Posts Tagged ‘medicare supplement insurance plans’

Why You Should Consider Owning a Medicare Supplement Plan

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

The annual changes in the benefit structure in some Medicare Advantage plans can wreck havoc on your health care budget. . Many have found their out of pocket expenses climbing while their benefits go downhill. On the other hand. Medicare Supplement Plans assist you in meeting your health care costs. Your Medicare Supplement Plan will automatically adapt to the changes in Medicare deductible and co-insurance from year to year.

Go To the Provider of Your Choice

You have complete freedom of choice for your doctors and hospitals when you have original Medicare along with a Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan. You do not have to deal with provider networks or get a referral if you need to see a specialist. Your are free to go to any provider, any time.

Some MA Plans require you to choose providers from a network. A potential problem with this is that a provider can leave at network and depending on your situation, you may loose a provider that you are very comfortable with.

Coverage is Guaranteed Renewable

A great feature of Medicare Supplement Plans is that they are guaranteed renewable. This means that as long as you keep up your premiums your plan can not be canceled. The Advantage Plans make new contracts with Medicare each year. Plans change each year and some plans stop offering coverage at all. Members of a discontinued plan will have to access other options for their health care.

Any Provider or Hospital that Accepts Medicare Will Accept Your Medicare Supplement

Medicare Supplement Plans are accepted by any doctor or hospital that participates in Medicare. Providers may accept an Medicare Advantage Plans payment terms or not. They may also decide against accepting new patients. When you are thinning about joining an MA Plan, first ask your doctor about these issues.

Totally Portable Coverage

Just like Medicare, your Medicare Supplement Plan covers your health care needs anywhere in the United States. Some Medicare Supplement Plans even provide limited medically necessary emergency care outside of the country. You can confidently travel and you never need to worry about your health plan regardless of where you choose to live.

What About Guaranteed Issue?

If you are just qualifying to receive Medicare Benefits, you are in you Medicare Open Enrollment Period. This is one of the times when you have guaranteed issue status. You can not be turned down for any Medicare Supplement plan that you choose. You can not be turned down and you will not be asked about your health history. Some of the situations in which you will enjoy GI rights are: if you loose coverage because your employer decides to no longer offer your retirement health plan. If you are on an MA Plan and you relocate and are not living in your plan’s coverage area or if your plan no longer covers your area you may have GI rights. Also if you enrolled in an Medicare Advantage Plan within the last year and it is the first time that you have been in a plan other than original Medicare, and you return to original Medicare, you will have the right to choose any Medicare Supplement Plan and you can not be turned down. These are just a few.

So as you can see, there are definite advantages to having a Medicare Supplement plan. You may be able to qualify even if you have had medical issues in the past.

Before you decide on your Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan Visit our website www.medicarequote4u.com for your free quote and up to date information about Medicare that you’ll want to know.

Is Medicare Advantage Coming To An End?

Monday, October 25th, 2010

The healthcare reform has begun the start to changes in the health care system that up until this point have just been words on paper. The Meddicare Advantage system seems to be under going the most amount of reform.

The White House intends to pay for a huge chunk of the $900 billion reform bill with savings from government insurance plans for people 65 and over. Over $500 billion in Medicare savings is expected to come from eliminating subsidies to Medicare Advantage, a program that pays private companies to insure Medicare beneficiaries.

Medicare Advantage began in 1997 as Medicare+Choice. The program was supposed to reduce costs through competition among private insurance plans. That was the pitch by the insurance industry, who claimed that it could do a better job than the government by emphasizing preventative services thus stopping future illnesses in their tracks. In 2003, the Medicare Modernization Act, which featured creation of the Part D plan for prescription drugs, renamed the program Medicare Advantage and boosted federal spending to stabilize and expand the program.

Many new perks such as dental, vision, hearing benefits, free gym memberships, lower co-pays and lower premiums were some of the upgrades that were paid for from this Federal spending. Much of these benefits were not given to traditional Medicare enrolled. The insurance companies pockets got fatter seeing as that is where most of thee subsidies went that were be being paid out of Medicare Part A. In June of 2009 the Medicare Payment advisory Commission reported and extra 12$ billion in spending more on the Medicare Advantage enrolled than original Medicare would of cost.

The Medicare Advantage subsides are reduced, not completely cut with the new Senate Finance Committee bill and the new House health reform bill. Many Medicare Advantage beneficiaries will have to begin to search for new heath coverage. As these subsides are cut, benefits will be reduced within the plans. About 10 million of the 40 million Medicare eligible are enrolled in the Medicare Advantage plans which included 1 million Florida residents.

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The Modernization of Medicare Supplement Plans to Occur June 2010

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Medicare passed and will implement the below listed changes to Medicare supplements June 1, 2010:

Plans E, H, I, and J will no longer exist. These plans will not be sold by any insurance company after June 1, 2010. However, if you are currently enrolled in one of the aforementioned plans, then you can be “grandfathered” in to keep the policy. Do keep in mind that some insurance companies will let you convert your coverage to one of the new “modernized” Medicare supplement policies. This may well be a good opportunity as there may be higher renewal premiums for E, H, I, and J in the near future due to the lack of premiums from new recipients of that coverage. If you wait to convert beyond the allotted time period, then you may be required to go through medical underwriting and thus risk decline.

Plans M and N will be introduced. Medicare supplement Plans M and N will have lower monthly premiums in exchange for higher out of pocket payments for medical expenses incurred. For instance, Plans M and N will not cover the Part B deductible and Part B excess charges. Plan M will cover half of the Part A deductible, while Plan N will cover the entire Part A deductible. Plan N also will have instances in which co-pays will be required. Plans K, L, M and N may be suitable low cost alternatives to Medicare Advantage Plans (minus the prescription drug coverage.)

New Medicare supplement policies will issue with lower premium rates. An advantage associated with this Medicare modernization should be lower monthly premium rates for those who choose a conversion plan who are healthy (enough to pass medical underwriting qualifications.) As new plans are introduced they nearly always offer lower rates as there are no claims associated with them. New risk pools equal lower rates.

In direct contrast to all the above listed changes, Plans A, B, C, D, F, G, K and L will have virtually the same benefits as before with Plan F now being the most comprehensive.

For more information, please be sure to do your research and contact a trusted Medicare supplement agent.

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