Senior Health Insurance

If you are asking the question “Should I get gap coverage?” You probably want to know what care Medicare covers and what it doesn’t before deciding to purchase a contract or to investigate providers of supplemental Medicare insurance.

Medicare Part A is provided to most Medicare beneficiaries without any current premium. Most Medicare beneficiaries won’t owe anything in premiums because they pre-paid their part A premiums through their taxes.

Medicare Part A provides substantial coverage for hospital bills even though you don’t probably have to buy it in the usual way by making regular payments. However, without other coverage, you will be owe (in 2011) a payment of a $1,132 deductible for each benefit period. A benefit period lasts as little as 60 days. This means that you could pay this deductible more than once per year. Without other coverage, you could pay $283 per day if you are in the hospital for more than 60 days during a benefit period. After the ninetieth day you start using your lifetime reserve days and the daily amount doubles. You are responsible for all rice of all medical care received in the hospital once you have exhausted your lifetime reserve days.

If you are not concerned about the amount you might have to pay in the hospital for medical care, maybe you don’t need a gap policy. However, most people incur more medical expenses after the age of 65 than they did for all the years prior to age 65. You are likely to incur large medical bills at some point, no matter how healthy you are today.

Most Medicare beneficiaries will pay about $110 per month for Medicare Part B. This is based on the costs in place for 2011. The premium you pay is now based on your income. You can owe as much as $369.10 if you are making a high income. Although you will need to pay a premium for this coverage you will probably get your money’s worth.

Medicare Part B provides substantial coverage for care received in the doctor’s office. But it does not cover everything. You will have to pay the first $162 of the cost of medical care over the course of the year. You will own 20% of any excess costs if you have Medicare Part B and neither a Medicare supplement nor “Gap” insurance.

A Medicare Supplement policy covers many of the gaps left by Original Medicare. Original Medicare is Medicare Part A and Part B.

If you find that the amount of coverage offered by Medicare isn’t quite enough, you may want to investigate both Medicare Supplement policies and Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) policies. These contracts have low rates and can cover the health insurance needs of seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries.

The extra cost of Medicare Part C or a Gap policy can be worth it and can protect you and can mean that you leave more behind to your family. Making relatively small  payments each month can mean that you save yourself or your family hundreds of thousands of dollars. If your estate owes money for your medical bills, it will reduce what your family can receive.

You can request information and find Medicare insurance agents who can give you the rate for each policy, help you buy coverage or answer your questions about what each type of policy covers.