Medicare Health Care Insurance – Finding a Cheap Plan

If you are a senior looking for medical insurance, you have a lot of choices today. You may find that having so many choices leads to confusion. This article helps clear some of the fog.

Medicare now has Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D. Each component covers you differently.

Part A and Part B cover expenses in the doctors office and the hospital.. Part A covers expenses incurred in the hospital primarily. Part B pays for care received in the doctor's office.

The coverage provided by a combination of Medicare Part A and B is not full coverage. You may want to buy a Medicare Supplement policy.

Medicare Supplement is also known as Medigap. A Medigap contract can to a great degree lower your exposure to the things that Part A and Part B will not cover. These policies can pay for your deductible in the doctors' office. They can also pay some of your coinsurance and copayments. None of the policies currently sold will cover any of your drug costs.

You can get insurance for Rx. Part C will sometimes cover prescription medicine costs. Part D is a standalone plan that only covers prescription medicine costs.

Part C is not a supplement. It is designed to cover much of the same health expenses that are covered by Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B and a Medicare supplemental plan.

Unlike Medicare Part A and B, the benefits are not provided by the government. Medicare Part C benefits come from private health insurance carriers.

Medicare Advantage is another name for a Part C plan. Currently these policies are cheap and are a great choice for many who are eligible for Medicare.

The one major drawback of purchasing a Medicare Advantage plan is that it doesn't cover you well if you seek care from out of network providers. You will be covered if there is a health emergency when you seek care from a provider that is not in the network, but routine care will only be covered in rare situations.

Medicare Part D is prescription drug insurance. These policies provide much needed insurance for medicines. Before these policies became available the plans that covered medicines were over priced and inadequate for many.

Prescription insurance is not included in Medicare Part A or Medicare Part B. None of the currently sold Medicare Supplement policies provide this insurance. You can get prescription coverage through some Part C policies.

There are two ways recommended ways to get coverage that will take care of most of your medical needs. You can have Medicare Part A, Medicare B, a Supplement and a Part D prescription medicine policy. Alternately, you can have a Part C plan that provides the same basic coverage.

Each option has its virtues. The right choice for you may not be the best decision for your neighbor.

For many Medicare beneficiaries, it comes down to how well the Part C network suits you needs. Part C is almost always the cheaper option, so other criteria must be used to determine which option is best.

Since routine care isn't usually paid for if you seek care outside of the network, the network is a very important issue when making a choice. If your doctor is not in the network of a Medicare Advantage policy, you may want to keep Original Medicare and stay away from a part C contract. If you spend a lot of time away from home and will need routine care in an area not serviced by your plan, you may want to keep Original Medicare.

Once you have decided on what type of policy you need, you can go through the process of getting pricing information and determining which insurance company and which policy will give the best combination of price and value. There are many Internet sites that provide instant senior medical insurance prices.