Medicare Advantage Plan Recommendations?

[RoadtripsAndCampfires]

We currently have Kaiser as ours and need to change.  We will start full time Rving come spring.  We will likely domicile in Texas, if not that then maybe NV.  

Would love to hear from others on what they are using and how well it works for them.

[SWharton]

Are you on Medicare?

[Barbaraok]

Medicare Advantage is usually not a good fit for fulltimers.   Most Medicare Advantage plans are HMOs and for routine stuff you are geographically limited.

[Jaydrvr]

38 minutes ago, Barbaraok said:

Medicare Advantage is usually not a good fit for fulltimers.   Most Medicare Advantage plans are HMOs and for routine stuff you are geographically limited.

Not necessarily true. You just need to filter for PPOs. I have a PPO with Anthem and it works well for me.

[sandsys]

We have a PPO with Humana.

Linda Sand

[RoadtripsAndCampfires]

I have Medicare and he will have it for 2019.  I'll go take a look at Humana offerings.  Thanks.  Will still take any comments on all of this.

[SWharton]

Once you are on Medicare all you will need is a Medicare Supplement Plan(Google this). He might be able to stay on Cobra until on Medicare.

[Dutch_12078]

7 hours ago, Barbaraok said:

Medicare Advantage is usually not a good fit for fulltimers.   Most Medicare Advantage plans are HMOs and for routine stuff you are geographically limited.

Our UHC Advantage Plan has a "Passport" feature that lets us use in-plan providers at our normal copays almost anywhere in the country with just a phone call.

[Barbaraok]

Key feature being “in-plan”.  Can you pick any physician as your primary care?  Can you call up and make an appointment with any specialist without a referral and/or prior approval?  That’s something to think about when you are traveling all over they country. 

[Dutch_12078]

No referrals are needed with our UHC Advantage Plan, and we can see non-plan specialists at a higher co-pay. Our primary care doc for many years was already in-plan with UHC  when we switched to them, so I don't know if we could have a non-plan primary or not at a higher co-pay. When my wife was in active cancer treatment several years ago, with UHC's help, we had no problem finding an oncologist in Florida that coordinated her treatments when we were there for the winter with her oncologist in upstate NY. We paid the same co-pay for both. I should mention for my self, that I also have the VA facilities available if I should need them at some point. And also keep in mind that we pay no other premium for our Advantage Plans beyond the standard Medicare premium that we all pay. We do pay $17/mo for Part D coverage though. If we both went to a supplement plan, our combined premiums would be around $500/mo or more, and so far, our annual out of pocket medical expenses haven't been anywhere near that $6000+ annual total. It's even rare that we have a single month's med expenses that exceed the average supplement monthly premium.  I make no claim that Advantage Plans are best for everyone, but our yearly analysis says they're still working well for us.

[Sehc]

Medicare A & B with a supplement plan. I have Plan F with my union. I did have my supplement with AARP, also a good choice.

[FL-JOE]

We have a Medicare Advantage plan through UnitedHealthcare and it is a PPO.  I'm not sure what other's experience has been with PPO plans or why they would think they are wrong for full timing but that is why we picked it specifically.  

While it is true we have our regular Doctors we use at our winter camp spot we can also use about any other doctor or medical facility throughout the U.S.  We never see bills unless there is a required co-pay that we haven't taken care of.  If you have to call their CS for anything they have the most helpful friendliest staff around.  We have been very comfortable with them for all of our medical coverage.

[Barbaraok]

Joe,

I looked at the United Health Care plan that would be available for Livingston, TX.   Of course, we are never in Livingston and the 'primary care' physicians would have to be from there - - which is kind of the reason that we don't have a Medicare Advantage plan.    And the PPO for them is REGIONAL, not national.

I'm not saying it doesn't work for some people.  But it wouldn't work for us,  nor I suspect,  for a lot of people who are fulltiming.   

[whj469]

 The Advantage Plans mostly only allow emergency care if away from your provider. My neighbor who has a FL Advantage plan had a heart attack in Cedarville, MI. They took him to the hospital in Sault St. Marie, 32 miles away, and after one night they told him they couldn't do any more for him and sent him to a hospital down state. He had some issues with the advantage plan but in the end they did pay as emergency care. Not everybody can or wants to pay for a supplement policy. I have had lots of problems with United Health Care it my preretirement life. I was the CEO for a company with 500 plus employees. We had a plan with United Health Care and it was a very good plan, $5 GP visits, $35 specialist, deductible $500 and out of pocket limit of $3,500 before they paid 100%.  It was a 90-10% plan. It keep going up until it reached $910 per month per employee! That was more then I could pay. During the last few years United didn't spend the required 70% on medical care and they returned a total of $60,000 to us but the cost of the plan was going up about 10% per year and we only spent 62% of premiums on claims and still they wanted a 10% increase and they blamed the ACA!

