Thinking of ditching Medicare Advantage? Here’s why John Oliver and Suze Orman say you should. But are they right?

When high-profile figures offer such strong advice, it can be hard to ignore, even among the people who are satisfied with their MA plan.

“If I’m satisfied with my Medicare Advantage plan, why are these experts pressuring me to leave it?” you might be asking yourself. The answer is complicated. And the debate highlights just how fractured and confusing America’s health-care landscape has become.

Why Oliver and Orman are sounding the alarm

In late October, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver devoted a critical 31-minute segment to MA, arguing that the program is “woefully insufficient,” riddled with denials and delays, and costly to taxpayers. (1)

Oliver accused major insurers of inflating patient risk scores to drive up federal payments and using restrictive networks and prior authorizations to limit care.

“When you take all this together, you get a system where the incentives are clearly set up for insurance companies to make you look as sick as possible on paper, while doing as little as possible to help you when you actually need it,” he summarized.

Personal finance expert Suze Orman has also been criticizing MA. In a widely shared post, she argued that original Medicare is “better” and warned that major insurers — including UnitedHealthcare and Humana — are terminating or consolidating plans for 2026, leaving older adults vulnerable to unexpected changes in premiums, networks and benefits. (2)

Orman urged MA enrollees to carefully review their annual notice of change and consider switching back to traditional Medicare while they still can.

Medicare Advantage has flaws, but it’s affordable and improving

Despite the backlash, some MA users insist the plans work well for them because of their financial costs.

“I’ve had MA for eight years, and I’ve never spent more than $200 or $300 in a given year on copays,” one Reddit user wrote. (3)

Another said John Oliver “could harm a lot of folks” by implying MA is universally bad. These users argue that while MA has flaws, it remains the only affordable route for many. (4)

On LinkedIn, former CVS Health and UnitedHealth executive Adam Korn questioned Oliver’s criticism (5).

Korn pointed out that:

• Two-thirds of customers are satisfied with their coverage — whether MA or traditional Medicare.
• MA includes annual out-of-pocket caps, which Original Medicare does not.
• MA plans offer supplemental benefits such as dental, vision, hearing, transportation and meal delivery support.
• New CMS rules aim to tighten oversight and reduce AI-driven denials, speeding up prior authorizations and forcing transparency.

For many low-income or chronically ill seniors, MA provides more comprehensive support than the traditional program.

Why the debate matters

More than 62.7 million Americans rely on Medicare, and about 35 million are enrolled in Medicare Advantage. (6)

Private insurers offer Medicare Advantage (Part C) and typically bundle hospital, medical and drug coverage, plus extras. It limits doctors to a network —and going out-of-network can be costly — but it caps annual out-of-pocket expenses. (7)