Medicare Advantage- Supplemental-Medigap Insurance Plans

As full-timers we use Transamerica supplement through Good Sam. Along with our Medicare we have not had to pay anything out of pocket for multiple surgeries or office visits. We're free to using any facility of our choosing in the country. It's been excellent.

I have a Medicare PPO Advantage plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield.

The PPO plan has much greater coverage when we travel.

HMO plans are mostly local to your home area.

-Tom

Mom has no supplemental plan. Copays do not seem that expensive.

Rondeb:
If you go to Medicare's website, or the Washington Insurance Commissioner's website, you'll find comparison charts of what supplementals are available. For a given plan "Letter", like A, or D, or F, the benefits are the same. The premiums might vary, and the provider choice will, too.

Having spent a lot of time on this, and after one of us tried an Advantage plan (cheaper, but a real PITA sometimes), we stayed with Premera in Washington. Covers almost all docs and hospitals, and has almost complete out-of-area coverage. I've been pleased with them for almost 3 years. Slightly higher premium, but worth it.

Drug-plan-wise, WalMart/Humana plan made the most sense for us.

Most distressing to me is that TriCare, which is what most Vets (those we owe the MOST to!) is such a lousy outfit for the docs to deal with, so many don't take it.

This is a very important issue as many changes are coming.

Do not even think about posting political comments to this thread!

PlanF will give the greatest coverage but is also the most expensive. There is also a High deductible F that give the great coverage after a higher deductible. For many people that can also be the least expensive option. There are a couple of the cheaper plans that will not give any coverage outside of the US but most will give $250,000, max. The drug plan, Part D, is a totally seperate item and can be purchased at a different place. I sell this stuff and if people have no great drug needs I tell them to get the Wal-Mart plan D. As long as you have coverage you can make a switch in the future.

Get Plan F and forget the HMO's or PPO's
Both my wife and I have had it for the past ten years and it is fantastic.
You go to what ever doctor you want to including specialists and you don't have to go to primary one first.
Every thing is 100% covered, with no co-pay and there is long term hospital coverage.

Your state should list which insurers are allowed, and then they also list the annual cost of each, even though the coverage is the exact same and is set forth by the government.
When we get our bill each year we check the cost of the others, and if another is cheaper, we switch to that.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that OBAMA care doesn'r screw it up, since we never had medical insurance this good even when we were in the work force.

Jack L

I haven't been on the F plan as long as Jack and Nanci, but I agree so far.

I have had Plan F through Transamerica for the last 3 1/2 years and Part D through Humana. As far as doctors and hospitals, I have paid nothing out of pocket since getting the insurance and have been to the emergency room twice in that time. As far as drugs, usually pay nothing extra for the two prescriptions I am taking, as long as I get them through the company site and get 90 days at a time, which works great anyway. Have paid some out of pocket when needing a short-term prescription and didn't wish to wait for the drug company to send it to me. This works, cost-wise, with generics. When you get to brand name drugs, the costs go up quite a bit. My wife pays $104 a quarter for an inhaler that has no generic counterpart.

My $0 premium (I still pay the standard Medicare premium) United Health Care plan with Part D includes their "Passport" feature that lets me use any UHC provider anywhere in the US, with some limitations. The plan also allows out of network coverage at somewhat higher co-pays anywhere in the US and urgent care facility coverage at my regular co-pays.