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1. Part D is the prescription drug part of Medicare. You don’t get Medicare paying any part of the prescription drug costs without it.

2. Part C is really Parts A & B combined in what’s called a “Medicare Advantage Plan”.

A. You can have Parts A and B without using a Medicare Advantage Plan.

B. Either as Medicare Parts A & B with standard Medicare or combined in a Medicare Advantage Plan (”Part C”) Social Security deducts the same Medicare Premium from what Social Security pays you; only with a Medicare Advantage Plan - they are provided by private insurers (like Aetna, United Health, Bluecross/Blueshield, ect), the insurer gets that premium from Medicare.

C. A Medicare Advantage Plan can have some additional “benefits” (Eye exams, earing aids, some dental), depending on what the insurer offers, and they need to be looked at carefully in terms of your needs, because Medicare Advantage Plans have a drawback also.

D. A drawback of Medicare Advantage plans are the insurers provide them as PPO’s or HMOs - preferred provider networks. With those networks you don’t get coverage, or as much coverage if you go to providers not in the network, which limits which providers in your area you can see without question. Usually a provider will look to see if they are part the network covered by “your” Medicare Advantage Plan, and if not they will not take you; unless your going to pay 100% out of pocket. Regular medicare A&B without going through a Medicare Advantage Plan do not have those network limitations; and sometimes you can find providers who will take standard Medicare A&B but not a Medicare Advantage Plan, because Medicare Advantage plans are plans where the insurers have negotiated to pay the providers less than what Medicare alone would pay them. (I had a brother who lost is primary care doctor because his Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan quit including his doctor in their network (because Aetna demanded to pay the doctor less than they had previously been paying - note, that lower payment to the doctor did not change how much of the cost to the patient was being covered by Medicare - that didn’t change).

There are other ins and out to it all, so continue to do your investigation, particularly before signing up for any “Part C”, Medicare Advantage plan.