Medicare offers a wide range of medical coverage from everyday doctors’ visits to lifesaving surgery.
But there are many gaps within Medicare, starting with Medicare only pays 80% of your medical bills and you are responsible for the remaining 20%.
If you don’t have these holes filled when you first join Medicare you will likely get costly bills. Costly bills that will quickly eat into your savings.
It’s easy to cover the holes if you know how they work and what to do.
Just the other day I received this email from Marcia saying:
“We did not fully understand Medicare rules when I first joined. After I was hospitalized for three days in January 2017 we ended up paying over $10,000 in medical bills to fill the holes Medicare didn’t cover. Our mistake, and it hit us hard financially.”
Thankfully there are Medicare programs to fill these gaps. By knowing your options and how it works you can be protected.
These programs are called “Medigap” or “Medicare Supplement” plans.
The best, and sometimes only, time to get a Medigap plan is when you first join Medicare.
When you first join Medicare there is a 6-month “Medigap Open Enrollment Period.” This period starts the month you turn 65 and are enrolled in Medicare Part B
During this time you can buy any Supplement plan sold in your state no matter your health situation. This means that even if you have stage-4 cancer, the company is required to sell you a plan and cannot charge you extra.
Once this 6-month window closes, there is no guarantee that an insurance company will sell you a supplement plan. Outside of this window the insurance companies are generally allowed to use Medicare underwriting to decide if they want to cover you and at what price. Therefore, if you have existing health conditions they likely won’t cover you or will cover you at a higher price. Although if you qualify for a special condition you may be one of the few people who get a second chance.
What this means is that not only do you need to ensure you pick the right Medicare program, you must also pick the right supplement plan.
Supplement plans vary greatly by price and the details of what it covers. What we see is that most Medicare brokers encourage you to purchase the plans that pay the highest commissions. But picking these high commission plans can be a big mistake for you and your finances. It’s critical to make sure you pick the right supplement plan for you and not your Medicare broker.
It’s a critical decision so make sure you get it right the first time
