if you're getting ready to come into Medicare you're either turning 65 or you're about to retire
and come off your group plan you've got lots of decisions to make and they can be very daunting
it's super important that you get them right so we want to make sure we understand exactly what
our choices are one of the first big decisions you have when you come in is do you go on a Medicare
Advantage plan or do you stay with Original Medicare and having Medicare supplement plan to
go along with it well almost show you exactly how they both work so this will make it much easier
for you to make that tough decision so stay tuned No okay so let's understand the difference between
Medicare Advantage and Medigap also called Medicare supplement so they try and confuse
us right off the bat by calling the same thing by different names a Medigap and Medicare supplement
plan are exactly the same thing so there's just different names for the same thing so we're going
to talk about the differences and I'm Keith Armbrecht I'm founder of Medicare on video and
I help people across the country make the right Medicare choices and I can absolutely help you as
well so we want to make sure we understand this one because this might be the biggest decision
we make coming into Medicare so we don't want to mess this up one thing I would ask of you
is if you find this video helpful subscribe to my channel and it'll give you access to all my
videos and then you'll get updates as they come along and it also helps you to understand that
it's valuable and that they put it in front of more people that need to see it so let's talk
about the difference between Medicare Advantage and Medigap so when you come into Medicare for
the first time this is the road you're on you're gonna choose either to stay on Original Medicare
and if you stay on Original Medicare you'll probably have a Medigap or Medicare supplement
plan to go with it or you're gonna choose to go on Medicare Advantage so Medicare Advantage kind of
takes you away from Medicare and put you in the custody of an insurance care so it's a private
insurance plan is what Medicare Advantage is so we're gonna understand the differences and
how they work in full disclosure I help people with Medicare supplement plans I get across the
country I choose not to sell Medicare Advantage plans for a number of different reasons and I'm
gonna go through a few of them here but I'm gonna give you a clear picture on both of them so that
you understand exactly what your choices and then that way when you make your decision you can be
comfortable that you made the right call so it's it's pretty easy to do and right now across the
country it's about 60/40 so about 64 60 percent of people are on Medicare supplement and forty
percent of people are on Medicare Advantage so it's a pretty healthy population on both
sides so let's make sure we understand how they function so again they medicate the Medigap plan
is also a Medicare supplement plan it's exactly the same thing just a different name so when we
look at the differences here between Medicare Advantage Medicare supplement let's start with
Medicare Part A and Part B so you have Original Medicare and if you watch my other videos I go
into detail obviously on Part A and Part B and how it all works but Medicare Part A and Part
B kind of the foundation of Medicare if you go on a Medicare Advantage plan your Medicare
Advantage plan takes the place of Medicare Part A and Part B if you are on a Medicare supplement
or Medigap plan your supplement is going to pay what a and B do not for the most part there'll
be small deductibles and things like that which we can get into the details on G or n or al for
whatever Medicare supplement plan we're talking about but that's kind of how it works so it's
either going with a private insurance carrier that takes kind of the place of Original Medicare or
supplementing Original Medicare so gives you much better coverage on Original Medicare so
prescription drug coverage most Medicare Advantage plans include prescription drug coverage in their
plan so it's kind of an all-in-one package which can make it a little bit easier this would be one
of the reasons that I would recommend somebody going into a Medicare Advantage plans if you
take complicated prescription medications you may find better coverage any Medicare Advantage plan
then you would on a Medicare drug plan so if you have a Medicare supplement or Medigap plan you
would purchase a Medicare drug plan separately so it's it's a separate piece than the Medicare
supplements not super expensive it runs on average about $25 a month or somewhere around
there but it's just kind of how it functions so sometimes certain Medicare Advantage plans may
cover complicated drugs better than a standalone Medicare drug plan so that's something that if
you are in that scenario we need to look at very closely to see which would work better in your
situation now here's a big part of the difference between Medicare Advantage and Medicare supplement
choice of doctors and hospitals that is by far the biggest difference in these two scenarios on
a Medicare Advantage plan you typically will have a network of doctors at a network of hospitals and
you have to stay within that network of doctors and network of hospitals some plans do have how
to network benefits but a lot of times the the cost or the out-of-pocket expense makes
it prohibitive makes it much too expensive to use that it networks you still have to stay in them on
Medicare supplement plans you can go to any doctor any hospital in the country so it doesn't matter
where you live you can go across the country to a hospital if you want to where a doctor across the
country if you want to without any limitations as long as they take Medicare you can get any doctor
any hospital so that's the primary reason that I believe Medicare supplement easily outweighs of
