Blues

I don't think it contradicts it. They way you're reading it, it's as if it says "all recreational vehicles subject to these weight restrictions," and that just doesn't make sense because it's listing the vehicles that are included. Cars are subject to the weight limits but don't get the mention "recreational vehicles" gets. Trailers are subject to the weight limits but don't get the mention "recreational vehicles" gets. What they did was differentiate recreational vehicles from cars and trailers. I think it would be better if they added an "and" and took out the "included": "Class: C-≤26,000 lbs GVWR and Trailer ≤ 10,000 lbs. and all recreational vehicles." But the state employee responsible for the wording on the back of a driver's license probably isn't a wordsmith. As for reading the actual law, I couldn't agree more. But the poster I was responding to said he read the Georgia website listing the classes of licenses and said the Changing Gears information appears to be correct, even though the website actually has the phrase "used solely as a family or personal conveyance" in bold type. So I figured I'd take another tack, because Georgia has done everybody a favor by having the language on the actual license, even if it's clumsily worded.

If that were the case, they wouldn't have to mention RVs at all, just like they don't specifically mention any other types of vehicles. Georgia Code § 40-5-23 includes all RVs in Class C : "Class C — Any single vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating not in excess of 26,000 pounds, any such vehicle towing a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating not in excess of 10,000 pounds, any such vehicle towing a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating in excess of 10,000 pounds, provided that the combination of vehicles has a gross combined vehicle weight rating not in excess of 26,000 pounds, any three-wheeled motor vehicle that is equipped with a steering wheel for directional control, and any self-propelled or towed vehicle that is equipped to serve as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, or travel purposes and is used solely as a family or personal conveyance..." The Georgia Department of Driver Services website Changing Gears links to has exactly the same language (bolded above) with respect to RVs. Any RV is included in Class C. Furthermore, if you look at the Class E or F license that the Changing Gears website says is required for big RVs, you'll see that E and F licenses are for agricultural and EMS/firefighting vehicles. https://dds.georgia.gov/license-id-and-permit-types People applying for the E or F license that Changing Gears says drivers of big RVs are required to have must have a minimum of three months or 3,000 miles of driving experience in the vehicle, which must be certified to by a public agency employee or by the applicant if self-employed. These licenses are clearly not for RV drivers. And a couple of observations about the Changing Gears website. First, they used to have an "information confidence" level for their entry on each state. For Georgia, it was "high" even though the information is wrong. They have eliminated the "information confidence" indicator in the table on the current version of the website, but (probably inadvertently) left the legend describing it on the website. So it's gone but not forgotten. And you won't find it if you use the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to see versions of their table that are more than about a year old, but that's because they changed the URL. If you use their previous URL for the table, you can see older versions, with the "information confidence" indicator. Here's the version they had on March 22, 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20190322164626/http://changingears.com/rv-sec-state-rv-license.shtml You can see the "high" information confidence level for Georgia. Second, note the "date of review" on all versions of their site. On the current version, which says it was updated June 15, 2021, the first few entries are "Jan 8," which would lead one to believe the information was reviewed just a few months prior. But subsequent entries have a different format, e.g. "Jul 05," which looks more like month and year, and comparing various versions of their table indicates that it is indeed month and year. Maybe it's inadvertent that the formatting looks like month and day but is actually month and year, or maybe it's not. But the site that says it was updated on June 15, 2021, had half of its entries not reviewed in 16 years, although that might not be immediately apparent. Sure, driver's license laws don't change much, but they do change (note the change in Texas regarding the ITD program, mentioned upthread). And periodic review might reveal errors, like for Georgia. Bottom line: Use sites like this as a jumping-off point for getting an answer, not as the answer. If they provide a link, good for them. But even though that might give the appearance they know what they're talking about, check the link yourself. And never think something is "right" just because a couple of sites like this agree, because they do seem to feed off each other.

The Changing Gears website says "Class E or F required over 26,000 lb." in Georgia. But a Class C license in Georgia is all that's needed for any size RV. On the back of a Georgia Class C driver's license, it says:

It's wrong when it comes to Georgia.

