

Medigap Insurance Plans

Medigap health insurance is a separate private insurance plan that you buy in order to pay for certain health coverage that is not already covered by Medicare. There are several things that people wish was covered by Medicare that isn’t. This includes long-term care, vision, dental, hearing aids and other types of services. Each Medigap plan will have a different monthly premium based on different factors about you and what type of coverage you would like. In order to get a Medigap Plan you must be enrolled in both Medicare Parts A & B.

Medicare Parts & Medigap Plans

Medigap Plans do not typically cover prescription drugs, so you would still want to consider getting Medicare Part D. You will need to be enrolled in Medicare Part A & B in order to get Medigap Insurance. This type of insurance can help you not only to cover things that Medicare doesn’t cover, but also to cover the extra costs that you would have to pay under Medicare. You can only enroll in a Medigap plan when you are already enrolled in Medicare, or up to 6 months after you have done so.

Medigap Plans A-N

There are ten different Medigap Plans. They each have different features to help defray healthcare costs.

Plan A - Medigap Plan A basically just covers coinsurance for Medicare Part A & B plans and hospice care.

Plan B - This Medigap plan covers everything in Plan A, plus your deductible for Medicare Part A.

Plan C - This one covers everything in Plan B, as well as your skilled nursing care coinsurance, Part B deductible and 80% of the costs of a foreign travel health emergency.

Plan D - Medigap Plan D covers almost everything like Plan C, but does not cover the Part B deductible.

Plan F - Plan F covers everything from Plan C, plus any extra charges from Medicare Part B. In some states this is available with a high deductible of $2,200. So it would only kick in after you reach that deductible.

Plan G - Plan G is practically the same as Plan D, but it also adds in extra charges from Medicare Part B.

Plan K - This is the same as Plan D, without the travel coverage and it only covers 50% of your coinsurance as opposed to 100%. This plan has an out of pocket limit of $5,120. Once you reach that it goes up to 100% coinsurance.

Plan L - This one resembles Plan K very closely but it covers 75% of your coinsurance instead of 50%. Plan L has an out of pocket limit of $2,560. Once you reach that you will be covered 100%.

Plan M - Plan M is almost identical to Plan D, but it only covers 50% of your Part A Deductible instead of 100%.

Plan N - Plan N is practically similar to Plan D but there are some small copays to pay for office visits & emergency room visits.

In Conclusion

If you want to get Medigap Insurance, it’s a great idea. It can help you to get more things covered for your Medicare coverage, and it will make your retirement and later in life care a lot more pleasant and affordable.