[Villages Kahuna]

You don’t have to change doctors. The Villages Health accepts Medicare Advantage plans offered by both United Healthcare and Florida Blue. Both programs include drug coverage and have zero premium. Both have $2,900 per year maximum out-of-pocket expenses. Medicare Advantage plans also offer a wide variety of additional benefits at no cost such as drug, dental, eye care and hearing aids. Both plans include a free membership to the MVP health clubs. That benefit alone is worth more than $50 a month each for my wife and myself.

I was paying a multiple of the Advantage plan $2,900 max out-of-pocket with premiums for both my wife and myself for Medicare parts A, B and D, and a Plan F supplement. I can see any specialist of my choice. The FL Blue policy has Shands, Moffitt, and several other highly-rated hospitals “in network”. Only the Mayo Clinic is out of network. I don’t think Moffitt or Shands are in network with UHC, at least they weren’t last year and this year.

To learn more, each Villages Health facility has an office that is staffed with both UHC and Florida Blue agents who will explain their programs to you and arrange your enrollment in the program you choose.

Anyone with employer-provided retiree health insurance has probably faced the same issues that you described. When my coverage for my wife and myself was going to cost almost $800 a month for Medicare A and B, an AARP Plan F supplement plus the cost of a Part D drug plans, the need to seek an alternative became obvious. Now I realize how much I wasted paying all those premiums that increased so much each year. It became pretty obvious that when my employer, one of the largest banks in the world, negotiated with the health insurance companies, their retirees weren’t exactly at the top of their list of importance.

My doctor at The Villages Health went to undergraduate college with the president’s doctor, with Med school and residency in New York. But he is an MD, not like the prez’s DO.