Medicare insurance & supplemental plans

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Tom

Tom

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2005
Posts
51,898
At the risk of opening up a can of worms ....

Over the last few weeks I've received a continual barrage of mail from various insurance companies, organizations such as AARP, and supposedly "official" mail from Medicare. That will teach me to 'fake' my birthdate, adding 15 years to my age  :-[

Each time I try to read all the options, better options, best options, and bestest options for supplemental plans, including the "official" Medicare web site, I get an ever-increasing headache.

Anyone care to share the results of their own research, their choices, insurer(s), deductibles, co-pays, premiums, and any other words of wisdom?

Should we move to Mexico or Canada, or maybe back to the homeland  :eek:

TIA.
 
I have been going through the same thing and share the headache with you, Tom.  Currently the Medicare Advantage Plan is looking pretty good. 

I don't understand what the difference is between the Medicare/Medigap Plan F and the Medicare "Select" plan F.  Can anybody help here?
 
geodrake said:
I have been going through the same thing and share the headache with you, Tom.  Currently the Medicare Advantage Plan is looking pretty good. 

I don't understand what the difference is between the Medicare/Medigap Plan F and the Medicare "Select" plan F.  Can anybody help here?
Click to expand...

I believe "select" is a high deductable paln.

I took "regular" medicare part B, with AARP's plan F and drug plan.

 
Add me to the Medi-confused group. It's even worse if you get Medicare based on disability.
 
We were covered under "Plan F" (no copay, no deductible) for about 13 years (Tom) and 7 years (Margi).  Each year the premium increased due to our advancing ages until it slowly became a burden to our budget.  We have now been retired for 26 years. 

Finally, this year, we decided on a local Medical Advantage plan which resulted in a much lower monthly premium, no copay for lab tests, a $100 copay for each hospitalization, and a $12 copay for each doctor visit.  It's saving us a ton of money.  I wish we had switched a few years ago.  In our case, all doctors and all hospitals in the area are covered by the plan.  This is not necessarily true in all areas.

I will say, though, if we had plenty of bucks to spend, I would still be most comfortable with Plan F.  BTW, as I understood it for years, all Plan F coverages are the same.  The main consideration is premium price and stability of the insuring company.

Margi
 
I am just as confused as everyone. I have found that the plans seem to be zip code sensitive. My brother with a Florida zip code seems to get a much better deal with Medicare Advantage than I do in my zip code. In my area it seems to differ by county.
 
We went through it last year and settled on United Healthcare Plan A, Plan B and Plan D.

Me and Patsy both turned the magic birthday in the same month and became eligible. We had a consultant come in and compare plans, each person may be different due to existing health problems. Being diabetic made a difference.

Our premium is $298 for both, we don't pay anything for doctor or hospital but have to pay some on medication. Differs by the type of medicine.

Have been pleased so far except for some of my insulin is very expensive, still working with doctors on that.

Just what I have, hope you have luck. I still have some of those headaches.

I have decided that the government wants you to just die when you turn 65.



Jerry
 
I just went through all of this last summer and began Medicare last September.  It takes a college degree to figure all this out.  After much research I settled on a Medigap program with a Medicare supplemental policy and a drug policy Part D.  I went with Anthem Blue Cross Plan F because it has out of the country coverage, as well as, paying for excess office charges the doctors are beginning to charge.  We have paid for private insurance for the both of us since 2005, so this is a breath of fresh air in regards to cost.

One of the things that people don't realize is if you do not take the Medicare drug Part D and want to enroll several years later, it will cost more because you did not enroll upon turning 65.

Also, out here we are seeing a few Medicare Advantage programs being cancelled.  We have a pretty good Medicare Representative and he feels the Medicare Advantage programs will be phased out in the next couple of years; which is another reason I went with the Original Medicare (Medigap) program.

We use Humana for Part D

And yes, the premiums are determined by zip code.

Marsha~
 
A major part of the decision making process is controlled by where you live. The plans being offered are usually restricted to your geographic area. If you live in CA and qualify for Kaiser, that has been positively commented on by it's users. We live in the west valley of Phoenix and have the Banner Medisun Advantage plan. It costs us each $45/month and has $5 primary care copays and $15 specialist copays. Prescription coverage, with $12/90 day copays, is included. There is also a $14/month and $0/month plans with higher copays. Banner Medisun has a 4.5 star (out of 5) Medicare rating, only about 4 or 5 plans in the country are higher. The negatives are you have to live west of I-17 in the valley and travel coverage is limited.
 
Thanks Bernie. Kaiser isn't the best option for us, mainly because of having to use their facilities/doctors, although we know some locals who use them.

I like your premiums and copays. Our current premiums and copays are ridiculous. I saved several $thousand on prescriptions recently by making an Algodones run. The savings by paying full cash price down there paid for new tires on the coach, give or take. Our doctor and hospital/surgery copays are out of sight.

