Health Benefits

See How Many of You Switched Health Plans for 2024

4 weeks ago
Toddler daughter riding on father's shoulders in front of home

If you are one of the 87,000 members who started 2024 with a new CalPERS health plan, you may be curious who else switched plans too.

While most of our 1.5 million members stayed with their health plan, as they typically do, 82,000 of you changed Basic plans, and 5,000 of you moved to a new Medicare plan. That’s a bit higher than prior years, when roughly 70,000 and 80,000 of you changed plans in 2023 and 2022, respectively.

While we don’t know exactly why each member changes health plans, there were some factors for the 2024 plan year that likely contributed:

  • UnitedHealthcare (UHC) Alliance expanded back into the Bay Area for public agency and school district members, and Harmony expanded to Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. When plans expand service areas, it gives members more plan options to choose from, and over 1,200 of you made the switch.
  • Health Net SmartCare exited the CalPERS Health Program, so 8,600 of you moved plans, mostly to Blue Shield Access+.
  • Significant premium increases in Kaiser Permanente may have been the reason that 22,000 of you switched to a new plan. The majority of Kaiser members went to Blue Shield Access+, UHC Alliance, Blue Shield Trio, and Western Health Advantage.
  • Significant premium increases in the preferred provider organization (PPO) plans likely led 11,700 of you in PERS Platinum to change plans, with most moving to PERS Gold and Blue Shield Access+ and Trio.
  • We increased communication outreach with emails, articles, the website, and myCalPERS to encourage members to shop and compare health plans.

Overall, the health plans that experienced the largest net gain of members were Blue Shield Access+, Blue Shield Trio, and UHC Alliance. Kaiser Permanente, PERS Platinum, and Anthem Select experienced the largest net loss. The Open Enrollment results (PDF) are updated every year for transparency around enrollment changes.

You can search for CalPERS health plans available in your area any time using the Health Plan Search by ZIP Code tool on our website, or by logging into your myCalPERS account and using the Search Health Plans feature. The next opportunity to consider your health plan choice and make a change (outside of special enrollment events) is Open Enrollment this fall, from September 16 through October 11, 2024.