But the exact same thing could happen with any Part D plan, regardless of the insurance company. There's no guarantee that the three Part D plans that cover this expensive drug will work any better for the next expensive drug you're unexpectedly prescribed. You're just really lucky with your timing--it happened in November, right before the period during which you can change your Part D plan, so you're on the hook for paying out-of-pocket for one month. If it happened in February, you would be paying out of pocket for 11 months, or the entire course of the drug, whichever happened sooner. That's a huge problem Part D. Sure, you can use the calculator to see which plan will pay the best for the drugs you know you take, but that does nothing for drugs you don't know you'll be prescribed in the future. It's all ridiculous.

Thanks for posting that link. I ran across multiple websites that said Transamerica stopped selling supplements on September 28, 2020 (but you never know if they're just feeding off each other), but also an insurance agents' discussion forum that said the same thing, along with posting the email Transamerica sent them. And a poster on a financial discussion forum said Transamerica had stopped selling his plan and he was worried about the usual concerns with closing the book. Transamerica supplements don't get discussed much, though. To be sure, I went to Transamerica's website and didn't see any links for Medicare supplements, so I did a word search for "supplement" on their site and there's nothing whatsoever about Medicare supplements. So I tried the word "medigap," and again, nothing. It's hard to prove that something doesn't exist, but this sure seemed to support that. However, now that I parse Transamerica's email carefully, they stopped selling the supplements they sold through agents. Not all supplements, as these websites apparently interpreted the email. And that comports with the website you linked to, which says, "You must contact a Transamerica agent to discuss Medigap plan details and rates which are not readily accessible on Transamerica’s website." "Not readily accessible" is one way of saying you could look at Transamerica's website and would never dream they offer Medicare supplements at all. Anyway, it's an interesting approach: don't let agents sell your policies, and don't let people even realize the policies exist if they look at your website. Maybe they're trying to let only the most determined Medicare beneficiaries find out about their policies, because being determined correlates to good health. Then again, stress is a major killer, and trying to get information about Transamerica's Medicare supplements was majorly stressful for me. And as it turns out, whether Transamerica still sells policies or not doesn't even matter in your case, because your Plan J hasn't been sold since 2010. I was warning that in 8 years, the youngest person on your plan was going to be 75. But already, the youngest person on your plan is 77. So y'all are in your 90s! This presents a great illustrative situation, because you've had an issue-age policy for 30 years now. The premium can't go up due to age, but it can go up "because of inflation and other factors." Among the "other factors" are healthcare costs and claims experience. And in your case, it's possible that the relatively elderly pool of enrollees in your plan is resulting in increased claims, along with the usual rise in the cost of procedures. Although if you're getting MLR checks, maybe their claims aren't going up much after all. So if you don't mind, what is your premium now, and how does that compare to what it was 30 years ago? Or if you don't remember that long ago, what's the oldest one you remember? Since issue-age policies aren't all that common, there isn't much information or discussion about them out there, and especially on how much premiums rise over time in the real world on a product that a lot of people (reasonably) has a premium that is set for life.

They don't have any choice. If Medicare pays, they pay. That's how all supplements for traditional Medicare work regardless of the company. If you've been with them for 30+ years, I'm assuming part of that was pre-Medicare? But it appears Transamerica stopped offering Medicare supplements (Medigap) a couple of years ago, but the policies they sold in the past are still in effect for the people who bought them before that, and can still be renewed by them. Maybe that's what you meant by "grandfathered"? But if they're not allowing new enrollees, you could face the situation where claims go up because the people on the plan are getting older, and premiums go up when claims go up, and it's even worse when there aren't any new young people joining the plan to balance out the old people by paying premiums but not having a lot of claims. Just something to be aware of; in 8 years, the youngest person on any Transamerica supplement will be 75 years old, and it's never going to get better. (And this could explain why I couldn't find anything about Medicare supplements on the Transamerica website, but it doesn't explain why they would still be listed on the Medicare.gov site when searching for a policy, since they no longer issue policies. That portion of the Medicare website is a menace.) This sounds like a Medical Loss Ratio refund, which is required when an insurance company doesn't spend enough on claims and spends too much on administrative costs or profits it's keeping. https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R42745.pdf at page 20.

