Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnd
And yet, right from the Medicare.gov website it says:
"Follow these steps if you're already in a Medicare Advantage Plan and want to switch:
To switch to a new Medicare Advantage Plan, simply join the plan you choose during one of the enrollment periods. You'll be disenrolled automatically from your old plan when your new plan's coverage begins.
To switch to Original Medicare, contact your current plan, or call 1-800-MEDICARE.
Unless you have other drug coverage, you should carefully consider Medicare prescription drug coverage (Part D). You may also want to consider a Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) policy. Remember, you may only be able to switch at certain times of the year."
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The information you refer to here concerns switching from a Medicare Advantage Plan back to traditional Medicare insurance. When a person originally switches to a Medicare Advantage plan they no longer are in traditional Medicare, that is why they need to renew their application when they switch back. Medicare Part A covers hospitals and comes with deductibles, etc..The Medicare B part pays 80% of your outpatient care, you are responsible for the other 20%. That can be a lot of money! That is why people who have traditional Medicare usually purchase a MediGap policy from a private insurance company. OK, here comes the problem, when you want to apply for private MediGap insurance after coming off a Medicare Advantage plan they will require you to fill out a health questionnaire. If you have any serious pre existing health problems they can refuse to cover you. This shows that choosing a Medicare Advantage plan when you are relatively healthy and enjoying the low premiums may not turn out so good if you get a serious disease. (Which most of us get sooner or later.) You may think you could switch to the traditional Medicare and then go out and get a MediGap policy, but you may find out that the insurance companies won't sell you a policy. So the choices left to you are to stay with the Medicare Advantage plan or go with just Medicare and get stuck paying high deductibles, etc..