Boeing retirees are facing a sharp rise in the cost of their health coverage, with Medicare Advantage premiums up 400 percent, according to the Seattle Times. The increase has left many retirees weighing whether they can afford to keep their coverage, and some are questioning whether they can afford to stay retired at all. The report, published on 7 November, describes retirees who were caught off guard by the size of the rise as they plan their budgets for 2026.
The plan at the centre of the rise is the Boeing-sponsored Aetna Medicare Advantage plan, which replaced the company’s retiree Medicare Supplement Plan in 2024. The plan that covers Boeing retirees carried no monthly premium in 2024 and 2025, but Aetna has introduced a premium of $58.91 per person per month from January 2026, citing funding and regulatory changes. The new premium comes with a lower deductible and a lower out-of-pocket maximum than the plan it replaced.
The plan covers SPEEA-represented retirees and Boeing’s non-union retirees on the same terms. Under the union’s September 2026 contract summary, only members last hired before 2007 qualify for subsidised Boeing retiree medical coverage. For about three-fourths of eligible retirees, Boeing’s retiree medical coverage runs only to age 65. Certain groups, including most employees under United Auto Workers agreements, keep lifetime coverage.
Machinists in IAM District 751 and W24 are among the last Boeing groups to keep retiree medical coverage under their ratified 2024 contract. From 1 January 2026, those retirees gained the option to join the same Aetna Medicare Advantage plan, limited to the Puget Sound region. The change puts more Boeing retirees on the same plan at the same time as its premiums rise.
Boeing retirees and the new Aetna plan
The premium rise lands on top of other costs that retirees already pay. The standard Medicare Part B premium rises to $202.90 a month in 2026, up from $185 in 2025, with a $283 annual deductible. A Medicare Advantage member keeps paying the Part B premium after joining the private plan, so the Boeing premium adds to that bill rather than replacing it, and the total bill for Boeing retirees grows.
The wider picture is no better. Aon, which tracks cost and benefit data for more than 1,100 United States employers, projects that the cost of providing health benefits will rise by an estimated 8.2 percent per worker in 2027, the largest increase since 2003, even after cost-reduction measures. Boeing retirees are feeling that pressure first, because their plan changed at the same time as costs rose across the market.
The end of enhanced federal premium tax credits adds to the strain for Boeing retirees who buy coverage on the market before they reach Medicare age. The temporary enhancement that removed the 400 percent federal poverty level income cap expired after tax year 2025, and no extension had been enacted when the Seattle Times report was published. Households above 400 percent of the federal poverty level, $62,600 for one person or $84,600 for two, now get no premium tax credit at all.
Boeing retirees weigh their options
Retirees facing the rise have a limited set of choices. They can pay the higher premium, switch to Original Medicare with a Medigap policy and a Part D drug plan, or buy a different Medicare Advantage plan on the open market. Each path carries its own costs: Original Medicare by itself sets no cap on yearly out-of-pocket spending, while a Medicare Advantage plan must cap yearly in-network spending at $9,250 for 2026. A healthy 65-year-old couple would need about $418,000 in savings for Original Medicare with Medigap Plan G and Part D, or about $211,000 under Medicare Advantage with Part D, according to Milliman’s 2026 index.
Employers and unions are free to change benefits, raise premiums or drop retiree coverage altogether at any time, so coverage that looks settled one year is not locked in for the next. Boeing retirees who qualify for company retiree medical need Medicare Part A and Part B to enrol in the group Medicare Advantage plan, and retirees without Part B at the 2024 transition were kept on a separate version of the older plan instead.
For now, the retirees described in the Seattle Times report are doing the sums. Some are looking at part-time work, some are comparing plans, and some are asking whether the coverage they counted on in retirement is still within reach. The 400 percent rise arrives in a year when health costs are climbing for workers and retirees alike, and Boeing retirees will see the new premium on their first bill of 2026.