Supplement Pros and Cons

What are advantages and disadvantages to Medicare supplements? Some of the advantages are there are no doctor networks. Anyone that accepts Medicare as long as Medicare will pay its piece.

The supplement is required by law to pick up the rest of it or whatever. However your plan is built, they’re required to pay. Also, Medicare supplements are a true secondary insurance, so Medicare pays and then the supplement comes in and pays. It follows Medicare. So as long as your doctor takes Medicare you’re good to go. We see less billing issues or claims issues.

Doctors typically like it when folks walk in with the supplement, because they know they’re going to be able to bill Medicare pretty easily. And with this plan, they’re not dealing with an insurance company. They’re billing Medicare. And the plan is coming in picking up what Medicare doesn’t pay. Travel: medicare is a federal plan. So it’s accepted across the United States of America.

And you can take your supplement with you wherever you go. As long as Medicare will pay, it will pay as well. There is no underwriting when you are new to Medicare, so you are guaranteed to get the supplement whenever you are turning 65 or if you delay Medicare because you keep your employer coverage, say you waited to get part B later down the road because you kept employer coverage.

Or basically, whenever your part B starts, that will start the clock. You have six months to get a Medicare supplement without them asking you any health questions. So that could be very important, especially if you add any health issues going on. Because after the six months you started with, Medicare Advantage plan and then down the road, you said, you know what, I have this knee surgery coming up.

I really want to get a Medicare supplement because it’ll pay for everything. Well, that will not work like that? They won’t approve you because they’re going to ask you some health questions, find out you had that going on and then, you know, will most likely deny you. Keep that in mind. The best time to get a supplement if you’re going to is get it kind of early because no health questions. It’s a lot easier to downgrade to the Medicare Advantage plan, if you will, and we’ll go over that here in a second.

What are some disadvantages to a Medicare supplement? Premiums do go up as you get older. They could stay the same. I’ve seen them drop. But it’s been 4 or 5 years since I’ve seen that happen.

Rates typically do go up now. It’s impossible to predict, but we can look at the past five years and get a good guesstimate of what’s going to happen. We’ve seen them jump higher recently just with the cost of living and health care costs. So somewhere between 5 and 10%, I would say, is what you’re looking at on an annual increase a disadvantage or something you need to be aware of with a Medicare supplement is prescription drug coverage is not included.

Part D prescription drug covers, D as in drug. You have to buy that separate plan. It’s just another cost. Dental vision hearing benefits are not included. So you have to buy that separate plan as well.