when you come into medicare you have some really really big choices to make and they
can be absolutely complicated when you don't have any experience with medicare or how to choose the
best parts and what makes the most sense for you the main choice you have right off the bat
is do you stay on original medicare or do you go into a medicare advantage plan a lot of people
don't even know the difference between the two so i'm gonna go over that right now i'm
gonna tell you exactly what i would choose for myself personally and i'm keith armbrick founder
of medicare on video i help people across the country make the right medicare choices i can
absolutely help you as well feel free to take advantage of all the information i have on my
website if you stay to the end i'll show you how to download my free book medicare made clear
a great resource to keep on your computer or your ipad for now and in the future has basically
everything you need to know about medicare in that book but right now we're going to talk about that
main decision you have right off the bat coming into medicare
do you stay on original medicare do you choose a medicare advantage plan so first off what's
the difference original medicare is medicare it's part a and part b if you stay on original medicare
it covers most of your medical expenses but certainly not all of it it has a big deductible
on part a it has 20 coinsurance on part b so if you have original medicare you'll probably get
a medicare supplement plan that covers the stuff that a and b do not you would likely also get a
medicare drug plan that covers your prescription so that is the original medicare side now medicare
advantage is different it kind of packages all that together this is the stuff you see on tv
especially with the joe namath and the j.j walker and the william shatner commercials where they're
just pushing you to go into medicare advantage plans so a medicare advantage plan is run by
private insurance companies so it is not medicare running it they pay a private insurance company
to take responsibility of your claims away from medicare so medicare pays about a thousand dollars
a month per person to a private insurance company to get them to take responsibility
of your claim so good for medicare and good for the private insurance company so the issue
that i have with medicare advantage because it then takes it to a for-profit type scenario where
an insurance carrier is then making decisions on what is approved and what is not approved so
i'm going to tell you right now personally what i would absolutely do is i would always choose
original medicare i would never choose medicare advantage i do have another video i'm going to
talk about original medicare here but my other video right here if you look at this card right
up top come back to this spot in the video you can see the video i have on why i would never choose
medicare advantage and that's got just a ton of views so it's certainly important information to
understand coming into medicare so let's talk about original medicare and why i would always
choose to stay with original medicare and it's pretty simple number one is choice with original
medicare you don't have any networks so you can go to any doctor any hospital anywhere in the country
without asking permission so there's not a network that you have to stay within you can literally
choose to go to any doctor that takes medicare any hospital that takes medicare now a lot of times
you're going to go to your local area doctors and hospitals but it's the time when something
significant or terminal or something that is beyond local scope where you want to go somewhere
and see a particular specialist whether it's a heart doctor or a neurosurgeon or anything
if you want to go to new york you can go to new york if you want to go to california you can
go to california again you don't have to ask for permission so that is number one right off the bat
freedom of choice to do what you want to do with your healthcare now hopefully we're going to all
stay healthy through our later years and we won't ever need to go see some really super specialized
medical doctor for whatever type scenario but if you get a rare form of bone cancer or a rare heart
condition where it's just not the best in your area i want to be able to go wherever i want to go
so that's right off the bat number one number two with original medicare and your supplement plan
there aren't referrals you don't have to pick a primary doctor and then go see that primary
doctor if you need to go to a specialist so if you need to go to something like a cardiologist
you don't have to ask permission from a primary care first to go see that specialized doctor
so there are scenarios where they may want you to get a referral
but it's not a requirement so that that's one of the biggest complaints with medicare advantage
is having to jump through hoops to go where it is you need to go so the original medicare we don't
do any of that we absolutely have the freedom to do what we want to do with our own health care and
then number two pre-authorization with original medicare again you don't have to ask permission
and that can be very very frustrating you hear a lot of stories on medicare advantage where
things are not approved doctor says we need to do this but the insurance company says
we're not going to pay for it so and it has a lot to do with cat scans and mris
and rehab and things of that nature where you know if you do some google review looking for medicare
advantage you'll see a lot of those stories with original medicare it's simple if your doctor says
it needs to be done and it's medically necessary that's it you don't have to ask for pre-approval
