Help- Implant when Medicare kicks in this August

[tomas1]

Thank you all for your responses.
i will be choosing part A +PartB and a Supplement plan. What supplement did you choose? I am very interested to hear what is specifically you choose.

Thanks for help

If money isn't an issue, the supplement is great.
As you age, the price goes up pretty fast.
When/if you are hospitalized, you are treated very well.

For my wife and me, me 85 she 83, our monthly bill is $807.
It is definitely a luxury. You could buy this and change to advantage later.
Not so easy vice-versa if you have health issues.

[Gt1956]

I have part A and B. For part D I use the Medicare site to put in medications I am on to find the lowest cost plan. Part D you can change every year if you need to without any trouble. I have a part G supplemental. With the part G as long as the medical facility accepts the Medicare approved amount you pay nothing after any amount you are responsible for under Medicare at the beginning of the year. With part G you can go anywhere that accepts Medicare. My understanding is with Advantage is that you are limited to where you can go. My home area is not known for cutting edge medical treatment. So I was not going to be stuck with local only doctors so Advantage was out for me. Advantage may be OK in areas with better health care but try to call around to the really good doctors and see if they actually accept it or if you have to go to less experienced and lesser quality doctors. I have heard the same thing about Advantage's drug plans. They are basically just a buyers group and a bit high on the drug cost side of things. If you are healthy and not on meds or just a low cost generic you might make out fine with Advantage.

Once you choose a supplement plan you are locked in to that plan. If you choose a part G and later switch to Advantage you may get even lesser coverage. If you choose Advantage I do not think you would be able to switch to part G. Or if you could you would take a major hit on coverage. My part G and D coverage is expensive but no where near what I was paying when I bought my own health insurance. Advantage would have been cheaper up front but drug cost would have taken care of a big part of that. And now I can go to any doctor in the US who accepts Medicare. With advantage I would have been stuck with my local less quality heath care and I am pretty sure insurance would have more say in what my doctors could do.

Just my understanding of how things are in my part of the country. As health insurance is controlled by individual states Advantage my be different for you.

Thats a very interesting post. I'm not sure that some of those D, G and Advantage things apply to me. I'm sure that I've read that my Advantage qualifies as a D because it has a drug benefit in it. I'm not so sure just how good the drug part is. See my other post in this thread.

When I took Medicare A & B. I still had Aetna through the FEHB system. My single premium was about $625 per month. My wifes cost her the same. So we were paying around $1,250 a month. Dr & drug copays were reasonable. The premium for our Advantage plans, also thru Aetna cost about $125 a month. Add the A & B on top of that times two. The Advantage saved us about $1,000 per month. I figured I could buy a lot of meds for that.

[newbie443]

We are all different and so is state controlled insurance. Not sure but I think Advantage has some state control. That is with restrictions on where you can go for health care. So you may have good doctors close to you but they may not be in your Advantage network. I had enough of that when I bought my own insurance. I have part A and B and that is national. My part G is national also and costs me $170 a month. My part D drug plan was the lowest cost this year for the meds I was on and cost me $62 a month. Low premium and a bit higher drug cost but the cheapest overall plan available to me. That part G will increase for me next month. But as I posted I can go anywhere in the US that accepts Medicare. So if I want to go to a big-name implant doctor that accepts Medicare I can. That I think would be a major factor given that the OP is asking in regard to IPP surgery after going on Medicare. In addition, I pay $48 a month for dental insurance. My part G is an Aetna plan. My part D is an AARP plan. And my Dental is by Delta.

Another member called me a while back about this with questions as he had been contacted about Advantage and the big push for it with no cost for the plan and reduced part B cost. Looks like a great deal until you get on it then the restrictions and additional drug costs kick in. I have a friend in Colorado who told me he had to choose Advantage for the cost savings up front, but the cost of his meds was in the thousands and ended up paying more. And now he can not switch back to part G. Just depends on what meds you are on if any and how restrictive the plan is for doctors you can see and what services they will offer you. Again, I can go anywhere Medicare is accepted and pay nothing as long as they accept the Medicare approved amount. I just need to remember to tell them I will do whatever Medicare covers and they accept the Medicare approved amount.