Speaking only for myself and my spouse, of course, but we’ve never paid more than 8 bucks a month each for Part D. As mentioned upthread, one can change plans each year, so this year we are paying zero dollars for our prescription plan.
Of course, we have very few prescriptions (five) between us, and nothing unusual…blood pressure meds, cholesterol medication, etc.
That raises the question: if you are on traditional with a Medigap, and later decide you WANT To switch to an MA plan, do you need to go through underwriting at that point?
We’ll be on Medicare by this time next year and the current plan is to go for traditional with a plan G medigap plan. We’ve had doctors tell us to stick with that versus MA.
My brother is on an MA plan in the Chicago area and is happy with it. He’s comparatively healthy though. And in an area like that, you’d imagine that most doctors are participants.
My company started putting aside 1500 a year for 10 years when I turned 50, that would accumulate and be usable to pay for Medigap premiums. With interest credits, it’s now about 20K or more.
Only… about 3 years ago, they “improved” it so that it can ONLY be used for their company-sponsored MA plan. So, the funds I’d expected to have available to cover a large part of our Medigap premiums are now effectively GONE.
As far as brokers or whatever: our financial person at Fidelity urged me to look at the plans offered through their site. I didn’t do a cost comparison but I did notice that the list was NOT as long as the ones I see on medicare dot gov. So I cannot imagine what advantage there would be to going through them.
Like all things state-level in the USA they vary between excellent and useless.
For example, the SHIPS program in FL where I am is useless. Utterly under-resourced and clueless. I have no doubt that in some states or cities they’re excellent and a godsend to confused seniors. Not here.
Look, I’m not saying you got taken - I couldn’t possibly know. But you said they were all Plan G - yes, if they were all Plan G and therefore all have the same benefits , she would have a difficult time persuading you to choose the more expensive one. But maybe Plan C or Plan A would have been better for your circumstances but she only explained Plan G because any Plan G was better for her than any Plan A or Plan C. I’m sure my mother’s agent didn’t try to push her toward the most expensive plan F - but that wasn’t the best plan for my mother’s circumstances.
Last year I was paying under $1 a month for plan D. This year it skyrocketed to $6 a month. 4 our of my 5 meds have no copay, the other went from $30 for 3 months down to $15.
The trick is needing meds covered by cheap generics.
The advantage of relatively expensive Medigap plans with low or no copays is that you can budget for it, and no suprises if and when you get sick. I’ve lost money so far, but I haven’t spent one night in a hospital since I went on Medicare 10 years ago. My wife did better, getting two new knees and a new hip. But I figure that them no longer offering the plan I’m on means it is good for me, not for them.
When I was toying with the idea of trying to switch me to medigap from “advantage” The same agent was suggesting a different plan from G. I don’t recall which part of the alphabet soup she was looking at, but I didn’t do it because I had to pay upfront without knowing if I was accepted or not. At least that’s the way I understood it. Being as I was in a hurry by that time (not because of her) I decided to ride it out for another year.
I’m in the no copay plan F. That option isn’t offered anymore. It was more expensive, but we could afford it, luckily, and the ease of not having to pay the copay during each of my frequent trips to the doctor makes it worth it.
But it might not work for everyone.
Yes, I don’t qualify for part F either not old enough, but I would qualify for G. She felt that between the cost and my over all health I didn’t need G.
So what is covered by G that some of you don’t want to pay for?
Sorry, I should have been more detailed. She did show us Plan A and Plan C (Medicare Advantage). I already had decided that Plan C wasn’t for us, and I was willing to pay the extra for Plan G over Plan A for the more extensive coverage.
Here’s a comparison of the different plans. As an example, if I was going to buy a supplement, I wouldn’t want coverage for Part B excess charges , because my state doesn’t allow them and I wouldn’t get medical care out of state except in an emergency.It would be different if I spent half the year in another state. Someone else might not need coverage in a foreign country.which Medicare doesn’t generally cover. Oh and just because they hate us, Medicare advantage is Part C and Plan C is a supplement.
I wonder how much things will change before we’ll need Medigap. That won’t be until 2032, since we’ll just keep the insurance coverage I had through work until my wife is eligible for Medicare. She’s two and a half years younger than me and self-employed, so even though we’re paying a little over 900 per month it’s a lot cheaper than we’d get through ACA with our income level.
Those Part D prescription coverage costs seem pretty reasonable. I would never have guessed that. Thanks for the info.
The prices are reasonable; I often pay nothing for generics even though I’m on a $0 premium plan.
But I have one exception: the blood thinner Eliquis. Until I hit my out-of-pocket maximum I pay $450 for a 3 month supply. Still cheaper than the ~$500/month list price.
That’s me too. I’ll be damned if I can understand who’s making money here from who.
And private insurers sell medigap coverage. Lots of them, for each tier. And each one charges a slightly different premium for essentially the same coverage.
One more thing to consider, copied from the Google AI summary:
We did the issue age pricing. Premiums do increase, thanks to inflation, etc., but the increases have been very reasonable. Issue age coverage is more expensive when you first get it.
Buy or check out the book!
Hmm. I think all my options are community rated.