Medigap - Open Season Again
If you're not satisfied, switch now
Image by fernando zhiminaicela from Pixabay
Open season starts today - November 13.
Open season's over December 7, so you have less than four weeks. If you're happy with your current plan, fine.
If not, now's the time to check out your options.
What is Medigap Insurance?
Original Medicare doesn't cover all potential medical expenses.
For example, Part A covers just 80% of your approved hospital costs.
What about the other 20%? They're on you.
As expensive as hospital care is today, even 20% can break you.
So the government allows insurance companies to sell policies that cover expenses Original Medicare doesn't.
That way, you know you can afford any treatment generally approved by insurance companies.
Medigap Plans are Only for Original Medicare Beneficiaries
Another alternative is to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan, because MA plans replace Parts A, B, C & D of Original Medicare - and may provide some benefits Original Medicare doesn't.
However, some MA plans don't cover all out-of-pocket expenses, so you need to check those out carefully if you're in an MA plan or thinking about switching to one from Original Medicare.
Do You Have Other Health Insurance?
Maybe you don't need to enroll in a MA plan because you're covered in a group health plan at work, a prior employer's group plan or a spouse's group health plan.
For example, I'm covered by group health insurance for federal employees (retiree and active duty).
Therefore, I don't pay for either Medicare Part B or a Medigap plan. (I probably should enroll in Medicare Part B, and let them and my health insurance fight over who's going to pay my bills.)
There're 10 Types of Approved Medigap Plans
The government closely defines what's available.
At first, it's kind of confusing. The types of plans are just letters: A, B, C, D, F, G, K, L, M and N.
Each type of plan must provide the same basic benefits as the others of its type.
Some will be more useful to you than others, depending on your medical needs.
Some are very limited in certain types of coverage. For instance, plan A doesn't cover Medicare Part A's hospital deductible of $1,600 - at all. If you need to go into the hospital, that $1,600 is on you.
Plans M and K pay 50%. Plan L pays 75%.
Some of the plans are no longer available except to people enrolled in Medicare before 2020. Those are plans C, F and high-deductible F. If you're already in one of those, you can keep it.
The Same Type of Plan May Cost More or Less
Although the plans are standardized, they're issued by private insurance companies, NOT by Medicare.
Those companies set the premiums, so some plans available in your local area may cost more than others - for the same coverage.
Also, because each letter plan has different benefits and deductibles, there can be wide differences between options.
That's especially true of deductibles. As with all kinds of insurance, most people will save money by enrolling in a low-cost, high-deductible plan.
For example, in 2023 the high-deductible plans made beneficiaries pay $2,700 before they began kicking in.
For plan K, you could pay up to $6,940.
Therefore, check out all your options before making the Big Switch.
6 Months After You First Enroll in Medicare Part B, Medigap Plans Can Turn You Down
If you're still within the first six months of signing up for Part B, they must accept you.
They also have the right to charge you more if you have a pre-existing health condition.
In other words, if you're interested in signing up for Medigap, don't wait until you have a heart attack or you're diagnosed with cancer.
You need to sign up before your medical care is a emergency.
If it's already too late - you already have serious pre-existing conditions - shop around.
(Exceptions: In Connecticut and New York, Medigap insurers must accept you.)
What Coverage Do You Really Need?
How about the expenses of staying at a nursing home?
That's not included in plans A and B.
If you never need to stay in a nursing home, great.
But, what if you do?
What chronic conditions do you now have? What medicines do you take? Do you like your doctors?
The Best Health Insurance is a Healthy Lifestyle
1. Eat a whole food, plant based diet.
2. Get regular, moderate exercise.
3. Get 7-9 hours of sleep every night.
4. Don't smoke tobacco or cannabis (to avoid the harmful smoke, I eat it) or drink alcohol.
I strongly suggest going to the site of Dr. Michael Greger:
And start watching the many health videos available there - or on Nutrition Facts' YouTube channel.
Also, read his three books:
How Not to Die
How Not to Diet
How Not to Age - coming in December 2023
But a Healthy Lifestyle Can't Do Everything
Despite following my own advice (above), I've broken my arm and an ankle, had Covid and a few other medical problems.
Also, I've received a lot of vaccinations over the past few years, and a healthy lifestyle doesn't replace them.
A healthy lifestyle reduces your odds of suffering from disease, but there's also some remaining risk.
I'm grateful to my health insurance for paying for almost all of that - not to mention most of my dental and eyecare needs.
I Hope You're Ready for the Government Shutdown
The current budget agreement expires November 16, just a few days after this newsletter goes out.
I've lost all hope the Republican Party will demonstrate any sense of good government, goodwill toward the American people or any decent respect for our nation, our allies or freedom and democracy.
They WANT to burn this country down!
About a month or so ago, the eight most fanatical MAGA cultists, led by Matt Gaetz, got rid of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.
Congressional Republicans failed to elect two candidates, who are also MAGA cultists.
After lots of public criticism for allowing the House to go so long without a leader, House Republicans voted in Mike Johnson.
He's not well-known, but he's just as MAGA crazy as them all.
He's closely allied with the so-called "Christian" right that wants to overthrow the Constitution and make the United States "Christian."
He wants to ban gay sex, and in other ways turn the United States into a theocracy - ruled by their version of so-called "Christianity."
When a reporter asked him if he accepted the results of the 2020 election, he and a gaggle of MAGA supporters yelled at the reporter. They have no respect for the press or for the right of Americans to obtain factual information.
In fact, Mike Johnson played a part in the January 6 insurrection.
So, he's just as batshit unAmerican as the rest of MAGA.
As I write, he introduced a bill that would finance our military actions helping Israel - but ONLY by cutting money to the IRS, allowing his billionaire buddies to cheat on their taxes.
(Money to help Ukraine defeat the Ruzzian invasion isn't in the bill because modern Republicans LOVE dictators like Putin. If they were alive today, Eisenhower and Reagan would be smeared as "Republicans in Name Only.")
Johnson doesn't care about America or Americans.
Or freedom or democracy.
Burn, baby, burn.
Therefore, while I hope I'm proven wrong, I'm certain he will not make any last-minute agreements to avoid a shutdown.
He wants to close the US government - permanently.
And he doesn't give a damn whether you and I like it.
If we don't like it, we're sinners going to Hell.
Yet every Republican member of the House of Representatives voted for this wannabe "Christian" dictator - making them all responsible for the current unAmerican behavior of the modern GOP.
They should all be voted out of office.
In my opinion, the House Republicans who voted on January 6, 2021 to overturn the 2020 election should not even be allowed to be Congressional Representatives. They all betrayed their oath to the Constitution.
Those House Republicans who - like current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson - actively participated in planning the insurrection should be be prosecuted as the traitors they are.
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