I've tried to use the medicare.gov site to look at plans, and I'm not impressed. Here's what I got using 77399, the Escapees' zip code in Texas, for a Plan G supplement: https://www.medicare.gov/medigap-supplemental-insurance-plans/#/m/plan-policies/MEDIGAP_PLAN_TYPE_G?fips=48373&zip=77399&year=2023&lang=en You're right that they identify the type of premium pricing the plan has, although as far as I can tell it's not as clear as stating that a premium is set or that it might go up. Instead, they identify the type of premium pricing: attained age, issue age, or community rated. And of the 65 plans on the list, 58 are attained-age, 3 are community-rated, and 4 are issue-age. You can sort by pricing type to group them together. The three that are community-rated are all AARP/UHC, which I describe in my post just before this one. The thing is, there are states where community-rated means exactly that: everybody in the community pays the same premium regardless of age. But much more common are the states where AARP/UHC offers these plans with age-related discounts that turn them into attained-age plans, albeit with a cap after a certain age. Even if you go to the page of definitions of the pricing models, the example given for "community rated" doesn't match what you'll see if you price AARP/UHC plans. The example says that with a community-rated plan, a 65-year-old and a 72-year-old will pay the same premium, but that is most certainly not true with the AARP/UHC community-rated plans. Furthermore, each type of pricing is qualified by this statement: "Premiums may go up because of inflation and other factors." Inflation used to not matter but now it does, but what does "other factors" even mean? What guidance does that give? https://www.medicare.gov/supplements-other-insurance/whats-medicare-supplement-insurance-medigap/medigap-costs/costs-of-medigap-policies And as for the website itself, it comes up with 65 policies for zip code 77399, but if I use a 65-year-old male nonsmoker to get specific premiums, I get only 63 policies. One of the missing ones is from UHC/AARP. Among the 65 policies it returns before filtering for a specific person, the site lists three flavors of AARP - UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company policies: "Standard," "Level One," and "Level Two." But when you ask for premiums for a 65-year-old male nonsmoker, it has only the ""Standard" and "Level Two." And it gets worse. The premium for a Plan G policy from "Standard" AARP/UHC is $152, while the premium for a Plan G from "Level 2" AARP/UHC is $468. For the exact same coverage (these are both Plan G policies) for the same person. What gives? There's a link for "company website," which takes you to the main AARP/UHC site. If you look for policies there, there's never a mention of "standard" or "level one" or "level two" at all, never mind specifically for Plan G. If you use 77399 to search for policies for a male born on 11-11-1957 (they don't ask about smoking at all), Plan G is $154.42, which is close to the $152 for the "standard" policy on the medicare.gov website (yay!!), but there's nothing that even remotely corresponds to the $468 premium the medicare.gov site shows for a "Level 2" Plan G from AARP/UHC. And get this--on the AARP/UHC site, the Plan G with wellness benefits (the gym membership and other discounts I described above) is $154.17. Plan G without wellness benefits is actually more expensive than Plan G with wellness benefits, and the only difference between the two is the wellness benefits. Sure, it's only 25 cents more expensive, but why is it more expensive at all, if it offers less than the Plan G with wellness benefits? And in fact, a Plan G with wellness benefits IS more expensive than a regular Plan G in Austin--by about $5. Which is what you'd expect. I guess the takeaway is don't expect anything, especially logic. And as for issue-age policies, the medicare.gov site shows four Plan G policies. Two are from Physicians Life Assurance Company, and the premiums for a 65-year-old male nonsmoker in 77399 are $164 for an "Innovative/Issue Age" policy, and $203 for an "issue age" policy. But on their website, the premiums for a male in 77399 born on 11-11-1957 (they don't ask about smoking) are $119.66 for an "Innovative Plan G" and $150.30 for a Plan G (presumably the same as the "issue age" policy on medicare.gov). Where is Medicare.gov getting these numbers? But at least you can check these numbers. For the other two issue-age policies, the link for Old Surety goes to a page where you can click around to find Medicare, but it says only that they offer Plans A, C, F, and G, but no way to get any information on premiums. The link for Transamerica is even worse--there's nothing whatsoever about Medicare supplements on that page. So all you have are the premiums listed on the Medicare.gov site, and who knows if they bear any relation to the actual premium price. In short, looking at plans on medicare.gov is a fraught exercise. At best.

