Tips for Choosing a Medicare Plan
Choosing a plan is an important decision. A gap in coverage can result in thousands of dollars and switching plans outside of open enrollment can lead to further expenses in premiums.
To help you decide between Medicare plans, consider these tips:
- Ask your doctors if they accept Medicare Advantage plans or only accept Original Medicare. If you don’t have doctors or hospitals that accept your Medicare Advantage plan it could be a problem if you don’t like to pay higher out-of-pocket costs.
- Look at a premium vs. coverage. Would you prefer to pay for the extra coverage or take a chance and pay lower premiums?
- If you travel often, a Medicare Supplement Plan could work best for you. It is accepted anywhere that Original Medicare is accepted.
As always, the agents at Turning 65 Solutions can help you make a primed decision.
Choosing a Medicare Supplement Plan
Medicare Supplement plans are commonly known as Medigap plans so don’t let this confuse you. There are ten standardized plans from letters A to N. Each letter provides a different range of coverage. Because they are standardized it means they must provide the same range of benefits (except in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Wisconsin which have their own rules).
It is. important to know that Medicare Supplement plans can be purchased only if you have Original Medicare. This is because those plans are designed to fill out the gaps that are left of Original Medicare. So, if you have Medicare Advantage you can purchase Medicare Supplement plans as part of your coverage.
Medicare Supplement insurance can be a great option alongside Original Medicare if:
- prefer low or even zero out-of-pocket costs: costs are predictable
- travel a lot: because most supplemental plans cover all or up to 80% of foreign travel emergencies
- want the flexibility of going to any doctor and hospital because there are no network restrictions nor do you need a referral to see specialists
- benefits that are the same for everyone who has exact plans
However, the Medicare Supplemental policies may not be the right option for you if you don’t want to pay a higher monthly premium, and you don’t like the fact that if you want dental, vision, hearing, and drug prescription benefits you must purchase stand-alone plans to get covered. Also, you don’t travel often so you don’t think that travel emergency coverage is needed.