Medicare Supplement

Remember, I said there are two options: Medicare Supplement and Medicare Advantage.

We’re going to talk about option one right now: Medicare supplement, also known as Medigap. There are two popular plans we’re seeing. These are the only two plans we’re really dealing with right now. There are other Medicare supplement plans. But for the sake of time and the fact that we know these are the two most popular. We’re going to talk about these.

Let’s talk about a plan G supplement. If you were to get Supplement you have to have part A and part B okay. You can’t just have part A and get a Supplement. You must have part A and part B to do either of these options. It is your Supplement or Medicare Advantage plan. Keep that in mind.

But if you were to want a supplement plan G, you would pay your monthly premium. They do have a cost for a female. It’s about roughly $112, a male roughly $125. It depends on your state and zip code. So just give it some ballpark numbers there. But if you get a plan G supplement, then this is how it works.

You would basically never have a hospital bill again. It picks up everything that part A does not pay. Remember when I was telling you about part A and it has this deductible each time you go into the hospital of $1,600? Well, that plan G supplement will wipe that out. And it would wipe out any co-insurance that you could have after day 61.

So essentially no bills at the hospital as long as you pay your monthly premium. Okay. Now let’s talk about the doctor. Remember, with part B you’ve got to pay your monthly premium. But there’s that $240 deductible. When you go to the doctor, annually, you have a $240 deductible. And then Medicare kicks in and pays 80% after your deductible.

You’re responsible for 20%. Well, the plan G supplement will actually eliminate that 20%. After you meet your deductible, you’re off the hook. It will pay the remaining 20%. Then Medicare does not pay. There are no excess charges with a plan G. We’ll get into that in just a second. There are some foreign travel benefits.

You get like $50,000 if you’re in another country and it’s an 80/20 deal. The plan will pay 80% of your cost, your health care cost internationally up to $50,000. Plan N is becoming more popular. It’s also a Medicare supplement. And the rates are a bit less, as you can see. And that’s because it doesn’t cover quite as much.

But let me explain. A plan N, we’ll say is roughly $90 a month for a plan. And it does work at the same hospital, it’ll cover everything that Medicare doesn’t pay for at the hospital, just like a plan G. So no more hospital bills. As long as you’re paying your premium at the doctor. It works like a plan G, whereas you pay your deductible $240 and then it will pick up everything Medicare doesn’t pay except there is a copay of the doctor, whether it be a primary or a specialist of $20.

So you pay a $20 copay. It does not go towards your deductible. If you go to the emergency room, you would have a $50 copay. And there is something called excess charges with a plan N that you could be susceptible to excess charges. We do not see them very often. I don’t know I’ve ever seen excess charge, but it’s something to be aware of.

They could come in the future, and it’s essentially when a doctor’s office charges more than the Medicare allowable amount. Then there’s these excess charges, and you can get hit with up to 15% of these. So it’s something to be aware of. We don’t see it, but I just want to put it out there that who knows where our health care system is going.

And I could see that maybe they would try to use that to get more money. Frankly, I don’t know how else to say it. So this is kind of your main options within option one Medicare supplement. This is what a Medicare supplement looks like. You pay a premium, but you really don’t have bills other than the deductible at the doctor or these co-pays if you go to the plan N.

Part B, drugs which are administered in a hospital doctor setting or infusion center will fall under your medical. Okay. That’s very important with supplemental insurance if they’re taken orally. You know, you pick up a prescription and you take it yourself at home, or outside of that care, it would go under drug coverage, but if it’s administered in those settings, it would fall under your medical.

And that becomes obviously very, very pertinent if you’re taking, infusions, chemotherapy, radiation, those kind of things. Chemotherapy is a big one for sure. That’s where the supplement can really save you some money, because if you look back at part B, if you’re paying 20% of the part B drugs like chemotherapy or infusions, there’s no cap on part B, so no max out of pocket.

With this, 20% of a million is 200,000. One thing that is extremely beneficial if you go with a Medicare supplement, it’s going to pick up that 20%. And obviously it could be tremendous savings there.