Just to be sure, because you used the word "we" at one point: Are you both Medicare age? If you're talking about Medicare supplements, it's likely, if only because premiums are based on how much the plan pays out in claims, and medical expenses don't have a reputation for decreasing over time. Also, see the discussion in the other thread about Mutual of Omaha supplements, and how they play the premium game. Also, one supplement company, AARP/United Healthcare, technically has community-based pricing, which is supposed to mean that everybody pays the same premium regardless of age. But what AARP/UHC does is give a "discount" on the premium starting at age 65, making them act just like policies that base the premium on the member's age. The way the discount works varies by state, but typically the discount for a 65-year-old stays the same for a couple of years, and then the discount goes down by a certain percentage each year until the member attains a certain age, at which point the member begins paying (and keeps paying) the full premium with no discount for age. That should mean that the premium goes up every year that the discount goes down, but now that I think about it, the premium a given person pays might not actually go up if the underlying "full" premium goes down enough to counteract the effect of the decreased discount. Argh. And one more thing--be sure to notice if a supplement you're looking at is a "Medigap Select" plan. Medigap Select plans are just like regular supplements, except they have a network of providers. If you have a Medigap Select supplement and go to an out-of-network provider, Medicare will still pay its 80% of the charge, like normal, but the Medigap Select supplement won't cover your 20%. And Medicare Select plans can require a referral to see a specialist. I found that when I'm looking at a listing of various plans, it's easy to overlook the "select" in the name, and when I see it, my initial reaction is that it's better than one without "select" in its name. So even shopping for a supplement isn't a no-brainer, because all supplements just pick up the 20% Medicare doesn't pay...unless they're a "Select" supplement, which might not. Argh. What I tell my friends, whether they travel or not, is if they can afford it, just get the damn traditional Medicare Parts A & B, get a "non-select" Plan G supplement but avoid Mutual of Omaha, and if you're not taking any maintenance drugs, get the cheapest Part D prescription plan that is offered to you. I did tons and tons of research and that's what I did, with the only modification that I found a Plan G supplement that includes gym memberships, which I can use wherever I travel. It also has vision and hearing and dental "benefits," but they're unspecified in the provider list, and several providers I contacted were like "Huh?"; it was no better than I could do just finding someone on my own to do my eye exam. Same with the hearing aid benefit I briefly looked into, and don't get me started on dental discounts. You know our healthcare situation is horrible when this is what people clamor for.

Since the out-of-network provider doesn't have an agreement with Humana, why would the provider accept the lower amount, never mind an amount that is only 10% of what's billed? (Acknowledging that what gets billed is pretty much never what they actually get paid.) Could it be that $300 is what Medicare allows for the procedure, Humana offers $300, and the provider says, "Oh, okay, we don't have an agreement with you, Humana, but we'll take what Medicare pays because we take that all the time with our traditional Medicare patients." But what if the provider is one that doesn't accept Medicare at all, be it traditional Medicare or any Medicare Advantage plans? If MA PPO plans allow you to see any provider under the sun (with out-of-network coinsurance terms, of course), then a MA PPO member would actually have access to a larger pool of providers than someone with traditional Medicare, which doesn't allow you to go to providers that don't accept Medicare. That doesn't seem right, but maybe it's a loophole? But what happens if a MA PPO member goes to an out-of-network provider that doesn't take Medicare? How does the MA PPO negotiate? If they say, "This is what Medicare pays," the provider would say, "Yes, I know, and that's why I don't take Medicare patients." Then what? I'm guessing the MA PPO would attempt to negotiate, but really, what's the incentive for the provider to do that? Just bill the total amount, get the MA PPO's half, and even if the patient doesn't pay a dime of his half, the provider is still way ahead compared to knocking the fee down to 10% of its original amount, with no benefits that come from being in-network for the MA PPO. And actually, this could happen with providers who DO accept Medicare but don't take any Medicare Advantage plans (i.e., aren't in any Medicare Advantage plan's network). The MA PPO could say, "This is what Medicare pays" and the provider could say, "Yes, I accept that from Medicare, but I've chosen not to do the same with you, and you know that because I don't participate in your network." What leverage does the MA PPO plan have?

I've seen quite a few reports of boomerbenefits favoring Mutual of Omaha plans, which are discussed in the thread I linked to above.

