Medicare Answer Center

MedicareAnswerCenter helps people who are going on Medicare or who are already on Medicare understand their Medicare options. When someone first goes on Medicare, they make a choice for how they will receive their Medicare. The right choice is to stay on regular Medicare and enroll in a Medicare Supplement that will pay all or almost all of the costs Medicare does not pay. By staying with regular Medicare, they will be able to go to any doctor or hospital that takes regular Medicare as almost all do. Unfortunately, the government allows big insurance companies to offer private, for-profit, restricted access Medicare alternatives called Medicare Advantage. With a Medicare Advantage plan, the person on Medicare actually leaves regular Medicare and assigns the Medicare benefits they have earned through their lifetime of work to a private company who controls all aspects of their healthcare. Under a Medicare Advantage plan, the person on Medicare must use only they doctors and hospitals who participate in the Medicare Advantage plan's networks and do not have access to routine care when they travel outside of their home area. The Medicare Advantage plan will evaluate health care needs of their members based on the cost of the care and will often say "no" to treatments that may be the best option for the patient while regular Medicare would have said "yes." Very importantly, when someone first goes on Medicare, they can stay on regular Medicare and enroll in a Medicare Supplement that will pay all or almost all of their health care costs without having to answer health questions. After the person on Medicare has been on Medicare for 6 months, they may have to pass a health screening in order to be approved for coverage provided by a Medicare Supplement. If the person on Medicare leaves regular Medicare for a Medicare Advantage plan, they may never be able to return to regular Medicare and get a Medicare Supplement that pays their share of Medicare.