okay medicare mini course day four hopefully you've gone through one through three but now
we're going to talk about medicare supplement plans versus medicare advantage plans and
the first thing to understand medigap medicare supplement exactly the same thing two different
terms for the exact same thing so a medicare supplement plan is a medigap plan and we're
going to talk about the differences because it's a big big choice when you come into medicare which
street you go down so that's your number one choice when you first come into medicare
is whether you will choose to stay on original medicare or whether you will have a medicare
advantage plan i'm going to tell you the difference right now between the two something
else you will find very helpful if you're new to medicare or even if you're already in medicare
is a copy of my book medicare made clear and i give it away for free so you can see here
i covered just about every topic of medicare in this book i put a lot of time and effort into it
and there's videos in the book where i explain everything to you there's all the links on where
you sign up or where you get things that you need as you go through medicare so make sure
you download it it's free go to video dot com forward slash free book you can download it
right now i hope you find it very helpful right now we're going to talk about medigap
versus mapd there's another acronym for it so mapd which you'll likely see quite often
stands for medicare advantage prescription drug plan so that is a medicare advantage plan so a
lot of people get confused all the commercials that you see on tv at least 90 percent of the
commercials that you see on tv are for medicare advantage plans the ones with joe namath jimmy
walker they're a bunch of old celebrities now that are hawking these medicare advantage plans so it's
important to understand what the difference is because that's your first choice coming into
medicare stay on original medicare or go into a medicare advantage plan so you can see here
a medicare supplement plan is in addition to original medicare so if you stay on original
medicare a and b you're likely going to buy a medicare supplement plan to cover the gaps medigap
plan to cover the gaps or your other choice is to go into a medicare advantage plan that is a
private insurance carrier offered plan so it takes you off of original medicare and put you with a
private insurance company so it's important to understand that man they do put them out there
like they are the best thing since slice prep so make sure we look closely at what exactly we're
looking for now in order to get either one of them you have to be enrolled in a and b on medicare so
a lot of times people get confused with a maker advantage plan you will continue to pay your
medicare part b premium no matter which avenue you go down so just important to understand that that
we're going to have original we're going to have a and b and the b premiums always going to be there
now when you look at how they function in regards to networks one of the best things about medicare
original a and b it doesn't have any networks you can go to any doctor any hospital any specialist
anywhere in the country that takes medicare you don't have to ask if it's okay you can simply
make an appointment and go to wherever you want to go anywhere in the country so if you travel
certainly makes a big deal if you enroll into a medicare advantage plan it is more of an hmo type
environment where they have a network of doctors a network of hospitals generally in your local area
wherever you're located that will be your network and if you go out of that area there's generally
not coverage except for emergency scenarios so it can be very complicated if you travel or if
you spend part of your time here and part of your time there it's very complicated using a medicare
advantage plan in that type of scenario so that's one of the reasons probably the main reason that i
personally would always choose original medicare with a medicare supplement plan is i don't want
to ask if it's okay to go to a doctor if i have the need to go see a cancer specialist
or a heart specialist or whatever it may be as we get older we know we're going to face much more
significant health issues i want to choose what i'm going to do and i'm going to want to go when
i want to go and that's really the way it works on original medicare versus a medicare advantage plan
where you may need a prior authorization you might have to go to primary care first and get an
authorization to go to a specialist so it's certainly a lot less restrictive in original
medicare versus a medicare advantage plan it's easy to see now understand also with the different
plans on how drug plans work if you are with original medicare and a medicare supplement plan
you would get a standalone medicare drug plan so you would find a drug plan that matches up
with the medications that you take and that's what you would have they generally run 20 to 25
a month for a stand-alone medicare drug plan a lot of medicare advantage plans include that
in their benefits so they include a that's part of the mapd that they include a prescription drug
plan in the two so it's just a question of how you get it they generally function about the same just
a question of which avenue you're on on how to get one now the other thing that i would caution with
all the tv commercials and all the promises is the cost and the cost plays a big part in it
when you look at a medicare supplement plan it's generally gonna run anywhere from fifty dollars
a month to two hundred dollars a month i find they average pretty much about 100 bucks a month
and it pretty much gives you full coverage you have a very small deductible and then almost no
out of pocket the rest of the year so there's very little out of pocket if you have original
medicare with a medicare supplement plan now a medicare advantage plan they can have a premium
lower anywhere from fifty to a hundred dollars they can even have a zero dollar
premium and what i would caution with that when you are looking don't get sucked into the hype
everything they talk about on tv and just understand the cheaper it is the cheaper it is
and that's generally the way most everything works the cheaper something is the cheaper it's going
to be when you go to use it so don't necessarily get caught up in a low premium zero premium type
medical plan because when you go to use it you're going to find out either you're going to pay a lot
more when you use it or it's not going to do the things you want it to do when you go to use it
so just really put some hard effort into looking and again these tv commercials promise the world
that you're gonna get free meals you're gonna get free transportation you're gonna get free
everything someone tell you you're gonna get your part b premium back and just understand
that is for very low income qualifications so you would need to have very low income qualifications
to get the stuff that they talk about on tv and then a lot of the stuff they talk about dental
and things like that is very basic it's very basic coverage so it's not what they necessarily promote
it to be so just understand that when you're looking between the two a medicare supplement
with original medicare is pretty black and white it does what it's supposed to do you go to any
doctor any hospital medicare advantage plan can be a little more convoluted can take a lot more work
to get done what you want to do now that you know the enrollment between the two is about 50 50.
about half the people are on original medicare and about half the people are on medicare advantage
so i'm not saying it doesn't work for all it just something you need to understand as you
go through it when we talk about paperwork again medicare supplement you do what you want to do you
you go wherever you want to go as long as they take medicare they take your medicare
supplement plan it's not even a question of which company you have they're required to take
your medicare supplement plan so with a medicare advantage plan again can be more complicated
you can absolutely need a referral to go from a primary to go to a specialist and then you have
to stay within the network and you read all those horror stories about something significant happen
and then there's a doctor that's out of network that's part of it and it just gets complicated
if you google any of the dissatisfaction it's all medicare advantage it's it's almost
no original medicare with a supplement because there's no paperwork there's really nothing
you go to the doctor you give them your card and that's the end of it it can be more complicated
the other way so that concludes our day four of medicare mini course and i hope you found
it helpful and i certainly hope you download my book and obviously this is what i do i help people
across the country with their medicare choices and i can absolutely help you as well and if you
have any questions give me a call send me an email have a fantastic day hey don't go anywhere these
are some of my most recent videos right here you can also find the link right below this video to
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