If there's any carrier offering "Medigap" insurance who will tell you what their various plans cost before they sit you down with a fast-talking sales type, I'd love to hear about it.
These are plans that fill in what Medicare doesn't cover, pay all or some of the deductibles, etc. rather than the plans that glom onto your Social Security check and Medicare coverage, and allow a pittance after taking their cut; I'm sure the latter are not much worse than company-provided health plans -- except for the part where they don't leave you enough to live on.
The problem is that just about the entire system is selling their stuff without admitting how much it will cost. Medicare itself will provide a guess about how big a bite they'll take, and it's pretty grim, but the commercial companies are all smoke and mirrors.
Nothing personal, guys, but if it was an honest product, you'd set it out in trays with price tags, and let people wander the aisles, picking 'em up and evaluating price and quality. Instead, there's a lot of well-fronted bullshit about what all it'll save us hapless customers from, and to what extent, with tables and charts and illustrations -- and not word one about the monthly bill.
Look, I'm old. From here on, the ride goes downhill. Something -- or a few things -- are going to incapacitate me to a lesser or greater extent; something's going to kill me, eventually. My sincere hope is to use up nearly all my money by the day before that happens, and leave just enough for a tidy disposal of my remains. And, you know, maybe stiff the health insurance company for that last monthly bill, just as a final token of the esteem in which I have held them. Presumably by then, they'll have told me how much it will be.
Update
1 year ago
3 comments:
Find a Medicare broker. Ask people you know for referrals. I have a good one, but I live in South Carolina. She lays it out out for me, the costs of the various offers in our area and what they pay for with deductibles and copays. all set up in a spreadsheet she updates each year.
Huh. I had no problem: I got Medigap Plan F some 13 years back...it pays everything of the 20%that Medicare doesn't. I do pay $375 a month, but I never see a bill.
It's no longer available, but there something close to it.
The thing about Medigap is that each one of the alphabewtically named Plans cover some or most of what Medicare doesn't....but exactly what is or isn't covered is standardized by government mandate for each plan type...and you can do an apples to apples comparison.
Go to
https://www.medicare.gov/medigap-supplemental-insurance-plans/#/m?lang=en&year=2026
Skip the internment costs, and donate your body to the local teaching hospital. Med students need practice, and you aren't using that body for anything at that point.
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