to have something done with original medicare so that's another main reason why i would always
choose original medicare with a supplement and likely with a drug plan that's a little different
story with the drug plan so you know some folks don't take any prescription drugs they may choose
to use their plenty of discount drug programs out there but you know that that's just a different
conversation but original medicare gives you the freedom go to any doctor any hospital anywhere
in the country you don't have any referrals to cover go from a primary to a specialist
you don't have any pre-authorization where you have to ask for permission
and then the last part of it is the super low out of pocket expense so when you're on a medical plan
your out of pocket max is what's really important and with original medicare so
if you have a and b and for instance you get a medicare supplement plan g the only out of
pocket you have for the year is the medicare part b premium right now that's 233 dollars
so you're out of pocket for the year from january to january with original medicare and a plan g
is 233 dollars so if you got hit by a bus and you had a catastrophic year from january to january
it's going to cost you 233 dollars i mean that's almost crazy that they haven't built so it's that
low anybody coming into medicare has a much higher deductible and much higher out of pocket expense
but that's it on medicare so it's fantastic if you have a plan n it's very similar you have
the same 233 dollars and then in addition when you go to the doctor it's a 20 copay
if you go to the emergency room it's a 50 copay so that's not any big out-of-pocket expense now
medicare supplements do obviously have a premium and what we see is generally we're running
pretty close to average about a hundred bucks a month some states are a little higher some states
are a little less so whether it's g or n our goal is to really get close to about a hundred bucks a
month for that supplement so if you go into a medicare advantage plan a medicare advantage
plan may have zero premium so there may not be an upfront cost but i can promise you very much a get
what you pay for with medicare advantage now it's also kind of pay as you go so on medicare
advantage you're out of pocket expense where on that g is 233 dollars on medicare advantage can be
as high as seventy five hundred dollars so that that's that's difficult to do when you're in a
whether it's a catastrophic medical scenario or just a serious medical scenario to also have a
big out-of-pocket financial bill when you come out of the hospital so reasons i would always choose
to stay with original medicare with a medicare supplement plan number one freedom pick any doctor
any hospital number two no referrals you can go to the specialist without having to take an extra
trip an extra couple of weeks to go to a primary first and that's another crazy thing with networks
and doctors you'll find if you need to go to that specialist and you call for an appointment and
they'll say okay our first opening is two months from now but i'm sick right now i need to see a
specialist right now but they're first available literally two months from now and that's more
standard than it is not standard so certainly part to understand and then you know pre-authorization
original medicare you don't have to ask permission medicare advantage you almost always you can go
to the doctor and they'll say okay well first we need to run it by your insurance company and see
if it's okay with them that's crazy as well the doctor thinks you need it you absolutely
should have it done and then the maximum out of pocket on original medicare with a supplement
super low super low on a medicare advantage plan can be super high so again it all works
just to me the best i i would absolutely have my mother on original medicare i would personally
be on original medicare it's just the choice that i would make so i hope you found this helpful and
gives you an idea on the difference between the two stay tuned right now and we'll show you how to
download my book medicare made clear you'll find that very helpful also a little more information
on stuff you'll find helpful stay tuned i hope you have a fantastic day thank you for taking
the time to watch my video i hope you found it very helpful a couple of other things that you'll
find very helpful is first download a copy of my free book medicare made clear i put a lot of time
a lot of effort into this book you'll find it very helpful for everything that you need for medicare
now and in the future it has videos in the book has all the links that you need for signing up
and everything else that you'll need going forward so take just a minute go to medicareonvideo.com
forward slash free book you can download it right now and save it on your computer
you'll have it for now and in the future and then down the road when it's time to renew
your medicare supplement plan we always want to shop around so every year it makes sense to do
a medicare price check and i have a website specific to that www.medicarepricecheck.com
where we will compare your current plan and see if we can get the same plan at a lower price
and a lot of times we can do that so it makes sense to visit medicarepricecheck.com every year
we'll do a quick comparison let you know if it makes sense and then we take it from there
hope you found all this helpful 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 download my
book medicare made clear absolutely free you can also subscribe to my channel right here so please
also find download link right below this video to download my book
medicare made clear absolutely free you can also subscribe to my channel right here
so please download my book watch some videos subscribe to the channel have a great day