Brenda Watson, Medicare Insurance Broker

Answer: If you signed up for both Medicare Part A & B this will show on your Medicare card, the red, white and blue card with your Medicare number. If Part B is blank then you don't have this cover. Keep in mind a lot of folks are under the impression Medicare is FREE. Part A is usually Free because you (or a spouse) paid for this premium while working and paying into FICO. Part B has a monthly premium and is an 80/20 plan, you are responsible for 20% of all doctor bills.

To avoid any copays, coinsurance and deductibles you want to add a Medicare Supplement to your health plan. This is NOT a Medicare Advantage plan, a Medicare Supplement works with Original Medicare Parts A & B and fills in the gaps. With a Medicare Advantage plan you are paying your 20% up to a Maximum Out of Pocket Limit.

Answer: If you travel you'll want a plan that covers you nationwide. Often times the zero premium or low cost premium plans are very attractive and one might ask themselves why pay more if I can get it for $0/$XX.. Well, not all Medicare Advantage plans have nationwide coverage except during an emergency. If you want the freedom to go to any doctor, urgent care or hospital while traveling in the United States you need Original Medicare and a Medicare Supplement.

Answer: NO, an HMO requires you stay "in network". If you go out of network you'll be responsible for the bill, unless you have a medical emergency and are taken to an out of network emergency room.

If you're in the first 12 months of a Medicare Advantage plan you can use Trial Right SEP and move to a Medicare Supplement and see any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare.

Answer: It depends on if you get a hold of somebody who really understands medicare. Short answer is in twenty years.I've never spoke with anyone at medicare that understood the question I asked them. That's all they are able to do, is look it up in the booklets that we insurance agents can hand out to you or direct you too. The only way you're gonna get real straight. Answers is from an insurance agent that sells Medicare, supplements. Medicare, advantage plans and part d plans and completely understands how long term care and medicaid, work with the program or don't work with the program.

Answer: It really depends on how many employees are full time. If there are more than 20 employees, you only need to sign up for Part A, if there are less than 20 you'll need to sign up for both Part A & B. Check with your HR department to verify how many full time employees there are.

Once you're ready to retire you'll have a SEP (Special Election Period) to sign up for Part B and then 8 months to choose your Medicare Supplement. However, beware, you only have 63 days from the time your group health insurance ends to pick up your Part D. If you wait, you'll pay a penalty of 1% per month for each month you didn't have this coverage.

Answer: In short, money. We are paid commission and the commission on an Medicare Advantage plan is double that of a Supplement.

Answer: In my personal opinion I believe the most underrated benefit used are the Preventive Benefits, specially a Colonoscopy. No one likes to think about the procedure, the act itself. However, this Preventive Benefit can and does safe lives. I've known many individuals who refused to take advantage of this benefit during their working years and by the time they reached 60-65 they've ended up with Stage 3 - 4 cancer.

Answer: Starting Dialysis doesn't change your eligibility or your coverage with Original Medicare. You will still be eligible for Original Medicare, if you have a Medicare Supplement (also known as Medigap) this policy is guaranteed to renew. As long as you pay your premiums you can not be cancelled or nonrenewed. If you have a Medicare Advantage policy the plan can change your coverages or discontinue your plan at the end of the year for the following year.

Answer: Any broker or agent are going to have more information than a volunteer service. However, there can be disadvantages to it in todays market if you don't know what to ask. Let me explain what I mean by this.

There are many agents who educate and offer all forms of Medicare plans. We educate on the A,B,C & D of Medicare, what the break down is of each part (letter) and explain what your options are. In that list you have Part A - Hospital, Part B - Medical, Part C - Medicare Advantage and Part D - Prescription plan. Yet, no where in this list is Medicare Supplement. The agent may not talk about pairing Original Medicare with a Supplement and Part D because they were only trained on Medicare Advantage.

Simply put, Medicare Advantage pays us a much higher sales commission than a Medicare Supplement so many agencies simply don't educate their newly licensed agent on this product. Some agents don't offer it because they aren't interested in the lower commission. In fact, only about 20% of insurance agents who offer Medicare plans offer both Medicare Supplements and Medicare Advantage.

You need to Vet your insurance agent and verify they understand all aspects of the products available to YOU. Once you're outside of your "Initial Election Period" if you decide you need or want a Medicare Supplement you'll need to answer health questions/go through underwriting. Due to this you may or may not be approved. So, ask questions, find out all your options before you make a decision and be sure to choose the plan that takes care of your future healthcare.

Answer: No not necessarily. To qualify, for Medicare, via disability, you have to be on social security disability for 24 months, then the 25th month Medicare would start.

Answer: Yes and No. Your Medicare Supplement plan can not be canceled for any reason other than non-payment of premium.

Answer: Medicare does pay for vaccines. Keep in mind some will be covered under Part B, some Part D, it will all depend on the vaccine being administered. Agents don't keep a list of vaccines, medical procedures or the cost because then we're practicing medicine, our E & O doesn't cover that.

Answer: I'm not 100% sure of what you're asking but let me see if we can make sense of this.

Medicare Part A is your Hospital coverage, it has a 60 day deductible in patient care (in 2025 this cost is $1,676). If you're in the hospital longer than 60 days additional copayments will apply.

