Andrew Bennett, Medicare Insurance Broker
Andrew Bennett
InsuranceThatFits.com
Medicare Broker Licensed in GA, TN and VA
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Lenoir City, TN
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About Me
I am a specialist in Health, Life, and Medicare related insurance products. I don’t do home and auto, I don’t insure your small business. I don't even do group health insurance. I focus on three products. Health Insurance for those not eligible for Medicare, Medicare related products, and life insurance for everyone. And don't worry, my services don't cost you anything! Call me at 865-712-5711 to discover your Medicare insurance alternatives and don't forget to mention that you discovered me on Medicare Agents Hub!
Q&A with Andrew Bennett
What's the most important question I should be asking about Medicare that I probably haven't thought of yet?
Answer: The question you aren't asking might just be what options give me most control of my healthcare? The opposite question is important as well, What might limit my healthcare? With Advantage plans you have to stay in-network for your care and often there are prior authorization hoops to jump through.
With Medicare supplements there are fewer prior authorizations and when there is one they are generally just looking for Fraud, Waste, and Abuse. What they are not looking for are ways to protect their profits. They aren't looking for how they can squeeze more money out of the system to pay their CEO or have more money for their marketing budget.
Yes, there are times when an Advantage Plan is the right fit. It does depend on your budget and the amount of control you have really depends on the company you go with. In general though I think you retain more control of your healthcare with traditional Medicare and a supplement.
Are Medicare Advantage plans really "free," or is that just clever marketing?
Answer: The old saying is that there is no free lunch and it applies to Advantage Plans as well. In this case the cost isn't born by the person enrolled in the plan the cost is carried by tax payers. Medicare, whether traditional or Advantage, is subsidized by the Federal government. Advantage Plans cost the government approximately 22% more than traditional Medicare does.
There are several reasons for this. Commissions for agents are much higher with Advantage plans than for Medicare Supplements. Marketing expenses are greater with Advantage Plans. On top of all that the Advantage Plans have lobbied congress and rule makers enough that they get extra subsidies the sicker an enrollee is. The kicker is that they get those extra funds regardless of whether the enrollee gets more healthcare or not.
In a word, "NO" it isn't free. It's just clever marketing.
How do you approach educating clients who are new to Medicare versus those who are considering switching plans?
Answer: When you are new to Medicare I use a flow chart directly from one of the official Medicare books to help people understand their options. For clients who are in Medicare and thinking of changing plans the first step is to review their current benefits and network. After that I ask questions to find out if changing plans actually fixes the problem they have. Most of the time their current plan is just fine and there are details they haven't been reminded of in a while.
Leaving someone in a plan where the enrollment was done by someone else doesn't earn me any commission, but it's the right thing to do quite often.
Is Medicare becoming more expensive over time, and will it ever be unsustainable?
Answer: Medicare is the most cost efficient health insurance delivery system we have in America. It's much less expensive than any commercial carrier, so when we ask will it ever be unsustainable? It's a trick question. The commercial system we have is the unsustainable system, not Medicare.
I picked a Medicare Advantage plan based on the low premium, but now I'm facing high copays. Did I make a mistake?
Answer: I tell people that I truly believe that most everything inside Medicare is better than most everything outside of Medicare. That being said I do think some decisions are better than others.
Medicare Advantage plans do have disadvantages. One disadvantage is that you have co-pays for every little thing that happens. Most of the time those co-pays are pretty reasonable. I'm not sure what part of the country you are in to know how your plan stacks up against others though...and what is a "high copay" to some might not be to others.
In general with Advantage you pay less each month, but you have to be ready to pay more when big things happen. With traditional Medicare and a supplement you pay more monthly, but generally pay much of anything when you go to get care.
How does the Part D "catastrophic coverage" phase work once I hit the out-of-pocket max?
Answer: Once you hit the out-of-pocket maximum you no longer pay anything for your covered prescriptions. The OOPMax is now $2000. The interesting thing is that it could be less than that as some of the discounts between the insurance company and the pharmaceutical company are counted into that $2000.
Just to be clear your prescriptions still have to be listed in the formulary (the list of drugs covered) by the Part D plan. It isn't that your doctor can write a prescription for whatever and it be covered at 100%.
All in all this new OOPMax is a very good thing for consumers.