[villagetinker]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

It is my understanding that a Medicare supplement plan is different from a Medicare Advantage plan. A Medicare supplement plan covers the 20 percent out-of-pocket co-pay expenses when you use regular Medicare Part B. In my opinion, these supplement plans are a waste of money if you can afford to pay the co-pay. Pay the 20 percent co-pay yourself and you will save a lot of money. Why do you think these supplement plans are advertised every 10 minutes on television? All the insurance company needs to do is to wait for Medicare to pay a claim, and then they pay the co-pay. It is a very low cost, low risk business because they have all of the historical Medicare claim data with which to price their premiums. They let the Government do all the work to evaluate and pay the claims. They don't need to independently evaluate any claims. They only pay the claims that are approved by the Government. I could run the whole insurance program on a laptop with no employees.

Yes, but if you have a major expense, it is worth it: pacemaker replacement $124,000+, our cost, with supplemental $325, without supplemental, our potential cost $25,000. It is all a matter of your level of risk. If you are healthy, a case can be made to go without, just like going with MA, if however, you have medical issues, IMHO, supplements are well worth it. This one instance will cover both of our costs for almost 10 years.