CMS’s 2027 state-by-state fact sheets put the average monthly Medicare Advantage premium in Arkansas at $1.47, down from $2.12 in 2026. The agency’s September 28 press release reports a national weighted average of $12.00, down from $14.37. A gap that wide invites a simple reading, that Medicare Advantage in Arkansas costs almost nothing. The fact sheets support a narrower one, because a premium is a single line in what a plan costs and an average describes a market rather than any plan a household can actually buy.
What the Arkansas fact sheet reports for 2027
The Arkansas page of the CMS fact sheets, titled “Medicare Open Enrollment in Arkansas, 2027” and dated September 28, 2026, states that the average monthly MA plan premium changed from $2.12 in 2026 to $1.47 in 2027. That is a drop of $0.65 a month, or about $7.80 over twelve months, for the average plan in the state. The same page counts 692,771 Arkansans enrolled in Medicare and says 84 Medicare Advantage plans are available in 2027, compared with 91 in 2026.
The fact sheets follow one template for every state, which makes cross-state comparison possible. Florida’s page shows an average premium moving from $1.83 in 2026 to $2.13 in 2027 across 560 plans and 5,334,437 enrollees, so the average there rose while Arkansas’s fell. Alabama’s page shows $11.25 in 2026 falling to $7.76 in 2027 across 113 plans and 1,142,885 enrollees. Three states, three directions and three levels, all published on the same day from the same CMS file.
The Arkansas page also records that 100 percent of people with Medicare in the state have access to a Medicare Advantage plan with a $0 premium. An average of $1.47 therefore sits above a floor of zero, which means some plans in the state charge more than the average and some charge nothing. The fact sheet does not publish the spread between them, and the average alone cannot say how many Arkansas members pay a premium at all.
State averages, the national figure and the bid process behind both
The $12.00 national number comes from a different document than the $1.47 state number, and the two are not interchangeable. CMS’s press release puts the national weighted average at $14.37 in 2026 and $12.00 in 2027, a decline the agency calculates at 16.5 percent. The release calls the figure a weighted average across the country’s plans, and it does not give a ranked list of states…