The short version is you can switch during the one year trial period when you first become eligible for Medicare. After that, you can switch but will typically have to go through underwriting for a Supplemental Plan. If you have health issues, you may not be able to obtain a Supplemental Plan.
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Originally Posted by RoboVil
A lot of discussion on this. And while I cannot speak of any specific Medicare Advantage plan, I can tell you that at MD Anderson they really like it when you have regular Medicare. No prior authorizations, just get started on therapy ASAP. Similarly, I met a woman with a Medicare Advantage plan from Arkansas who was in the middle of chemo and received a notification that her Medicare Advantage plan was dropping MD Anderson and she had no idea what she was going to do. It is probably just a negotiating tactic, but it was causing her real stress. If you travel regularly back and forth across the US you may be out of network from an Advantage plan. The benefit of an Advantage plan they are less expensive up front, the risk of an Advantage plan is that it is an insurance company whose main goal is to make a profit. Also, one important point. If you go with an Advantage plan, it is almost impossible to go back to Regular Medicare.
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