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To: TNoldman

My state has offered MA plans for about 10 years. I immediately joined one of the plans.

It had zero premium [above the regular Medicare Part B premium] and offered somewhat better coverage than Medicare alone. When the mandatory drug coverage came about, many plans incorporated it.

The copays for doctor visits are typically in the $5 to $20 range. Copays for generic prescriptions are from $2 to $6 and some of those are $0 if a specific online pharmacy is used.

The problem with MA is the offerings.

Initially, there were about a dozen insurers and each of them had several plans. Over the years, many have dropped out or restricted coverage. The last 3-4 years, there have been only 3 insurers that offer decent plans in my county.

The last 2 years I was on Humana.

IIRC, for 2015, my premium was zero, doctor copay was $15 and generic drug copay was $6 per month per prescription.

For 2015, they began charging a $10/month drug premium and $6 drug copay. They also started charging $6 for blood labs.

For 2016, they increased the monthly drug premium to $16.50. The drug copay remained at $6. They also increased the lab copay to $10.

Those small increases do add up.

This year, I went with the United Healthcare option. It still has $0 premiums, $5 PCP doctor copay and $2 copay for generics.

You just have to compare available plans for your health condition.

My state still offers about a dozen plans, but many of them (the insurance companies) have reduced the number of eligible PCP doctors.


14 posted on 03/21/2017 9:31:22 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: TomGuy
My county now offers zero MA plans. Makes it easy to decide against buying one lol.

2017 Medicare Advantage Plans in Benton County Washington

There are 0 Medicare Advantage Plans available in Benton County WA from health insurance providers and 0 Special Needs Plans available. Advantage plans offer additional gap coverage. The plan with the lowest out of pocket expense is $9999 and the highest out of pocket is $0.


18 posted on 03/21/2017 10:11:04 PM PDT by steve86 (Prophecies of Maelmhaedhoc O'Morgair (Latin form: Malachy))
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