CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK) — Medicare open enrollment began Thursday, giving millions of Floridians an opportunity to review their healthcare coverage for 2027. For some Southwest Florida seniors, choosing a plan has become more complicated as changes loom for Lee Health patients insured through UnitedHealthcare.
For Cape Coral resident Doris Gentry, the challenge is deeply personal.
Gentry moved to Southwest Florida from California in November 2025. After decades with Kaiser Permanente, she enrolled in an AARP UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan and believed she had found coverage that met her needs.
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“It covered every need I had, every prescription. I had no complaints at all,” Gentry said.
That changed when she learned Lee Health would no longer be in-network for affected UnitedHealthcare plans beginning Jan. 1, 2027, unless the two sides reach an agreement.
Now, Gentry is comparing insurance plans in hopes of keeping the doctors she has come to trust.
She has six prescriptions, a list of physicians and an Excel spreadsheet outlining the advantages, disadvantages and costs of different plans.
Gentry said finding a plan that covers everything she needs has been difficult.
“That’s been the most complicated, where they’ll say, ‘Okay, we cover all these doctors, but we don’t cover your physical therapy,’ or, ‘We cover all these prescriptions, but this prescription’s gonna be two thousand a month,’” she said.
One of her medications, Gentry said, could cost $2,100 a month without appropriate coverage. Keeping her doctors is about more than avoiding unexpected medical expenses.
Shortly after Gentry and her husband moved to Southwest Florida, he suffered a heart attack. He received care through Lee Health before his death.
Gentry said the medical professionals she met during that difficult period became an important source of support as she grieved.
“They’ve held my hand through losing my husband and my own sadness over that,” she said
Less than a year after moving to Florida, Gentry now faces the possibility of changing the healthcare network she has grown to depend on.
While she said she is financially able to manage potential increases in healthcare costs, she worries about other seniors who may not have the same flexibility.
“It’s not gonna do me under. I don’t like it. But I would say for many people, that would do them under,” Gentry said.
Her experience comes as Medicare beneficiaries across Florida review their options.
According to federal figures, approximately 5.3 million Floridians are enrolled in Medicare. The state will have 560 Medicare Advantage plan offerings in 2027, down from 611 in 2026. Those are statewide figures, and the plans available to individual beneficiaries vary by location.
The annual Medicare open enrollment period runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7. Coverage changes selected during that period generally take effect Jan. 1.
Gentry hopes to choose a new plan within the next few weeks. Her priority is finding coverage that includes her Lee Health doctors and prescriptions.
Still, she worries that changing insurance companies may not guarantee long-term stability.
“Are they gonna drop Lee a year from now? I mean, could this happen to me again?” she asked.