The first and most crucial step in your Medicare decision is deciding which Medicare program, Original Medicare or Medicare Advantage, is best for you.
If you’ve picked Original Medicare, then it’s likely you will also choose a supplement plan. I always highly recommend you sign up for a supplement plan to protect your savings.
Since Original Medicare only covers 80 percent of approved expenses, you’re responsible for the remaining 20 percent.
Supplement insurance will pay most of the 20 percent. If you don’t get supplemental insurance, you are responsible for the remaining 20 percent.
Let me share just a quick story about why the supplement plans are so important.
A little while ago, we got an email from Katie. Katie is a 30-year-old teacher and was calling on behalf of her dad who’s on Medicare. He had been diagnosed with kidney failure. Original Medicare covers the treatment includes dialysis and possibly a kidney transplant.
While it’s excellent that Medicare covers the treatment, it’s not great that her dad did not get a supplement plan when he first joined Medicare.
That is why Katie came to us. She called to see if there is anything that we could do to help get financial assistance because she knew that 20 percent of his dialysis cost would quickly drain all of his savings.
Katie also knew that based on government rules, the government wouldn’t step in for extra help until he went through nearly all this money.
After extensive research, there was a small chance he would have an option to help cover the cost.
What makes me most sick about this decision is that the financial impact of his diagnosis could have been avoided by simply getting a supplement plan when he first joined Medicare.
While any supplement plan is better than no supplement plan, I recommend you go one step further and find the plan that best fits you.
Supplement plans are very different, and different plans fit different people for various reasons.
The way insurance companies and brokers sell supplement plans extremely frustrating. Insurance companies try to sell you supplement plans that make them the most money, and they rarely show you lower money-making plans even if they fit you best.
That’s why it’s so critical that if you’re choosing Original Medicare, that you also find the supplement plan that fits your unique situation the best.
To find out how you can compare supplement plans, CLICK HERE to read that blog post.
To easily make the right Medicare decision you can CLICK HERE to sign up for our Medicare Enrollment Concierge.
