Seniors

I would highly recommend that you stay with Original Medicare and purchase a supplement. You have to be careful with the supplement policies. Most of them will increase every year as you age in addition to inflation costs. I would recommend that you first look at "Issue Attained" policies. The premiums are locked in based on your age when you are ISSUED the policy. Age ATTAINED policies are those that are based on the persons age, and they can increase annually as you get older. AARP has "Community rating". which starts off at a lower premium but also increases over time. Here in my state there were only 2 "age issued" policies. (Most of these policies are AGE ATTAINED'). One never responded to my calls. The other, Transamerica, was very customer friendly. Originally, my husband and I chose USAA, which was an 'AGE ATTAINED " plan and increased the next year. That's when we began looking at alternatives. What these plans do not tell you is that the only time you can join one of them without going through underwriting is when you first turn 65. If you attempt to change plans after that time, they are allowed to deny you coverage or set premiums according to your health status. If you try to change after you first get on Medicare, companies can and do ask for health history and can require release of information to obtain medical records. Thus it is important, IMO. to choose wisely the first time. In our case, we wanted to switch supplement policies. We got around the "underwriting requirement" by belonging to one of their "preferred groups". My husband was a member of VFW and American Legion, both of which are preferred groups. My friend, who also wanted to switch to Transamerica was able to do so with her having a JC Penny's credit card. In both of our cases, we had to answer only 3 health questions which we all could say no to. Our plan with Transamerica has gone up only a few dollars in the 4 years we have had it. All of these supplement plans can increase depending on the medical inflation costs in the area for the particular plan you choose (F, G, N, M etc) but the "age attained" will also increase due to age.

Once you decide on a policy carrier, you will need to choose a plan within that carrier. They are labeled by letters of the alphabet. Each one covers different things that original Medicare does not cover. Plan F covers the remaining 20 percent of any costs covered by Medicare. While it does sound tempting, Congress passed a law which will make that plan F go away in a year or two. While people already in that group will be grandfathered in, the pool of eligible people in the pool will shrink, leaving older and sicker people in the pool, which would probably increase costs for people in that group. We chose plan G which covers everything after the deductible (currently $185) for Medicare part B coverage. We pay the first $185 each year, and the plan pays everything else. The other fact I liked was that this plan allows us to go to places like the Mayo Clinic and it will still cover the cost after the first $185.

What I learned from this activity is that all plans and all types of coverage within each plan require a lot of research to determine which one is best for you. There is much to consider which is not advertised. The one thing I would add, is my own advice to stay away from Medicare Advantage Plans. These plans require you use "network" doctors and facilities, and have co pays which can add up quickly if you have a medical event. Good luck to you! It is confusing, but we love being on Medicare which gives us choice in that we can see any doctor that takes Medicare, and we have fixed costs because we have no co pays after we pay the first $185.00.