Medicare Supplement – Insurance Quotes

With people losing their jobs and being out of work, many have also lost the health insurance coverage that had went along with their employment. Often times this health insurance (not Medicare) not only covered the employee but his/her family as well. The ability to pay for hospital and doctor visits is really difficult these days. So many people do not have any kind of health insurance to pay or even help pay medical expenses.

Thankfully for many of the elderly and disabled they have Medicare. People you have paid into Social Security can get Medicare when they turn 65 years old. People who are disabled and receiving a Social Security disability benefit get Medicare when they have been receiving a check for twenty four consecutive months. With some disabling conditions you don’t have to wait twenty four months to get Medicare. One of those is chronic renal failure.

Medicare is a lot like other insurances. You do have copays and deductables. Then Medicare only pays 80% of what is considered the customary charge in your part of the country for a particular medical procedure. You can go to the doctor after paying the copay, meeting your annual deductable, and then paying what Medicare doesn’t consider reasonable charge, your out of pocket expenses can be pretty big. Because of this many people get insurance to supplement their Medicare coverage. The supplement helps with what Medicare doesn’t pay.

Medicare has two parts, A and B. Part A is what helps pays for hospital charges. Medicare Part A is free to people who have paid into Social Security. Medicare Part B is what helps pay doctor’s charges. Part B has a premium, and it is about $110 a month and is automatically taken out of people’s monthly Social Security check.

Lower income people may not have to pay the Medicare Part B premium. People who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and who also have Medicare do not have to pay the monthly premium, the state will pay it for them. Some people who may not quality for SSI but are still considered having lower income may be able to get their Medicare premium paid for them by the state under a program call Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB).

There is also a newer third part of Medicare that has been around for a while called Medicare Part D. The D stands for drugs..as in prescription drugs. When in the hospital the Part A covers medications given but Medicare has never paid for or help pay for prescription medication until the implementation of Part D. Part D is administered by private insurance companies.

One needs to shop around for the best Medicare D coverage for them and the particular medications they take. One company may cover a particular medicine that another does not. It’s recommended that when looking for Medicare D coverage that you consult your pharmacist.

Social Security has one involvement in the Medicare D program. That is screening people to see if they qualify for a subsidy to help pay all or part of the premium. Each insurance company has their own monthly premium.