Medicare Part B is your Doctor/Medical coverage, this is an 80/20 plan with an annual deductible (in 2025 this cost is $257.00)

Now, with a Medicare Supplement G plan you'll pay the $257.00 and everything Medicare Approved is covered without additional cost.

On a Medicare Advantage plan you'll have copayments and coinsurance up to a Maximum Out of Pocket - referred to as MOOP. Depending on where you live this could be significantly higher costs compared to the premium of a Medicare Supplement.

Answer: This would be "Medicare for all", and it would not work. To qualify for Part A Premium free you need 40 working credits. Don't have this, the monthly premium will range from $285-$518 per person, premium depending on credits. Part B is funded per Medicare.gov:

Funds authorized by Congress

Premiums from people enrolled in Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) and Medicare drug coverage (Part D) Other sources, like interest earned on the trust fund investments.

We, the public, pay Part B premium of $185.00 (for most) this determined by your income/ taxes 2 years back. The $185.00 is 1/4 of the total premium per person.

The cost "per person " for Part A&B would be ridiculously high if we had Medicare for all.

Answer: Yes you should be skeptical. Recently, while I was in a meeting with united healthcare, I learned only twenty percent of agents who help individuals in the medicare market offer both medicare, supplements and medicare advantage plans. In my opinion, this is due to two reasons. The first reason being individuals answer a help wanted ad to find out that it's insurance. They know nothing about insurance and the agency helps them get their license. Those individuals are taught only medicare advantage. I can confidently say that because when I went into medicare from property and casualty in the year 2005 that's exactly what the agency did to me. It wasn't until I realized what these plans actually were and talk to different company that I learned about medicare supplement. So if an agent doesn't know anything about medicare supplement, and they've only been taught medicare advantage, they're only going to offer medicare advantage. Now, to answer, the second reason is the agent is financially incentivized to only offer you medicare advantage. Think about it this way, you go to a job interview and the hiring individual tells you they can pay you a $100 a day to do the job or $200 a day to do the job and it's the same job. Which pay would you choose? Anyone in their right mind would choose double the pay. That is, the incentive to selling medicare advantage over a medicare, supplement. As an agent, I am incentivized to sell you only a Medicare advantage plan because they will pay me twice as much. If not more, then what the insurance company will pay me for a medicare, supplement.

Answer: Great question. You will need an experienced agent to run your scripts against a database with all the plans to find the right one for you.

Answer: Yes it's capped at $2,000 a year for 2025. This will change for 2026, as all Medicare costs change annually.

Answer: No, these plans are not random by zip code. Most, not all, Advantage plans are zero premium with large Maximum Out of Pocket maximums. Some have a premium, but I've never seen a $200 charge. In my experience you most likely have a Medicare Supplement Plan G or N, and your friend has an Advantage Plan. It probably doesn't seem like you have the better deal because you have a premium and you don't have the extra benefits, however, you have the better plan, and it will do more for you in a health crisis.

Answer: Generally a PPO doesn't require a referral. However, not all PPO's are created equal and not all doctors office will accept a patient without a referral.

Answer: Today, i don't think it really matters if they're local or virtual. The only reason you would absolutely have to have a local agent is because you can't read the prescription bottle and don't know how to take a picture and send it to your agent. For the most part, everything can be done on the phone today.

Answer: In my option it hasn't helped at all. I don't see how a doctor can help a patient if they can't check them over.

Answer: Part D plans are a life saver for many individuals. These plans don't help if you don't take any medications, however if you're on medications they save most individuals hundreds to thousands of dollars a year.

Answer: Medicare is a Federal Program, for American Citizens, earned by having 40 Working Credits. 40 working credits is earned with 10 years of full time employment. You qualify based on your credits, your spouse can also qualify based on your credits (or you can qualify based on your spouses credits). I'm not sure what you mean by "Minority Seniors", if you're referring to those with limited income they may qualify for LIS (Low Income Subsidy) or Medicaid.

Answer: Annual election period is when you can opt out of your Medicare advantage. Plan and opt into a Medicare supplement and a part d plan. Paired with original medicare. However, unless you have a special election period or you live in a birthday rule state and your birthday is during annual election period you will be required to answer medical questions.

Answer: Medicare advantage. I would require all Medicare, advantage plans to be standardized, just like Medicare, supplements are standardized. It makes it very difficult for these seniors to figure out which plan is going to be best when all the plans get to be different. Based on whatever the company wants to choose.

Answer: The easiest way to understand your medicare, preventive services is to simply look in your medicare and you guide. This is the book that gets sent out to you annually. If you open it up on, I believe page thirty two or thirty three is where preventive benefits start, everything listed with an apple is a preventive benefit. When you're looking at it, notice that these preventive benefits have time frames that you have to go by, for example, a colonoscopy is once every ten years. Keep in mind that preventative means they find nothing wrong with you, once they find an issue such as polyps, then it becomes diagnostic, no longer preventative.

Answer: To be eligible for medicare part a you need forty credits. To earn forty credits, that's ten years of full time employment paying into the system. Have you done that?

Answer: The freedom, the job allows me in my life. The people I meet, most are wonderful. Knowing that I am helping individuals understand their options and giving them the proper knowledge so they can make the right choice for themselves.

Answer: Unfortunately, you will have to wait for Medicare's. Annual election period starting October 7th to enroll in a plan that will make it effective. January 1, 2026. Your only other option is to see if you can pass health underwriting questions on a medicare supplement.