Medicare Supplement and Medicare Part C

Medicare Supplements and Medicare Part C

People usually go one of two routes –

Route One - Medicare Part A, B, Part D drug plan and a Supplement/Medigap plan. I call this A-la-cart

Route Two – Medicare Part C (Also called the Medicare Advantage Plan)

A Supplement and Medigap try to achieve the same thing. The supplement is the one you are most likely to hear people have. They take up the slack with the copays and out of pocket expenses related to just having Medicare Part A and B.

They also have an alphabet of plans. If you look at USAA Supplement Plan F, Plan F for XYZ will offer the same thing.

I went to the popular group and looked at the supplement plans. There were 10 plans.

Plan F was $232 a month while the cheapest was Plan K was $62.

Medicare Part C –

All this to confusing, well how about the fact that Medicare Part C is really Part A, B and D with a supplement and not really its own thing. And since you all have heard it called the Medicare Advantage plan on the TV commercials, you don’t realize that when I say Part C it means Medicare Advantage.

In order to qualify for a Medicare Advantage plan (aka Medicare Part C) you must keep up with your part B premiums.

On the popular insurance group, they had three Med Adv plans (Medicare Part C) that had monthly premiums of $0, $48 and $88 dollars.

Okay – Med advantage, if you spend $48 a month that is just $576. A Plan F supplement is $232 a month or $2784 a year. Wait. The Advantage plan also has a $6700 out of pocket. The math on this out of pocket is a lot different than the out of pocket on a commercial insurance. But this out of pocket may change under your unique situation that the supplement and drug coverage would be cheaper.

Also the Med Adv can be an HMO where you may have to go to designated clinics, doctors or places of service for labs and such.

You will have to compare for your unique situation when the time comes for you to take on the task of looking at Medicare Advantage verses Medicare a-la-cart.