Seniors Don’t “Have” to Have Medicare

Added: (Thu Jan 21 2010)

Pressbox (Press Release) - It’s true; seniors don’t “have” to have Medicare if they don’t want to have it. However, most do decide to choose it for a variety of reasons.

As many seniors may know, it’s smack dab in the middle of open enrollment and they have lots of questions. That’s not surprising given that there are monumental changes to Medicare coming in 2010. Every person currently on Medicare and Medicare supplements wants to know how the changes will affect them. Every individual who is about to turn 65 also has a vested interest in finding out about the coming changes.

Usually most of the questions center around Medicare’s prescription drug plan. Some seniors aren’t even aware that they have the option of Plan D, something that would save them money in the long run. How could a senior not have Medicare supplemental insurance? This happens when an older person signs up for Medicare, which pays about 80% of clinic and hospital visits but then also have a supplemental insurance through AARP that fills the gaps in Medicare. That might come in at a price tag of about $170 or so a month.

One notices that there is no prescription drug coverage in either of those policies which means the senior would be paying out-of-pocket for drugs; drugs that often amount to hundreds of dollars every month. If the senior is subsisting on a social security check, chances are the amount they are trying to make stretch for the whole month comes in at less than $1,000 a month.

Insurance premiums alone cost close to 30% of that income. When paying for drugs out-of-pocket is thrown into the mix, more than half the monthly income is spent on health care. It’s pretty hard to imagine how a senior is able to stay healthy when they don’t have enough money left after paying insurance premiums and drugs to be able to eat.

Open enrollment is the one time of the year when seniors need to get all the information they can lay their hands on in order to make sound financial and health care choices for the next year and make changes to what they currently have that may not be working for them.

For those who do not understand what Medicare is, it offers health insurance at a decent premium to those 65 years of age and older. In most instances, Medicare is usually best packaged with Medicare supplements to fill in any gaps in the Medicare plan. The good news this year is that the government has decided it won’t increase premiums for the basic coverage.

Here are most of the basic Medicare plans:

Plan A – pays for a portion of hospital visits.

Plan B –pays for a portion of visits to doctors and clinics.

Plan C – extra coverage offered by private companies who contract with the government and who assist in covering things plans A and B don’t.

Plan D – covers a portion of prescription drugs and this is done through private health insurance companies as well.