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Medicare Supplement (Medigap) Plans fill the gaps that Original Medicare doesn’t cover. A variety of plans are available to pay deductibles and coinsurances and provide additional coverage for long-term hospital stays once you exhaust your lifetime reserve days.
A Medigap policy is a health insurance policy sold by a private
insurance company. They must follow federal and state laws. These
laws protect you. The front of the Medigap policy must clearly
identify it as "Medicare Supplement Insurance."
Costs that you must pay, like coinsurance, co-payments, and
deductibles, are called "gaps" in Original Medicare Plan coverage.
You might want to consider buying a Medigap policy to cover these
gaps in Original Medicare coverage. Some Medigap policies also cover
benefits that the Original Medicare Plan doesn’t cover, like
emergency health care while traveling outside the United States. A
Medigap policy may help you save on out-of-pocket costs. If you buy
a Medigap policy, you will pay a monthly premium to the private
insurance company that sells you the policy.
In all states except Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, a
Medigap policy must be one of 12 standardized policies (Plans A–L)
so you can compare them easily. Each plan has a different set of
benefits. Plans K and L are new policies that help limit high
out-of-pocket costs for doctor’s services and hospital care. They
may already be available in some states. They will likely have a
lower premium than other Medigap policies. However, unlike Plans
A–J, you will pay more of Medicare’s coinsurance and deductibles
before the policy pays its share of these costs.
Two of the standardized policies (Plans F and J) may have a
high-deductible option. In addition, any standardized policy may be
sold as a "Medicare SELECT" policy. Medicare SELECT policies usually
cost less because you must use specific hospitals and, in some
cases, specific doctors to get full insurance benefits from the
policy. In an emergency, you may use any doctor or
hospital.
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