The easy answer is traditional Medicare with a supplement, because you can go to any provider that takes Medicare. However, some people have a PPO Medicare Advantage plan that has a nationwide network and also has coverage for out-of-network providers (as opposed to the HMO Medicare Advantage plans that have limited networks and can require referrals to specialists). In some cases a PPO Medicare Advantage plan can be as "good" as traditional Medicare and a supplement, and it will most likely be cheaper than traditional Medicare with a supplement, and many Medicare Advantage plans provide additional benefits like vision, hearing, or dental. In either case, you should have prescription drug coverage, either through a Medicare Advantage plan that includes it or through a Part D policy if you have traditional Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan that doesn't include drug coverage. There's a current discussion here: https://www.rvnetwork.com/topic/145649-my-medicare-supplement/

I found this plan in my area. It has the same "Limits apply" language that I quoted in my post just above this one. Do you know what it means, either in theory or practice? Also, some out-of-network services, including diagnostic tests and hospital services, have 40% coinsurance instead of a copy. Do you know what the 40% is based on? Since it's out of network, I'm guessing there aren't negotiated rates to take advantage of, and fear it could be the billed charges. ETA: Then again, there's an out-of-pocket maximum, so maybe you'll just hit that quickly for out-of-network charges, so who cares how much they're billing.

Thanks for the reply. I'm looking at those plans and noticed that for a lot of services, like diagnostic tests and labs and hospital coverage (or, really, almost everything but doctor and specialist visits and urgent or emergency care), there's a notation called "Limits apply" that says: Do you know what that means? Either in theory or in practice?

For me, the value is not being restricted to a network (and especially a local network), not having a gate-keeper determining what care will be covered, and not having to have a primary care physician. It sounds like your Advantage plan avoids all of this. What company is it with? What state? Is there a particular name for this plan? I'm interested.

Just a reminder--there is no "open season" for changing supplements. You can change supplements any time you want. Also, I've been thinking about Plan F, and since it's not open to younger enrollees, I wonder if the aging population with Plan F policies might cause premiums to rise faster, like what happens with plans where the company closes the book and stops accepting new enrollees. I have a friend who's on Plan F. The only advantage Plan F has over Plan G is that it covers the $170.10 Part B deductible. It's easy to compare premiums between Plan F and Plan G, and if F's premium is more than $170/year more than G's premium, G is the better deal. And that's the case with my friend--G would be a better deal because with F, he's paying more than $170/year to avoid paying a $170 deductible. But he can't pass medical underwriting, so he's stuck with his Plan F, and possibly even greater premium increases due to more claims from its older population. But that's Medicare Advantage. With traditional Medicare and a supplement, the supplement company doesn't do anything on its own (except foreign travel coverage). Medicare and Medicare alone determines whether a procedure is covered. If it is, Medicare pays 80% and the supplement is automatically on the hook for the beneficiary's 20% share. If Medicare determines a procedure isn't covered, Medicare doesn't pay and the supplement doesn't pay. That's why there should be very little occasion to deal with one's supplement company.

I forgot about the foreign travel coverage that some supplements have. So that is a case where the supplement would have some say about what gets covered, but you won't know how they are to deal with on that until it happens. With supplements, it's one of the rare times in the insurance world where customer service doesn't matter, and all coverages are the same. That sounds great, except for the medical underwriting if you want to switch plans. So even in this rare case of apparent obviousness, you still can't just pick the cheapest because it might be a teaser rate from a company that intends to close the book in a few years, and if your health declines you might not be able to switch. But if you're in a state where you can switch plans without underwriting, it's fabulous. Just pick the cheapest and if another one comes along that's cheaper, pick it. But I saw the data on one non-underwriting state where the premium for Plan G ranged from like $100 to $400 a month, and have to wonder why in the world someone would be on the $400 plan when they can get exactly the same thing for $100. I like to think the $400 plan has nobody enrolled in it, but I bet it does.

