Seniors protest cuts to Minnesota Blue Cross gym program

Seniors gathering in bitter cold Wednesday tried turning up the heat on Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, protesting recent cuts by the state’s largest Medicare health insurer to a popular fitness benefit.

About 50 people rallied at the nonprofit company’s headquarters in Eagan, calling out a Blue Cross of Minnesota decision to remove fitness centers from Life Time and YMCA of the North from its SilverSneakers program.

“Keeping their feet to the fire is why we’re out here, freezing our feet off,” said Terre Thomas, 66, of Minneapolis.

Blue Cross of Minnesota announced the cost-cutting move last month. Seniors will still have access to more than 600 fitness centers across the state.

But the change means about 26,000 subscribers will either have to find a new gym or switch to a different insurance company to have their fitness center fees covered. And seniors say many of the remaining gyms they can access through the insurer’s program are a far cry from the facilities they’re losing in terms of amenities and breadth of services.

Protesters gathering on the Blue Cross corporate campus Wednesday stressed the sense of community they have with their current gyms, which promote both healthy living and social connections. They also criticized the insurer for not providing notice of the change until late November.

By that point, open enrollment had closed for people with retiree benefits through the state government, said Carolyn Lemke, 68, of Eagan. Access to SilverSneakers at her local Y was one of Lemke’s top priorities and part of why she picked coverage from Blue Cross.

Jeff Elavsky of Minnetonka said insurers shouldn’t be allowed to make changes to coverage details, once seniors begin signing up for health plans.

Blue Cross of Minnesota has argued the company that runs the SilverSneakers gym network presented a cost increase that wasn’t affordable given other expenses emerging at the 11th hour. Elavsky argued, however, “that’s not our problem,” and he said Blue Cross should have covered the costs without affecting consumers who relied on marketing materials to choose a plan.

“If they’re not smart enough to figure that out, then maybe they shouldn’t be in this business,” he said.

Thomas helped organize Wednesday’s protest by visiting seven different Y facilities in recent days, talking with more than 200 seniors about the problem. She also met with company officials Tuesday to urge some sort of compromise.

Blue Cross of Minnesota permitted the protesters to gather in the company’s parking lot, Thomas said, which was safer than standing on the ice and snow on a public right-of-way near headquarters.

Both Life Time and YMCA of the North are offering discounted memberships to affected Medicare beneficiaries, but protesters say the costs are too high for seniors who may have fixed incomes and rising expenses.

Blue Cross of Minnesota anticipates a substantial increase in its Medicare membership for 2026 because another large Medicare insurer — Minneapolis-based UCare — is exiting the market for financial reasons. With the growth, “our baseline costs are going up exponentially in 2026,” the insurer said in a statement.

For the supplemental SilverSneakers fitness benefit, Blue Cross says it pays per member every month, regardless of whether beneficiaries use the gym. The insurer gives seniors access to a “premier” network of gyms for SilverSneakers but will move to a standard network “to maintain coverage stability for our members.”

The new network has about 50 fewer locations. The makeup of fitness center networks can change at any time, according to Blue Cross.

“Much of the timing ties back to the unexpected announcement from UCare in September,” Blue Cross said in a statement. “All of our financial forecasts and plans for 2026 were suddenly rendered out of date.”