BCBS has supplemental and replacement plans, it depends on your situation
Posted on 06/17/2016 8:23:10 AM PDT by CGASMIA68
Have a few questions medicare dances around and BSBC isn't sure or wont commit on. Any one in the buisness or up to speed on this stuff let me know and I will PM you
I am not any kind of guru, but the answers to your questions will depend on what state you live in and likely even the county. For example in some areas HMOs are about the only plans offered and in my part of the country, they don’t exist. There are some resources for info like through the local senior center (yeah, I don’t feel that old either) that might be able to give you unbiased info. Good luck.
It depends on which state you live in. They have different plans and different insurance company participants.
If you get a Medicare and You 2016 booklet in the mail, it should like most available plans in your area, with the various coverages and fees.
Even if you get the Medicare and You booklet, check the online Medicare website. They do have discrepancies.
After you narrow the plans down, you might check the insurer’s website.
There are too many variables without knowing more about your situation/state, etc., to give you much more info.
Also, check with your primary doctor to see whether he/she even accepts a particular insurance plan.
You probably have a choice between Medicare + a supplemental plan or Medicare Advantage. Medicare + supplement still requires drug coverage which may require an additional drug plan. Medicare Advantage may or may not include a drug plan. If it does not, you will be required to get an additional drug plan.
If you do not have an acceptible drug plan when you start Medicare/Medicare Advantage, you will be penalized annually until you get an approved plan. The penalty will still continue to be assessed.
Best bang for the buck if it is in your area is Kaiser. It guarantees you will have a doc. If you are proactive about your own care you will do fine
Not all docs will take Medicare so just because you have a plan doesn’t mean anything
BCBS has supplemental and replacement plans, it depends on your situation
Medicare Advantage is the only way to go. Those supplement policies are expensive.
If Medicare Advantage is available.
When it started in my state, there were about 10 different insurance companies, each with about 5 different plans. Each year thereafter, there were fewer insurance companies and fewer plans.
For me last year, I really only had 1 option. There were 2 other similar plans, but one did not have my primary physician and the other did not include drug coverage.
I stayed with the one had had for a couple of years, because it has my physician and drug coverage. For 2016, they did add a $10 monthly premium for drug coverage. They cut the physician’s co-pay in half from $12 to $6, but I found out a couple of weeks ago that they now apply the co-pay to blood labs. Thus, my co-pay is still $12 per quarter, but now is split at $6 to the physician and $6 to the blood lab.
I have an eerie feeling that even the Medicare Advantage costs are going to rise significantly, unless a Republican administration actually does dump Obamacare.
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