Why Should I Switch My Medicare Supplement Policy?

On June 1st of 2010, the standardized medi-gap supplement plans were changed. Four plans were dropped and two were added. How and why gets to be very complicated. How it affects many policy holders who had coverage in place prior to that date is much easier to explain. Read on and learn why these policy holders would be foolish not to shop around for a new plan.One major impact of the plan changes was to reduce the pricing on new plans. In other words, the person who had a plan prior to June first of last year, would likely find that they could get the same exact coverage for less if they were to shop their plan to another company. As an agent, I often find there is much confusion here because what many beneficiaries do not understand is that the name of the company is meaningless. If the ABC Insurance offers an F plan, and XYZ insurance offers an F plan, they have to cover the exact same benefits. The only difference is price.The “Cadillac” plan prior to June 2010 was the “J” plan. It offered a home health care and preventative benefit. Now home healthcare is covered as a standard Medicare benefit and each Medicare beneficiary can go to their doctor once per year for a check-up covered under Medicare’s preventative benefits. The current “F” plan is now equivalent to the old “J” plan. This matters because many J plan policy holders will find they could save big money by switching to a new plan. The other problem they face is that because there will be no new J plans, those that remain in those plans will likely see higher then average rate increases. This has been echoed through the industry and it only makes sense.I know from experience that Medicare beneficiaries do not like to switch plans. However, most folks on Medicare have fixed incomes and I have seen savings of $100/month for the exact same coverage!! I hate to use the words “no brainer” but isn’t it?