About Medicare Supplemental Health Insurance

One of the most hot button issues of the 2008 United States presidential election was the cost of health care. While there is no guarantee whether universal health care is in the near future for American citizens, there are policies available. When those policies don't satisfy all of one's medical needs medicare supplemental health insurance is an option as well. All of this can get complex; hopefully this will clear up some of the confusion.

Function

Medicare supplemental health insurance is additional insurance that provides benefits that can't be attained through Medicare A (hospital insurance) or B (Medical Insurance). Part D is prescription drug coverage.

Considerations

Medicare supplemental health insurance can not be purchased through ones Medicare provider, but must be purchased from a private insurance company as additional coverage to Medicare.

Prevention/Solution

A monthly fee is required to be paid with any Medicare health insurance plan, if one defaults on these payments it can be very detrimental to their credit. To avoid this, assistance is available for people who live under a certain income bracket.

Types

Aside from Medicare supplemental policies, there are also other methods of supplementing medicare, such as Medicare HMO (health Maintenance Organization) Plans, a Medicare PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) Plans, Medicare Special Needs Plans, Medicare PFFS (Private Fee for Service) Plans, and PACE (Programs of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly).

Identification

The most common supplemental health-care plans are the first four listed in the types section, and they are known as Medicare Advantage Plans. These types of plans are regulated by the federal government, but managed by private companies. Of these plans HMO and PPO are the most common.

Benefits

There are 12 official policies for Medicare supplemental health insurance known as A through L, and each policy has its own respective set of benefits. For example plans K and L are new policies designed to limit out of pocket expenses for hospital services, while F and J cost less than the rest but have a high-deductible. The only states that do not have all of these supplemental policies available are Minnesota, Wisconsin and Massachusetts.