Medicare Supplements

Medicare Supplement Insurance

Medicare Supplement Insurance is also known as Medigap Insurance. Medicare supplement insurance is a popular and important policy among seniors who want and need more protection than Medicare provides alone. It's a smart purchase for the price, but it's essential you go into it knowing what you want, and what you need.

What is Medicare Supplement Insurance? Medicare is the basic health insurance plan that Americans over age sixty-five rely upon for the bulk of their health care needs. However, this care is limited, and Medicare Supplement Insurance is designed to "supplement" Medicare and cover the expenses that Medicare doesn't cover thus reducing out-of-pocket expenses (such as deductibles for hospital stays etc.).

Medicare supplement insurance comes in 10 standardized plans. Labeled by letters A thru J - essentially, all health insurance carriers who offer Medigap coverage must offer one or more of these standardized plans (A thru J) and cannot create their own major medical plan with a different benefit structure. This standardization makes it easy for seniors to make side-by-side comparisons with other carriers because the benefits will be identical, leaving price as the major variable for comparison. Plan J has the most coverage, and Plan A the least.

Another relatively new senior health insurance product is called Medicare Advantage.

The top Health Insurance carriers that offer Medicare supplements include Blue Cross Blue Shield, and AARP