 2027 file lists 210 of its plans sold in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. 200 of those plans include prescription drug coverage, and 100 are special needs plans. Medicare's file does not give the year this company first sold Medicare plans, so this page states no start year rather than guessing one.

For help with a plan from this company, start with Medicare.gov: its Plan Finder lists this company's plans for your ZIP code, and each plan's page there links to the plan's own Summary of Benefits and to the company's official Medicare pages, which carry its member phone number and hours. You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE at any hour. This page does not copy a phone number from an ad or a sales page.

Who this company may fit: many of its plans charge no monthly premium, so it may fit people who watch the monthly cost first; it sells special needs plans, so it may fit people who qualify for one of those plans.

You can join most Medicare Advantage plans for 2027 during the yearly enrollment period, October 15 to December 7, 2026. If you already have a Medicare Advantage plan, you can switch plans or go back to Original Medicare from January 1 to March 31. A move or another big life change can open a special window of its own. To join, use Medicare.gov, call 1-800-MEDICARE, or talk with a licensed insurance agent. Care and Living Guide does not sell or enroll anyone in a plan.

Detail sources for this section, checked October 30, 2026: Medicare.gov (Plan Finder and enrollment guidance) and SSA.gov (enrollment periods). Those sources add context only. Every figure on this page still comes from CMS.

Care and Living Guide is not connected with or endorsed by the U.S. government or the federal Medicare program. For official information visit Medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE.