Quote:
Originally Posted by serene911
Just remember Medicare Advantage is not real Medicare it is private insurance thru different
carriers.out.
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Kind of. To the user it looks just like an out of pocket health insurance plan, but the medicare program pays the premium for you. The last report I saw showed the premiums in a range from $1000/month to over $1600/month.
Medicare sets the parameters of what each Advantage policy must include, but the insurance companies have a lot of freedom.
My insurance agent steered me away from Advantage because most of them are Preferred Provider plans. You can get really screwed if anyone on the team during a procedure is not a Preferred Provider on your insurance policy.
The hospital can be on the plan, your surgeon can be on the plan, but if anyone on the team isn't - you have to pay. I've read horror stories about people getting charged thousands of dollars for an anesthesiologist or nurse assistant or some such because they weren't a Preferred Provider. Even the ambulance service has to be on your plan or you pay. You can also be in an accident and not be able to choose the hospital/ambulance/ER doc that cares for you to be sure they are on your plan.
Kaiser has a weekly report about people getting screwed by the health care system. On a recent one a couple was in a car wreck and both of them had to be Care Flighted to hospitals. One of the air ambulance companies was on the program and it cost them a few hundred dollars. The other one was taken by an air ambulance that wasn't on the plan and they got billed over $16,000 for it.