Medicare coverage while travelling

[rfloyd99]

This post contains a lesson and a question:

We are just retired and will be spending 4-6 months on the road starting March of '17. We are just now eligible for Medicare and have decided to buy a Medicare Advantage plan to supplement basic Medicare.

Obviously, we want to pick a plan that we can use when we are several states away from home. The first plan we looked at was with United Health Care (AARP's "partner"). Since they are the one of the largest and oldest providers and advertised that they had a "Passport" program for travelers I figured that was the solution.

Their booklet proudly showed that the coverage was good in about 35 states. However, California wasn't one of them (we plan to spend at least a month there). Also, in most of the states they cover only a few counties are included. For instance, in Washington, only Spokane county is included, and it's over 300 miles from the coastal area where most tourists go. In Texas only 9 out of 254 counties are included. And only one major city is in those 9 counties!

So the lesson is, if you need coverage on the road be sure you read the fine print about exactly where the coverage exists, not just by state!

The question is, has anyone found a Medicare Advantage plan (aka part C) with good national coverage? We live in Florida, BTW.

Thanks for any replies!

Riley

[jesseannie]

If the new administration has its way we will all be on vouchers soon. Then we will all be in trouble.
jesseannie

[pawatt]

Stick with original Medicare and a good supplemental plan like BCBS senior gold. Anybody I have known with advantage plans has had problems with coverage if traveling to many locations.

[Earl_E]

The other issue that hasn't been discussed is that with the Medicare Gap plans you can choose your doctor which can be a big deal if you end up with big issues like heart or cancer. When I looked into Advantage plans where I now live I (I have heart problems) their were only two approved doctors, neither with a great reputation. With the gap policy which I ended up keeping I could get the best in the area.

[puttd]

To make one other point, you have only one opportunity to get a supplement without medical underwriting - when you first get medicare- unless you move. Once you have a supplement, you can switch, but take an advantage upfront and you may find it difficult to get out of advantage if the premiums get too bad. And they can be bad. I had a knee replacement under advantage, and it was mire than $3000 in copays for all of the required stuff - pt, imaging, hospitalization, etc. Second knee done under Medigap, $0. The prescription drug plans with the advantage plans are really bad - my drug costs are half with a free standing plan.

[NEOK]

I have Medicare with a type F supplement from Mutual of Omaha. I had to have emergency retina retina surgery while travelling in another state and the plans picked up the charges with no problems.

[carp65]

We have Medicare and a Supplement from AARP-United Health Care Plan F. Has
covered all our medical expenses with no additional cost.

[Dance_Chick]

We are in central FL and have a Humana Advantage Plan. Currently, it is a regional PPO, but will become a nationwide PPO in January. You might want to check it out.

[buc1980]

We both have supplemental insurance and the Medicare.

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

2gypsies wrote:

Murphsmom wrote:
Remember that Medicare does not cover you while you are out of the country. My cousin's husband learned that the hard way. Broke his leg on a trip to Canada, which turned out to be an expensive proposition without a medigap policy.

There are certain instances when Medicare does cover. I would think a broken leg would be an emergency.

https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/travel-need-health-care-outside-us.html

A broken leg is an emergency, but is only covered when traveling on a direct route between Alaska and another US state. As folks have discovered - Medicare doesn't consider a caravan trip or other trip making anything but a straight run a 'direct route'.

Even then - the patient will have to pay the Canadian bills, and file for reimbursement with Medicare, which may or may not pay the full charges. Likely not.

One thing many folks don't realize is that traveling on a cruise ship of non-US registry - even only between two US ports - Medicare does not provide any coverage if the health care is provided outside US waters. Our 'Travel Insurance' covered such an eventuality when we bought our first cruise tickets.

I've found foreign travel specific health coverage essential.

[2gypsies1]

Murphsmom wrote:
Remember that Medicare does not cover you while you are out of the country. My cousin's husband learned that the hard way. Broke his leg on a trip to Canada, which turned out to be an expensive proposition without a medigap policy.

There are certain instances when Medicare does cover. I would think a broken leg would be an emergency.

https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/travel-need-health-care-outside-us.html

[rfloyd99]

Thanks for the responses. I'm looking into the "gap' policies now. If anyone has more to contribute, please do so.

[TechWriter]

avan wrote:
Just to keep Medicare terminology correct, a Medicare Advantage Plan is NOT a supplement to basic Medicare. It is a substitute (private) for Original Medicare (public) which is also known as Parts A&B. Supplements to Original Medicare are often called Medigap policies.

I'm with you.

A private Medicare Advantage plan (also called Part C) replaces original Medicare Plans A & B. You can sign up for either Plan C or Plans A & B, but not both.

Medicare Supplement plans (letters A - G) are additional coverage you buy to cover "gaps" in Plans A & B. You don't buy a Supplement with a Medicare Advantage plan.

Because of price and portability the Escapees RVer Insurance Exchange recommends that full timers keep Medicare Plans A & B and also purchase a Supplement plan like an F or G one.

[Dutch_12078]

Contrary to an earlier post, our zero additional cost UHC Advantage Plan w/Part D is exactly that, zero additional cost over the standard Medicare premium we all pay. Yes, the Passport feature does have limitations, but we've found the rare times we've needed "outside" service that the out of plan co-pays still weren't as costly as the various Supplement annual premiums are. The majority of the time we've either been in or near enough to an included state/county, or in our "home" region, that our normal plan co-pays applied. Emergency and Urgent care are covered everywhere in the US with our plan.

[Stormy_Eyes]

Our domicile is Florida, and we do spend much of the year in state.

I am pre-Medicare age, but DH qualifies. He has a Medicare advantage Humana PPO plan that has a nationwide network. To date he has been fortunate to need only routine, scheduled checkups with his (in network) Primary Care Doc in Florida; we have not utilized the nationwide network (yeah!). We did check that his preferred doc and hospital from our usual summer locale are on the PPO list. He was happily with Humana when we were in S&B before we bought the RV; he wanted to stay with them as a full timer if feasible. So far so good.

If you want an Advantage plan, it might be worth a website visit and phone call to see if a PPO from Humana might be available and suitable.

We buy travel insurance to cover both of us for our international travels.