Medicare Advantage plan gives you the freedom the flexibility to make your own decisions so that you
don't have to ask permission from an insurance company on whether or not you can go here or go
there if you want to go to Mayo Clinic you can go to Mayo Clinic if you want to go to Jackson you go
to Jackie you can go anywhere in the country that accepts medicare under a medicare supplement plan
so that's a big big differentiator right there now when you have monthly calls and this is kind
of hard to figure because right now we're in Medicare open enrollment so every end of the
year mid October to mid-december is Medicare open enrollment period and you see just it's
really the only commercials you'll see on TV or for Medicare Advantage plans talking about how
zero premium and how low cost and everything that goes along with them and just kind of understand
they are obviously hard marketing their Medicare Advantage plans because they obviously want you as
a customer and a lot of Medicare Advantage plans if they have super low premiums some of them even
give you money back it's very much again what you pay for and your restrictions will be tighter the
lower your cost is so if you have a zero premium plan you very well may have a much smaller choice
of doctors hospitals things of that nature monthly cost for your Medicare supplement plan not crazy
it can run from as low even lower $50.00 a month you know really not more than 200 some places
in the country are more expensive than others but we'll find something that is certainly very
reasonable generally great coverage for around $100 a month mark sometimes a little bit more
sometimes a little bit less just depends on again what part of the country you're in and how the
pricing is in your zip code so something we can do very easily and again I'm here to help with any of
this stuff we will figure out exactly which is the best one for you and then we have how to pocket
cost so with the Medicare Advantage plan it's more of a of a pay-as-you-go so it has a lower
monthly premium likely but a higher out-of-pocket cost when you use it so and a lot of people get
surprised by the out-of-pocket cost when you use it for instance a lot of Medicare Advantage plans
have a maximum out-of-pocket of about $6,000 for a year where a supplement might be a few hundred
dollars so it's a huge difference when you go to use it so a lot of people will love their Medicare
Advantage plans have you used it well no and once you start using it then you see that's where
you're gonna end up having some out-of-pocket expenses and things of that nature so you
have limited Network higher out-of-pocket costs generally than you do on a medicare supplement
paperwork on Medicare Advantage if you are at a lower cost one you likely will need a referral to
go from a primary care to a specialist that's the number one gripe but just about anybody is to have
to go if you need to go see a specialist you have to go first to your primary make an appointment
see the doctor get a referral then make an appointment go to the specialist and it just
can take weeks to do it and it's just crazy the restriction there so keep that in mind and make
sure if you're gonna join a Medicare Advantage plan know if you need referrals know if you
don't need referrals Medicare supplement plan you pretty much do what you like so you make any call
you want you can get any doctor any specialist any hospital you don't have to ask for permission and
with a supplement plan there's no customer service so it's run directly parallel to Medicare so
medicare covers it the supplement has to cover it so you don't ever have to ask permission and
I can only tell you from personal experience I have literally thousands of clients on Medicare
supplement plans and I did have a customer service call about two weeks ago so I had somebody call me
which is super rare as a customer service call and his issue was that he lost his ID card so he lost
his Medicare supplement card you wanted to know how'd he get it know so that was the gist of the
customer service then he called me back said he found this ID card so there you go problem
solved super easy and that is generally how it works with a Medicare supplement if you google
Medicare Advantage reviews you'll see all sorts of complicated scenarios and horror stories and
things of that nature it just doesn't happen under Medicare supplements with Original Medicare so
that's why I choose not to offer or sell Medicare Advantage plans and I easily can but I just don't
need the headaches and the the constant customer service issues that arise so I'm super happy on
Medicare supplement coverage and helping people really accomplish everything that they want
because it actually works super good so those are the main differences between and again if you find
this video helpful just click Subscribe you'll always have access to it you'll have access to all
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this information so and I'd be happy to help with any of this my website Medicare on video comm you
can get an immediate quote on a supplement plan so you can find out exactly what it would cost
in your zip code super easy to do and I have a tremendous amount of information there my
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a Resource Center that has all the guides and the forms that you need so if there's something
that you need like an employer coverage form if you're retiring from work you're going to need an
employer coverage form you can download it around my website makes it easy to get exactly what you
need so feel free to use my website for anything that you find helpful and if there's anything I
can do just give me a call send me an email fill out a quote request and we'll get back to you
super quick so I hope you found this helpful I hope subscribe and have a fantastic day Medicare