Medicare’s Enrollment Timeline
If you do not enroll in a Medicare Supplement when you first go on Medicare, you may never to able to get one.
Posts tagged ‘Plan G’
Dec 11
Choose the Medicare Supplement Company …Not the Initial Price
Almost every day I receive a request from someone who is about to go on Medicare to provide them with Medicare Supplement quotes for their area.
While I am happy to do this, I always feel the quotes I am providing to them are misleading.
The reason for this is there is virtually no relationship between the monthly premium you pay for a Medicare Supplement at age 65 compared to other carriers and what you will pay over the course of your lifetime.
In many situations, the Medicare Supplement carrier with the lowest premium at age 65 will cost much more than other carriers both in the near future and the rest of your life.
“I Wish I Had Talked With You Sooner”
I talk with many people every day about their Medicare situation.
In most situations, the people I talk with are about to go on Medicare so they still have the opportunity to choose a Medicare plan that will give them maximum access to the health care they may need now or in the future while having their costs paid 100 percent.
However, I often talk with people who are already on Medicare and who may not have realized the fact that bad Medicare choices can be permanent and irreversible.
Such a situation happened last week. A gentleman named Roger called me from Atlanta who had left regular Medicare when he turned 65 two years ago and enrolled in a private, for-profit Medicare Advantage plan from Humana.
Delaying Medicare…Penalty or No Penalty?
There is only one acceptable answer to this question and that answer is "you."
However, if you make the wrong decision about how to receive your Medicare, your health could be managed by an insurance company's budget analyst often more concerned about the profits of his employer than your best health outcome.
When you first go on Medicare - usually at age 65 but often later if you are still working - you can choose to receive your Medicare benefits through regular Medicare combined with a Medicare Supplement and a Medicare Part D drug plan.
Or, you can instead assign your Medicare benefits to a private, for-profit, restricted-choice Medicare Advantage plan such as Humana Gold Plus or Kaiser Permanente.
Who Is Managing Your Health?
There is only one acceptable answer to this question and that answer is "you."
However, if you make the wrong decision about how to receive your Medicare, your health could be managed by an insurance company's budget analyst often more concerned about the profits of his employer than your best health outcome.
When you first go on Medicare - usually at age 65 but often later if you are still working - you can choose to receive your Medicare benefits through regular Medicare combined with a Medicare Supplement and a Medicare Part D drug plan.
Or, you can instead assign your Medicare benefits to a private, for-profit, restricted-choice Medicare Advantage plan such as Humana Gold Plus or Kaiser Permanente.
Why Plan G Instead Of Plan F
I often hear the following from someone going Medicare who in the past has cared or currently is caring for a parent or other family member:
"My had a Plan F Medicare Supplement and it covered everything and that is what I want."
I understand that point of view completely. There is no better frame of reference for what any us of can expect with our health in the future than what we have seen or see with our parents or other older loved ones.
With a Plan F Medicare Supplement, our older loved ones can go to any doctor or hospital anywhere in the country that accepts Medicare - as almost all do - and all of their costs are covered 100 percent.
Will Your Medicare Plan Be On Your Side Against Cancer?
I hate cancer.
I vividly remember as a 12 year-old being in the surgery waiting room at Baptist Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee on a snowy January day. My dad - my best friend, my baseball coach, my golf teacher and playing partner, my fellow history buff and my hero - was undergoing surgery for a supposedly benign tumor in his kidney. (The picture above is my dad and me from around 1969)
Managed Care Medicare? Why You Should Avoid
As you probably know by now, when you are about to turn 65, you receive a large amount of unwanted mail trying to persuade you to enroll in a specific Medicare plan.
At first, it can be very confusing. Prior to becoming eligible for Medicare, Medicare seemed like a simple program. You turn 65 and go on Medicare.
Unfortunately, Medicare has become more complicated as the government has allowed private, for-profit companies such as Humana to steer you into Managed Care Medicare Plans that can provide far less access to the health care you need and require you to pay far higher costs than you should.
These plans are very profitable for these companies at the expense of your health and financial well-being. The high profits these companies make from these plans are the reason they spend so many millions of dollars advertising them on television and in your mailbox when your are about to turn 65.
What Are Captive Medicare Agents? And Why you Should Avoid Them
As you go through the process of learning about Medicare and choosing a Medicare plan, there are different people you can talk to about your options.
It is an excellent idea to work with a Medicare agent who represents several different Medicare Supplement carriers. This agent will be able to focus on what is right for you.
A type of Medicare agent that you want to avoid is called a "Captive Agent". A Captive Agent only represents one insurance carrier and usually can only offer one plan. They are almost always directly employed by an insurance company.
Why Humana Spends So Much Advertising Its Private Medicare Plans
During this time of year, you see what seems like non-stop television advertising trying to persuade you to enroll in a for-profit, restricted access, Managed Care Medicare Advantage plan.
One of the companies that seems to spend the most is Humana touting its "All-In-One" Medicare Advantage plan.
After a while, it becomes obvious these companies must be making a lot of money off of their for-profit, managed-care Medicare plans to be able to spend so many millions of dollars advertising them.
Charles Bradshaw