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Originally Posted by Carla B
I first heard of Medicare Advantage programs back in the 1980's. Someone I casually worked for explained to me that he had recently enrolled in senior healthcare through Humana.
The way it worked, he explained, was that Social Security transferred his monthly Medicare premium to Humana in exchange for covering his healthcare needs, even prescriptions and eyeglasses, and what a great deal that was. At that time I was too young to worry about such concerns. But it did make a huge impression on me when he told me a few months later that the Humana program had gone insolvent and he was back to searching for doctors.
From then on, I took notice of company after company advertising their Advantage program and going out of business not long after.
When we reached the time where we had to make a choice, I voted in favor of paying for Medigap as long as possible, even if we had to give up such niceties as eating out a couple times a week. My husband agreed, since he had a history of unusual health concerns and preferred choosing his own doctors.
So, here we are some years later, mostly eating at home but still able to pay Medigap premiums, even though insurance companies have figured out how they can profit from Advantage programs.
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We went with traditional Medicare and a Medigap because when my husband enrolled, two of his doctors didn't take any Medicare Advantage plans, just traditional. He didn't want to leave a doctor who had helped keep him alive for 10+ years. We checked on the State of Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) website for the least expensive "G" plan and signed up. Rates go up every year of course, but are still manageable for us.