Best Supplemental Insurance Plans –Make the Right Choice

If you have decided whether you need Medicare supplemental insurance, you are likely to find yourself deciding which plan to choose. You can take heart in knowing that you are not alone. Almost every person who decides to opt for a supplemental plan goes through an initial stage of confusion. Here are easy steps that you can follow to choose from the list of the best supplemental insurance plans.

Understand your Medicare policy and identify gaps

The choice of supplemental plans is highly personalized. They are meant to fill the gaps in Medicare and each of the 10 supplement plans offers varied benefits. You should begin by understanding your Medicare plan and evaluate the extra cover that you need and benefits that you don’t.

For example: If you do not travel abroad, lack of cover for emergency medical coverage during foreign travel is not really a “gap” for you. Consider your specific needs. You must identify what you need and if Medicare does not offer that cover, you need to look into supplemental plans that provide it.

Understand the different Medical supplemental plans

Once you have a list of “gaps”, the next step will be to understand the various supplemental plans. Look into the coverage and see if the plan meets your needs. Certain basic covers, such as Medicare Part A coinsurance, Part B coinsurance, three pints of blood and hospice coinsurance are provided by all policies.

Differences can be found in additional benefits such as international travel medical cover, Part A and Part B deductible cover, Part B excess charges and drug coverage. Match your list of gaps with the policies and see which policies fill the gaps best.

Study insurance providers

Once you know what your policy lacks and what policy you must buy to cover that gap, the best step will be to find a company that can give you a good deal. Supplemental plans are offered by private insurance companies and costs vary from one insurer to another. Here are certain things you should keep in mind before signing the deal.

• The agent and company should hold a valid license
• Ask questions about benefits, coverage, unearned premiums, benefits that are not covered and pricing methods
• Ask friends and family for references or recommendations regarding agents or companies
• Do not be coaxed into buying a plan that does not meet your needs. Beware of polished sales tactics
• Never put your signature on the deal without reading and understanding terms of the policy
• Note down the names, contact details and addresses of agents and companies
• Any checks you give should be in favor of a company and not the agent

Pricing of the best supplemental insurance plans

The best way to ensure that a policy does not cause financial trouble for you is to buy one that you can afford in the long term. Premiums of supplement plans increase every year. In order to avoid this, you can choose a company that offers Issue Age pricing.

In this system the premiums remain constant and are fixed depending on your age at the time of application. The premiums might increase slightly as medical treatment costs increase as a result of inflation. The easiest way of getting the best deal is to request quotes from different companies and compare them.

Following these four simple steps will get you one of the best supplemental insurance plans.

SG-651-60-10/22/2012