We're veering off topic here, but it needs to be addressed. Did the email actually call it a "physical"? I'm betting not, but instead, a Welcome to Medicare preventive visit. The Welcome to Medicare visit and subsequent annual wellness visits are not physicals as most people understand them. This is how Medicare describes the Welcome to Medicare preventive visit: https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/welcome-to-medicare-preventive-visit It's not a physical examination; it's a review of your health and education and counseling about various matters. Here is what Medicare says about subsequent annual wellness visits: The bolding is theirs, no doubt because most people assume Medicare covers annual physicals. But it doesn't. Some Medicare Advantage plans do cover annual physical exams as most people understand them, but they are not covered under traditional Medicare. This is what is included in an annual wellness visit: https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/yearly-wellness-visits Here's an article about the difference, called "Costly Confusion: Medicare's Wellness Visit Isn't The Same As An Annual Physical": https://khn.org/news/medicare-covers-wellness-visit-not-annual-physical/ It explains: (This time the bolding is mine.) Traditional Medicare is prohibited by law from covering routine physicals. People will say, "But they cover mine!" It depends on the coding. If the visit is coded as being for diagnosis or treatment of a medical condition, then it's covered. But if it's coded as an annual physical, it's not. It's particularly confusing because one of the features of Obamacare is that an ACA plan is required to cover an annual physical without copay or deductible. So people get their free annual physical under their ACA plan, and when they turn 65 they schedule it like normal, and find out Medicare doesn't cover it. You'd think Medicare, of all programs, would cover annual physicals, but you'd be wrong. There was a similar situation with shingles vaccines. You'd think Medicare would cover them because they're for old people. But traditional Medicare doesn't cover them; coverage is under Part D (prescription drugs) or Medicare Advantage. And the amount they'll cost under Part D depends on the tier level and deductible for the various plans. I've even read about healthy people, who typically just pick the lowest premium Part D plan available, planning to get the shingles vaccine and crunching some numbers to find that a higher monthly premium would be offset by better coverage of the vaccine under the plan. That's changing for 2023, pursuant to the Inflation Reduction Act. Shingles vaccines will be covered in full, with no deductible or copay, BUT that's only if you have prescription drug coverage under either Part D or Medicare Advantage. But that's a lot of machinations for a vaccine that people who are Medicare should have.

And that's the only issue with Mutual of Omaha. All supplements in a particular letter group (in your case Plan G) provide the same coverage for Medicare-covered expenses. And the supplement provider has no say in whether a particular procedure is covered--if Medicare covers it, Medicare pays its 80% and the supplement pays your 20% on your behalf. Your supplement can't decline to pay; it's all up to Medicare to decide what is covered and what isn't, and the supplement just follows along. So I'm not clear on what customer service would be important when it comes to the supplement provider. The sign-up process might be a pain because they have a stupid website, and getting your premium payments set up might be a pain, but once that's done, there shouldn't be much occasion to need have customer service from them again, and certainly not like with "regular" health insurance, where your beef about whether a procedure is covered is with that insurance company, and it's their customer service people you'll be dealing with. With Medicare, you'll be dealing with Medicare over what gets covered, and your supplement isn't involved at all. You're in Texas, so evidently you passed medical underwriting, since Aetna issued you a policy. But not everyone can pass medical underwriting, and those who can't are stuck with whatever supplement they currently have until their health improves enough that they can pass medical underwriting (could be problematic, especially because you're aging). It's no surprise that any supplement premium can rise, but when a company closes the book, it's likely the premium will rise quickly after that because of the demographics of the pool of people in that plan, compared to plans that are accepting new (and presumably younger, healthier) enrollees. That's the risk of getting a supplement from a company with a known practice of closing the book. The premium rise might happen, and it might not. And you might be able to pass medical underwriting if it does happen, but you might not. Most people don't expect that their choice of a supplement could be irrevocable, but it can be if they have conditions that will make supplement providers decline to issue a policy to them. The term "open enrollment" for Medicare is a misnomer when it comes to supplements (Medigap). There's a yearly Annual Election Period, often referred to as Medicare Open Enrollment, during which people can change their Part D (prescription) plan, and we're currently in it. This is when you can choose to change your Part D provider: you can't just choose to change your Part D plan any other time. Also during our current open enrollment period, you can choose to change from a Medicare Advantage plan to traditional Medicare. But when it comes to supplements (Medigap), the open enrollment period we're currently in doesn't offer anything unique to people who already have a supplement and want to change to another one, or who have been on traditional Medicare for a while and want to buy their first supplement; anyone can change supplements any time of the year. And regardless of whether it's done in June or during the "open enrollment" period we're currently in, they are subject to medical underwriting by the company they want to switch to or buy their first supplement from. The only "open enrollment" (or "guaranteed issue") period for supplements occurs when you first become eligible for Medicare and sign up for Part B, during which time you have guaranteed-issue rights to any supplement you want, regardless of your health status. But that's a one-time deal. After that period passes, you can be subjected to medical underwriting any time you try to switch to a new supplement, unless you're in one of the few states that have a provision for people having guaranteed-issue rights at times other than their initial enrollment period. In other words, if in June you're poking around websites for supplements and find out you can get your Plan G from another company for less than what you're currently paying, you can apply to the new company right then. You'll undergo the same medical underwriting you'd undergo in the "open enrollment" period that we're in now. That said, the current "open enrollment" period might be a convenient time to look into changing supplements, especially if you're considering changing Part D based on the drugs you're taking. But it's not the only time you can do it. Changing supplements during our current open enrollment period will operate exactly the same way as it would at any other time during the year. Not helping one bit is that even on the Medicare site, the initial enrollment period during which a person has guaranteed-issue rights to a supplement is called "open enrollment," although I noticed it usually says "your open enrollment period" which if you read carefully enough and give weight to the "your," you can conclude it indicates that they're not talking about an open enrollment period that applies to everyone, like the one we're in now. Plus, people have become familiar with the annual "open enrollment" for Obamacare, during which time you can pick any ACA plan you want and they have to give it to you regardless of your health. But that is not the case with supplements (Medigap) during Medicare's annual open enrollment period.

