Medicare supplement plans don’t actually work like a lot of the health insurance plans you might know about. After all, they don’t cover any health benefits like other insurance companies. Rather, they are there to cover the costs that you are responsible for with the original Medicare plan.
There are many costs it can help with including:
1. The deductibles for your Medicare
2. Your coinsurance
3. Hospital costs you incur once you run out of Medicare-coverage
4. The skilled nursing facility costs once you run out of Medicare-coverage
Visit Medisupps.com for more information.
Below, we will be going over how it works.
Essentially, you pay a monthly premium for your supplement plan. These supplement plans can be referred to as Medigap. Your plan will pay the majority of your out of pocket costs. Therefore, when you visit the doctor, you won’t have to pay the 20% coinsurance that is normally required by Medicare. Instead, the supplement plan will pay this instead. With some of these plans, you might be required to pay a copay rather than the 20% that you would normally pay for coinsurance.
These supplement plans aren’t your sole option. There are Medicare Advantage plans which can help reduce the costs associated with your Medicare coverage. These plans typically offer even more health coverage that you wouldn’t get with supplement plans.
The following discussion will further address the differences that exist between supplement plans and Medicare Advantage plans. It is a good idea to look it over to figure out which plan you should go with.
Medicare Supplement vs Medicare Advantage Plans
Medicare Supplement
1. Up to (3) different insurance cards
2. You coordinate between Medicare. Your supplement plan and your Part D drug plan if you have one
3. It can help supplement the costs that you would normally have to pay out of pocket with the original Medicare plan
4. You won’t get dental, vision, or prescription coverage
5. No network rules
6. No coverage for Part D Prescription drugs. Therefore, you would need a separate part D plan.
Medicare Advantage
1. Single insurance card
2. One company to coordinate all care
3. You might get extra benefits including dental, vision, and prescription
4. Might have out of network limitations
A supplement plan is likely going to be a good option if you already have existing prescription coverage through either an employer or through the military.