I totally agree.Bertha de Blues wrote:I'd like to put in a good word for my Medicare Advantage plan - UPMC for Life. They have not ever questioned the need for testing or treatment. I feel blessed to have this coverage. Yes, there are bad ones out there, but not all of them
Not all Medicare Advantage plans are crap. It's just like with any insurance plan...some are better than others and a person has to read carefully what is covered and what is not covered and make a decision based on what they need.
Also...a lot of people have Medicare but not yet age 65 and sometimes a Medicare Advantage plan is the only coverage than they can get or afford. For someone under 65 trying to get a real Medicare supplement the cost is way beyond someone's ability to pay because the insurance company doesn't want people under 65 that are on Medicare.
Back some years ago when I was researching what to add to my Medicare (and I was not yet 65) the Medicare supplement choices were extremely limited. The cost was well over $300 a month and then I would have had to had a separate Part D plan for medications. Total monthly expense was just shy of $500.
So yeah...I jumped on a Medicare Advantage plan and yeah it had a few limitations but I knew what they were and the risks of my needing them were very small.
When I broke my wrist and needed surgery my total out of pocket expense for everything not covered by the Advantage plan (which mainly was nothing more than 20% co pays) was just a little over $700.
Less than 2 months premium for a "real" supplement.
Lets see...pay $700 over a year or pay $500 a month for a year to have insurance pay everything. I saved money in the long run that year. That has been my "worst" year in terms of co pays.