You don't really apply for domicile. Nobody will declare you domiciled in Florida. You just do whatever it is you would do if you were moving to Florida--get a driver's license there, register your vehicles there, register to vote there, get health insurance based on your Florida address, get vehicle insurance based on your Florida address (you'll need to get a "fulltimer" policy if you don't own or rent an abode in Florida and if you don't know what that is, do some research to find out). You don't need a lawyer. Thousands of people have done just what you're wanting to do. Just change the things mentioned above, and do a review of your personal situation to see if there is anything that still ties you to your current domicile (e.g., owning real property there), and do what it takes to break that tie. I follow the pre-Medicare fulltimer health insurance landscape closely, and have never heard anyone report that an insurance company denied a claim by a Florida-address traveling fulltimer based on the fulltimer's use of a mail service as an address and traveling around the country and getting medical care, even lots of medical care, outside Florida. I would suggest that you do what pretty much all the other pre-Medicare Florida fulltimers do, and get an EPO/PPO (not HMO) policy with Florida Blue. If you want to deviate from this, then you need to research, research, research, to be sure it'll cover you how you want. And actually, pre-Medicare health insurance is a primary reason many people domicile in Florida instead of Texas or South Dakota (the other two major players for fulltimer domicile)--neither Texas nor South Dakota has ACA PPO plans that have a nationwide network. So Florida is it for them. And be aware that Florida Blue EPO/PPO plans come in two different varieties: Blue Options and Blue Select. Blue Select plans are cheaper than Blue Options plans. I have yet to find any explanation of the practical effects of the two different types of plans, but have concluded (after spending waaaay too many hours on this because nobody explains it) that the most significant difference between Options and Select is the network in Florida, and that the network outside Florida for Florida Blue members using the Blue Card program is the same for both Options and Select. That's just my conclusion, after noticing that Choice plans are offered in every county in Florida, while Select plans are offered in only some but not all counties in Florida (a clue!). Then I did a zillion what-ifs to do provider searches all over Florida and all over the U.S., to look for differences when using Blue Choice vs. Blue Select. I concluded that if I were not going to be spending any time in Florida, a Blue Select plan would probably suit my needs (I say "probably" because there might be other differences lurking, but I didn't see any). But if I were going to be spending time in Florida, a Blue Select plan might not suit my needs. If I were going to spend some time in Florida and all of that would be in my domicile county, maybe Select's more limited network would be okay. But maybe not, depending on who's in it. If I were going to spend time in different parts of Florida, I would be concerned that Blue Select's network wouldn't have a presence where I happen to be (I didn't drill down that far in my research, but anyone else is welcome to, and can share what they find). If I didn't want to think about any of this and just go with the one most likely to provide the most comprehensive coverage regardless of where I am, I'd choose Blue Options, and think, "I've done what I can do." And one more caveat: My deep dive into Florida Blue's Select and Options plans was done last year. I have no reason to think it's changed this year, but I'm not going to do it all over again. Y'all are on your own! 😀 Do you have original Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan? If it's original Medicare, all that matters is whether the provider accepts Medicare, regardless of where the provider is located and regardless of where your domicile is. But if it's Medicare Advantage (a surprising number of people don't even know if they're on original Medicare or Medicare Advantage, even though it makes a huge difference even if you're not traveling), you need to do research into what MA plan you have and what type of coverage it provides; more than likely it has only a local network, which obviously doesn't work for traveling fulltimers. Also, you may have found out already, but just in case: original Medicare doesn't cover routine physicals, but ACA health insurance plans do. So if your wife is the type to want routine physicals and has an ACA plan or another type of plan that covers routine physicals, tell her to get it before she goes on Medicare. (Medicare Advantage plans often cover routine physicals, but MA is generally not a good option for traveling fulltimers.)

