What do Medicare Supplement plans cover?
These plans don’t actually cover specific health benefits. Medigap covers the costs you’re responsible for with original Medicare. Costs covered can include:
- Medicare deductibles
- Coinsurance
- Hospital costs after you run out of Medicare-covered days
- Skilled nursing facility care after you run out of Medicare-covered days
- Foreign travel emergency care
- First three pints of blood of a transfusion (per calendar year)
This is how the plan operates: You pay a monthly premium for your Medigap plan. Then, when you go to the doctor, your plan pays for the applicable Medicare costs left over by original Medicare.
Depending on your plan, you could have a couple of insurance cards that you will present at time of billing. There are no network rules associated with Medicare Supplements. You can see any doctor that accepts Medicare.
What is the best Medicare supplement insurance plan?
Starting January 1, 2020, Medigap plans sold to new Medicare beneficiaries aren’t allowed to cover the Part B deductible. Therefore, plans C and F are no longer available. If you already have either of these two plans, you can keep them.
So, the new most comprehensive supplement is Plan G. It covers:
- Part A coinsurance and hospital costs up to an additional 365 days after Medicare benefits are used up
- Part B coinsurance or copayment
- First three pints of blood of a transfusion (per calendar year)
- Part A hospice care coinsurance or copayment
- Skilled nursing facility care coinsurance
- Part A deductible
- Part B excess charge
- Foreign travel emergency care (up to plan limits)
However, there are other plans that lower coverage amounts but introduce out-of-pocket limits. To ensure you have proper coverage amounts for an affordable premium, you should talk to a licensed Medicare insurance agent.
