[goodtimesintv]

Originally Posted by NYGUY

I will try to answer your question. Upon turning 65 you will become eligible for Medicare. You can select straight Medicare, or select Medicare and add a Supplement (coverage for uncovered Medicare services) (an additional premium is required for a Supplement) or select a Medicare Advantage Plan (HMO or PPO).

The Villages Health system will only accept you as a new patient if you have chosen a United Healthcare Medicare Advantage Plan (many insurance companies offer Medicare Advantage Plans and Supplements).

My wife and I both are in The Villages Health system with Primary Care physicians. We are both happy with our primary care doctors. Where The Villages Health falls flat, as well as this area in general, is specialists. I believe this is due to the difficulty in recruiting top-notch specialists to our rural area.

I know this it a lot to absorb. I strongly suggest you contact SHINE to assist you. Be aware the the Medicare offices in each town square are run by United Healthcare and therefore have a vested interest in only their products.

Not having specialists is related to United Healthcare's extensive cuts to physicians-specialists in its networks. This is what monopoly control tends to do:

2013 -- "....The Ohio State Medical Association estimates that UnitedHealthcare has canceled contracts with hundreds of Ohio doctors effective Jan. 1. The cancellations include most of the orthopedic surgeons in Dayton, the only hand specialty practice serving the Cincinnati area, a large gastroenterology practice with 2,500 patients that also provides most of the inpatient care at five Cincinnati-area hospitals, and the largest practice of retina specialists serving 600 UnitedHealthcare members, many with macular degeneration, in central and southern Ohio.

In Connecticut, UnitedHealthcare is terminating about 2,250 physicians, including 810 specialists, Feb. 1, said Mark Thompson, executive director of the Fairfield County Medical Association, prompting the medical associations in Fairfield and Hartford counties to file a federal lawsuit to stop the cancelations.

In New York City, UnitedHealthcare's contracts with about 2,100 physicians will be canceled, affecting some 8,000 patients, according to the Medical Society of New York.

In Florida, UnitedHealthcare has dropped the state's only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer treatment facility, the Moffitt Cancer Center, and its 250 physicians in Tampa..."

UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage cuts doctors