Medigap and Part D Questions

[anethum]

My mom had excess charges from an orthopedist who saw her in the hospital. She had been admitted from the ER and had no choice about which doctors treated her.

I recently called a physical therapist's office and was told they no longer accept Medicare unless you had been a patient there during the past 2 years.

 

[Dash man]

I am starting to research Medigap plans since both of us will go on Medicare in 2024. We're looking at Plan G and Plan N, so this discussion is very helpful. Looking at the Plan N companies available in our area, most have this description:

"Premiums are low for younger buyers, but go up as you get older and can eventually become the most expensive."

But the UHC AARP plans (there are two and I cannot tell the difference), state the following:

"Premiums are the same no matter how old you are. Premiums may go up because of inflation and other factors."

Give me a reason to choose anything but one of these two plans. If I live to be 100, I don't want to pay lots of money for insurance I will not use. At age 100, I'm likely to decline most care except comfort care.

Those of you on Medicare, did this factor into your decision about a particular plan?

We have the AARP/UHC Plan N in Pennsylvania. While it’s a Community rated plan, they start out by giving you a discount for a number of years. I don’t recall how many, but they’ll give you a schedule. The two variations of Plan N in my area are because one includes some extra benefits like free gym membership, discounted dental and eye care. Our copays have ranged from $15-$20 with lower copays usually for nurse practitioners.
We’re very happy with our choice and just began our third year of Medicare. I was hospitalized in Florida last January under “observation“ for four days. So Medicare Part B paid for it. My only costs were the deductible, three $20 copays for doctor visits while in the hospital and the $50 ER copay. If I had been fully admitted, my Part A would have covered it all. No excess charges.

 

[CRLLS]

In Illinois AARP/UHC offers 2 different community rated Plan G policies. One meets the standard Medicare requirements of a Plan G, and the other includes the "extra" benefits of Renew active etc. The age discounts are different amounts and lengths between them.

EastWest Gal, see my post #46 above. living past the breakeven age was a big deciding factor for us. TBH, we didn't start out that way. we had a Plan F with BCBS. We quickly learned to follies of our ways and changed a year or 2 later (with underwriting of course) to all-inclusive AARP/UHC Plan G, as that is what was the only one available at the time. We are thinking of changing to the basic AARP/UHC plan as we haven't used any of the "extra" benefits in the past.