Medicare Supplemental Insurance

Archive for December, 2009

What does all that mean?

The proposal includes

• opening up Medicare to those uninsured between the ages 55 to 64 effective 2011
• No public option, unless the insurance companies don’t respond
• Requires insurance companies to spend 90% of the premium dollars on medical expenses wich does not include administrative costs.

article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul

For those of you on a Medicare Advantage plan, if you have not taken a look at the benefits that are being offered for next year, we recommend that you take a look and compare them to what your benefits were last year.  What we have noticed for a lot of the plans is that they are keeping the monthly premium and Doctor office co-pays pretty close to what they were last year, its the hospital copay and out of pocket maximum is where the biggest change is.

A lot of the plans now follow the per day copay for each visit to the hospital which could be somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 on up to $250 per day for the first 7 days or more.  This per day charge can add up pretty fast considering the average stay is somewhere between 5 and 7 days.

The other major change so a lot of the Medicare Advantage plans is that your exposure our out of pocket maximum has jumped.  Depending on the plan you could be responsible for $5000, $8500 or more if you are getting benefits out of the network.

Yes these plans work great for some people, however the most important factor is that you know what your responsible for with any plan you choose.

Just saw that headline today on an add in one of my industry magazines and thought to myself that is a good question you as a potential client should ask yourself.  If you wouldn’t trust your GPS with have the info, why would you trust your advisor with only a few options?

When interviewing an agent to handle your benefits, ask how many different companies and differnt plans they can offer.  That simple question will tell you if they are a sales person or an advisor. 

A sales person sells you the only thing they have, an Advisor educates you on which company and plan matches up best with your needs.

Just something to think about…

Have a great day!  Travis