Question for Medicare Eligible A2Kers

Forums: Medicare, Supplemental Insurance, Obamacare
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I was reading a discussion on FB earlier where someone posted an anecdote about Medicare co-pays for meds going up by $200/mo. I said I'd ask around and see if anyone else is seeing similar increases. Here's the post:

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my neighbor stopped yesterday. She & her husband are retired. She told me she was going to HAVE to go back to work. Their supplemental insurance has new changes directly related to the new healthcare bill. Effective Oct. 1, their prescription out of pocket cost increase, she estimated an increase of $2400 annually. That's $200 a month, plus the costs for office visits out of pocket increased by $10 per visit. She also said the amount paid by ins. for hospital stays was decreased. She was visibly upset, very much so. She expects that before the rate increase which is imminent and nothing changes with their current health status they will be out of pocket at least an addition $3000 a year before premium increase. I repeat - she and spouse are retired and live on a "fixed" income. She is now job hunting at the age of nearly 70.

Is this typical for Medicare Supp insurance, or should she shop around?

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@JPB,

JPB wrote:

I was reading a discussion on FB earlier where someone posted an anecdote about Medicare co-pays for meds going up by $200/mo. I said I'd ask around and see if anyone else is seeing similar increases. Here's the post:

Quote:
my neighbor stopped yesterday. She & her husband are retired. She told me she was going to HAVE to go back to work. Their supplemental insurance has new changes directly related to the new healthcare bill. Effective Oct. 1, their prescription out of pocket cost increase, she estimated an increase of $2400 annually. That's $200 a month, plus the costs for office visits out of pocket increased by $10 per visit. She also said the amount paid by ins. for hospital stays was decreased. She was visibly upset, very much so. She expects that before the rate increase which is imminent and nothing changes with their current health status they will be out of pocket at least an addition $3000 a year before premium increase. I repeat - she and spouse are retired and live on a "fixed" income. She is now job hunting at the age of nearly 70.

Is this typical for Medicare Supp insurance, or should she shop around?

Sounds to me like one of the many scare stories spreading about...merely to bad-mouth Obamacare. Probably nothing but nonsense...except for the conservative doom sayers.

If any part of it is actually true...she should shop around. My supplimental (AARP plan) costs me less than $250 per month...and I pay no co-payments.

But I would bet this is just scare crap.

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@JPB,

Shop! Stand alone prescription drug coverage is called Medicare Part D, of course, and the variations from one plan to another are enormous. Medicare does provide a calculator somewhere that lets you compare annual costs based on your current prescriptions. In any case, you just have to check out the formulary for each plan. I don't know if there is any rule that there are certain prescriptions that must be covered, but it doesn't look like it.

Besides Part D, there are Medicare Part C plans which are the medicare advantage plans and the various suplimental plans, which may or may not include prescriptions. They are all different.

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@Frank Apisa,

Yeah, some people said it sounded like a scam. She said the woman is petrified and is already with a reputable carrier. I'll pass on your monthly info. Thanks.

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@roger,

That was my initial thought too, Roger, but I'm not on Medicare and don't know much about the prescription coverage. I wonder if she/he have some special formulary that need pre-approval.

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