Our family doctor previously told me "we just need to keep you going until Medicare kicks in"  ???
 
There's an outfit in SLC, Extend Health, (extendhealth.com) that will help with the smorgasbord of options in "medicare".  They have developed some on-line software that looks at your primary location, prescription drugs, age, etc and generates a list of recommended options from those that are available to you.  They also offer to do the processing to make sure you get the "paperwork" correct.  My former employer contracts with them to help their retirees with medicare so I don't know if there are fees for this service for others.  It's a large operation though, so they have many, many clients.  They aren't perfect though...

They recommended that we use Humana Plan D, F and regular Medicare.  Seems like an acceptable balance of cost, coverage and some reimbursement for medical services on out of the country.  Living in northern NM, there are not that many options though.  The medicare advantage plans available here limit coverage to NM and network doctors.  I expect that we will switch to the medicare advantage coverage later since it is usually less expensive but there is so much uncertainty in health insurance these days who knows.  If only congress faced such odds.
 
There surely are a myriad of options! And the choices are geographic, as are the non-Medicare rates to be paid. The best choice depends on lot on your current needs and future risks. If your health is decent and you don't need many prescription drugs, or use mostly generics, some choices may be much more attractive than others. If you have a chronic disease or are at major risk for hospitalization for something, the best choice may be entirely different.

We recently switched to an Aetna Medicare Advantage program from the Medicare + Supplement (United Health Care) we used the past several tears. Saved about $200/month in premiums for coverage that is essentially identical. Ours includes drugs,  a sweetener that comes from my (retired) employee benefits, but there are Medicare "D"  plans and other options available too.

For RVers and other frequent travelers, it is important to make sure the coverage works wherever you will be. HMO type plans tend to be regional and restrictive and some PPO plans have very limited networks to choose from, so check out that aspect carefully.
 
taoshum said:
There's an outfit in SLC, Extend Health, (extendhealth.com) that will help with the smorgasbord of options in "medicare".  They have developed some on-line software that looks at your primary location, prescription drugs, age, etc and generates a list of recommended options from those that are available to you.  They also offer to do the processing to make sure you get the "paperwork" correct.  My former employer contracts with them to help their retirees with medicare so I don't know if there are fees for this service for others.  It's a large operation though, so they have many, many clients.  They aren't perfect though...
Click to expand...
I went to that site and found that it is available at no charge to other geographical areas.  It is really helpful.  I like it much better than the one provide by Medicare.
 
[quote author=taoshum]There's an outfit in SLC, Extend Health, (extendhealth.com) that will help with the smorgasbord of options in "medicare".[/quote]

Thanks for the link. They came back with 18 Medigap plans, 22 prescription plans, and 1 Medicare Advantage plan (AARP Medicare Complete). Easy format to read/compare. The list changed when I added my prescriptions, which is what I've seen on other sites (there are no generics for 3 of my prescription drugs). Premiums sure look a lot better than we're paying today.

Since they offer to sign you up through their web site, it appears that they get a commission. I haven't compared their quoted prices with those quoted elsewhere for the same plans. Looks like I have more homework to do.
 
Has anybody had any experience with Good Sam Transamerica Medicare Supplement plan F?
Has anybody had any experience with First Health Drug plan?
 
zzyzx - Wow. I haven't spent $100 on prescriptions in my entire life...




Consider yourself lucky. I have one perscription the last time I got it was $152 for six pills. Not even any Medicare Plan D will help out.
 
Tourmaster said:
Wow. I haven't spent $100 on prescriptions in my entire life...

Consider yourself lucky. I have one perscription the last time I got it was $152 for six pills. Not even any Medicare Plan D will help out.
Click to expand...
Lucky??? I don't think so. I don't drink, do drugs, smoke or eat unhealthy things. I get plenty of exercise. My mother and father both died young of alcoholism, pills and an unhealthy life style. They are great examples as to what I should not do. My dad died at age 50 and my mom at 64. My goal is to outlive them both. Luck has nothing to do with it.
 
Diet and exercise have a lot to do with your health  So do genetics and luck. One of Mike's prescriptions is for a thyroid condition that is hereditary, nothing diet and exercise can do about it. Be thankful that you don't need prescriptions NOW.
 
I just ran a comparison of Medicare Plan D Coventry Premier Plus VS ordering from Canada (NorthwestPharmacy.com) for Ruth's scripts.  The Canadian way is almost $2000 cheaper.  Spread sheet attached.
 

Attachments

  • Ruth Medicare Consideration drugs.xls
    17 KB · Views: 18
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,036 (members: 28, guests: 1,008)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,917
Posts
1,387,464
Members
137,673
Latest member
7199michael
Back
Top Bottom