Something to be aware of with Mutual of Omaha Medicare supplements is that they have a history of "closing the book" on their companies. "Closing the book" means the policies they have already issued continue as normal, but are not open to new enrollees. Then Mutual of Omaha starts offering policies under a different subsidiary name in that state, with attractive premiums because they're brand new and don't have a lot of old people on them, and the premiums can stay low as long as there are a lot of younger, healtheir people enrolled. Then when that population starts aging and getting sicker, they can repeat the closing the book process. It's a problem if you're in a state where you can't change supplements unless you pass medical underwriting (which is the vast majority of states). If you can't pass medical underwriting, you're stuck with that plan, along with an aging pool of enrollees who also can't pass medical underwriting. That's a prescription for higher claims, and along with higher claims come higher premiums that you will have no choice but to pay if you can't pass medical underwriting to switch to another plan, and don't want to switch to an Advantage plan (Advantage plans are guaranteed issue). It's a completely legal practice, and there's nothing stopping any company from doing it. And it's possible Mutual of Omaha won't do it in your state. But they do have a track record that people should be aware of, to help make an informed decision. Even if you're currently healthy and can pass any medical underwriting with flying colors, there's no guarantee that will be the case in a few years if/when MofO closes the book on the company you have your supplement with. Here's a more detailed explanation: https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f38/medicare-moo-any-positive-experiences-115427-3.html#post2834537

About 5 years ago I had Geico quote me a fulltimer's policy and only because I made them send me a breakdown of the premium for all of the individual coverages included in the policy did I notice that there was no premium for fulltimer's personal liability. When I called back to get them to correct it, I was told they didn't offer that liability coverage in Texas. I said without it it's not a full timer's policy, and the guy countered that it covered the RV 365 days a year, so they considered it a full timer's policy, and how did I want to pay the premium. Uh, I want to pay the premium to a company that's issuing me a true fulltimer's policy, with the liability coverage I need if I don't have homeowner's or renter's insurance. People say Geico now offers real fulltimer's insurance in Texas, but I haven't looked at a policy to verify it.

I think the workaround is what they're already doing--using whatever address you can give them. For regular people, it's obvious--it's where they reside and use the vehicle. Issues with garaging address typically come up when people who live in an urban area where insurance is expensive claim a garaging address in a rural area, even though they use the vehicle like normal at their house in the urban area. There is an intentional misrepresentation in the application for insurance. That's not what is going on when a fulltimer uses the only address he has to get a fulltimer RV policy. There is no misrepresentation on the part of the insured, and the insurance company issues a policy designed for people with no fixed address. (Or actually a policy designed for RVs on which they have grafted fulltimer coverage--hence the use of "garaging address.") With these facts, it would be hard to see how an insurance company wouldn't be estopped from declaring the contract void at its inception based on material misrepresentation. From a practical standpoint, there is a whole subspecialty of insurance for fulltimers, and there are millions of people who have had or currently have fulltimer insurance and if the way garaging address is applied to them caused denials of claims, we would have heard about it by now. And the companies would have no product to offer to fulltimers.

Twenty-five, thirty years ago, I'd routinely get my car inspected in a different Texas county from where it was registered. I'd do it when I'd go visit my parents in another part of the state--it was a way to have a chore to do to break up the visit a little. 😀

Only certain counties around El Paso, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin require emissions testing for gas-powered vehicles registered in those counties.