[Roron123]

Stay on straight Medicare with your secondary insurance this way you can go to ANY Dr or Hospital and never need referrals. Cheaper is usually not better! Believe me

[Roron123]

I totally agree! You can only go with Drs on that plan and if you have to go to Shands hospital or Orlando Advent or Tampa Moffit Cancer hospital you will be out of luck! So be very careful! I was on one of those plans and switched back to straight Medicare as the Cardiologist I wanted was not on any of those advantage plans

[Hardlyworking]

Originally Posted by Roron123

I totally agree! You can only go with Drs on that plan and if you have to go to Shands hospital or Orlando Advent or Tampa Moffit Cancer hospital you will be out of luck! So be very careful! I was on one of those plans and switched back to straight Medicare as the Cardiologist I wanted was not on any of those advantage plans

All three of those hospitals are covered under my MA plan through Florida Blue.

[chrissy2231]

Originally Posted by bowlingal

DO NOT go with the advantage plan. You will be very sorry. It's fine as long as you are healthy, but get sick? You are looking at very expensive bills. Health care is NOT free, you will pay somewhere down the road. Stay with what you have.

I've had MED ADVANTAGE for 12 years. Been in the hospital several times.
I have the Villages Health Care where there are the best doctors, and each specialist visit is networked into your profile. You can go out of network and pay 40% additional, which I've never done.

I've never had an issue!

[Jayhawk]

Originally Posted by LeeM

That is simply not true. An acquaintance had heart surgery which was several hundred thousand dollars. His out of pocket was $1000 with his Medicare Advantage plan.

There is an out of pocket yearly cap on these plans. And that cap depending on your plan is usually less or not much more then what you’d pay for a supplement. And the odds of meeting that cap may be slim because these plans are required to pay what Medicare does.

It’s a win win for us with dental, vision, OTC allowance, gym membership, bonuses for doing healthy activities, prescription coverage etc.

We get to choose our own Drs. With our PPO plan and don’t need referrals. We really like our Villages Drs. They’re a golf cart away and they don’t take regular Medicare.

FINALLY, someone with real-world experience speaks the truth. Thank you very much. There is so much other BS in some of these responses.

Way to go !!!

[Vladimir]

Originally Posted by Jayhawk

FINALLY, someone with real-world experience speaks the truth. Thank you very much. There is so much other BS in some of these responses.

Way to go !!!

With all the various replies it is important to note whether you are talking about buying insurance in the open market on your own or getting it through a company provided retiree plan. The answers may differ as to whether Medicare/supplemental or Medicare Advantage is best.

I don't know about the open market health plans but my company provides me with a corporate custom Advantage plan which for me is great. I pick my own doctors, specialists, hospitals, urgent care, emergency hospitals, etc. and my out of pocket costs are about $500 or less each year even with surgeries, prescriptions and hospital stays. They pay me bonuses for healthy choices and they also reimburse me and my spouse for Medicare premiums including IRMMA.

So for me the Advantage plan works best since I do have an option to go with a Medicare/supplemental plan. Needless to say I don't participate in the Villages Health system and my doctors and hospitals are in Gainesville, Orlando, Ocala, Tavares or Tampa