By David P. Schaeffer

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With all the hub-a-loo in Washington about health care, the good news is it has little or nothing to do with Medicare. The changes made to Medicare in 2005, 2010, and again in 2013 have only improved the lives of folks on Medicare.
If you are a history buff, prior to 2005 there was no, none, nada, zippo, drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries. Back in those days we would charter a bus and take our clients to Mexico for their prescriptions. Back then, we even helped folks get their drugs directly from Canada. We still do.

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In 2010, Medicare updated the Medigap plans. They removed a couple and added a few. For the most part, folks still leaned toward Plan F. After the update, Plan J was grandfathered. If you had one, you could keep it, but folks new to Medi-care could not get a Plan J. In 2019, Plan F will grandfather. If you have a Plan F, you can keep it, you can even switch between companies that offered Plan F in the past.

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In 2013, Medicare part B premiums adjusted to take into consideration our wealthiest top 5% of Americans. Surcharges, (you can’t call ‘em taxes, you can’t call ‘em penalties) were added to Part B and D. This was in part to fund the folks under age 65 participating in Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliant healthcare plans. Even though the news makes the ACA a huge deal, it only affects 8% of Americans are not covered by group plans or Medicare.

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So the good news, in most of Arizona, no matter if you select Medicare plus a Medigap and a Part D prescription plan, or an All-In-One Medicare advantage plan… most folks on Medicare do not have to be concerned about a medical services deductible. Most doctors are either available as a Medicare beneficiary or participate in multiple Medicare Advantage networks, making it easy to maintain your doctor relationship and select the plan most appropriate for your needs.

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Here we sit, it’s nearly 2018. In Maricopa County, Arizona we have 61 companies offering Medicare supplements, 23 Part D
prescription drug plans to choose from and 38 Medicare Advantage plans to span 25 networks.
The choice is all around us. The good news is there will be 7325 choices for folks with Medicare to select from in 2018.

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Enjoy!