Medicare Advantage Plans

[ljhl]

My wife and I have had original Medicare Parts A&B with a separate Supplemental and Prescription Drug plans for several years now. I was looking at Advantage plans and wondered if traveling from our stick home in Texas to our summer RV site in Maine would be a problem with the Advantage plan. If either of us needed to see a doctor while in Maine, would we be out of luck, insurance wise? Thanks for any of your experienced info!

[rk911]

ljhl wrote:
My wife and I have had original Medicare Parts A&B with a separate Supplemental and Prescription Drug plans for several years now. I was looking at Advantage plans and wondered if traveling from our stick home in Texas to our summer RV site in Maine would be a problem with the Advantage plan. If either of us needed to see a doctor while in Maine, would we be out of luck, insurance wise? Thanks for any of your experienced info!

you should ask the plan provider those questions...and more.

when we turned 65 in '15 and '16 we chose traditional medicare, a plan F supplement and a Part D drug plan. like virtually everyone on this forum we normally are away from home 5-7 mos a year and we had the same questions you have.

we wanted to stick with Blue Cross (we'd been with them for 30+ years and we're very happy) so we didn't investigate any others like Humana, etc. I asked BCBS about their Part C plans (Advantage Plans). at the time the BCBS Part C plans functioned like an HMO. we would've been assigned a primary care doc who would be in charge of everything including when and who to see when a specialist was needed. when we left our home area we were required to give them 2-weeks notice in order to be assigned a new PCP in wherever we were headed. If we only went to Mesa, AZ this might not have been a problem but we usually take 3-4 weeks to get to Mesa and then another 5-6 weeks getting home. one year we put 7000-mi on the MH. if we didn't give the notice and we had an emergency maybe it would be covered, maybe not depending on the situation and how whatever doc or hospital we used coded the event. sounded way too iffy for us. since then i've had a bad vision event and my wife had a foot problem in AZ. the bills for the vision problem ran into 5-figures. maybe it would've been covered, maybe not.

we also learned that if we switched to the Part C and then wanted to switch back to Medicare with a supplement we might have to take a physical to qualify for the supplement. be sure to ask about that. initially no physical is needed for a supplement.

IMO the 'come-ons' for the Part C plans are the modern day equivalent of the medicine shows. hurry, hurry, hurry...free, free, free! what they don't tell you about are the co-pays and deductibles. ask about that. Part C plans can save you $..if you are and stay healthy.

maybe the Part C plans have changed over the past 5-years but we're happy with what we have.

[TenOC]

I have looked at the advantage plan. I current have a "F" supplemental plan. When I had my heart attack my cost was $0.00. I do pay $500 per month.

I understand the advantage plan may cost less per month, but the co-pay for a hospital stay can be $$$$$

I want to hear other people thoughts also.