I had to self fund the plan and bought reinsurance for large claims and a overall limit of 125% of premiums. The first year we had a good year and saved $600,000! That was four years ago and the company has reduced its health insurance cost by just under $2,000,000 during that time period. The plan has the same benefits and it cost $700 per month per employee. If you had a bad year it can only cost 125% of premiums.

[FL-JOE]

On ‎10‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 12:07 PM, Barbaraok said:

Joe,

I looked at the United Health Care plan that would be available for Livingston, TX.   Of course, we are never in Livingston and the 'primary care' physicians would have to be from there - - which is kind of the reason that we don't have a Medicare Advantage plan.    And the PPO for them is REGIONAL, not national.

I'm not saying it doesn't work for some people.  But it wouldn't work for us,  nor I suspect,  for a lot of people who are fulltiming.   

Don't know when you checked on their plans, we are just finishing our fist year with them for a Medicare Advantage PPO plan and will continue with them for 2019 and beyond unless something changes.

Example:  traveling and in central Illinois.  Needed to see a dermatologist for a suspicious spot on arm.  Found a group 30 miles from our CG that was in our cheapest Tier.  They checked and found skin cancer but couldn't get me in for MOE surgery before we were heading south.  Went to a different group in SW Florida and final treatment and removal, also in cheapest Tier for insurance.  

Example:  we receive our 90 scripts from any CVS in the U.S., they are on about every other corner in every city.  I simply go on-line, use my phone, or call them in wherever we are when they are due.  Stop in the next day and pick them up.

This is just our limited experience with them so far.  I can't say they would work great for all full timers.  I am just saying they work perfectly for us as full timers.

[Kirk W]

The key point of all of this debate is that you need to be very careful as you choose your health care plan on Medicare and like most things in life, there is no one answer that is right for everyone. 

[jayco1]

On 10/17/2018 at 11:31 AM, Barbaraok said:

Medicare Advantage is usually not a good fit for fulltimers.   Most Medicare Advantage plans are HMOs and for routine stuff you are geographically limited.

Good Advice

[RoadtripsAndCampfires]

Original Medicare would be the best option but the cost is too much up front.  I will not do a HMO again so I guess it's PPO for now.  Since we are in Colorado, I went to the Medicare.gov page and was offered several HMO's and PPO's so I went through the PPOs and Humana seems like the best.  Note that we will be moving from Colorado to a domicile in the spring so that is a life-changing event I believe and we can change at that time if we are not happy provided it's offered in the domicile state we choose.

I was extremely disappointed with Kaiser.  They failed to give me pain med after my HIP SURGERY.  They were moving into another hospital location but my surgery was at the old facility as they had not moved.  Apparently they had moved the pain meds.  Took about an hour.   They refilled cotton ball jars without any gloves, thus shedding skin cells, etc. onto cotton balls used to stop bleeding aften an injection.  

I have eczema.  They wouldn't give me a script for what has worked for me from age 17 on.  Gave me something.  It had an ointment base.  I'm allergic to that and it's on my chart.  Went back - she wrote another Rx.  On the way to the pharmacy I looked at the Rx and it was the same exact Rx I told her she had to change because I was allergic to it.  Then she wrote one for a creme base.  Never worked.  At age 66 I KNOW what I originally asked for should have worked.  I'm going on 6 months of a break out.  I changed doctors.

Talked to new doc about fear I re-broke right foot.  We talk for about 15 min. about it.  He sends me to Xray.  I get down there and look at the order - it's for my ankle.  I have to call him and have him re-write the order.

Glad I rely on myself for most things.  I only got a flu shot once about 20 years ago.  I got the flu.  No more shots for me.  I think most of what they give you makes you sicker anyway.  Watch what one eats, drinks and believes.  See BRUCE LIPTON and The Biology of  Belief.  Pretty amazing.

Thanks for the help.  I have a week left.

[Sehc]

Do get your immunity vaccinations. If you have grandchildren, include a Whooping Cough as well. 

[jblo]

Might check out BCBS--little expensive but accepted every where we have used it.

[packnrat]

never get the so called flue shot, the chem's in it are done up in communist china, a country that still has the official policy of kill all Americans.

and every year for the past ten, the brand of sick was not what the drug was said to have been made up for.

yes as i type this i am trying to get over a bad cough (i get every time i get sick).  nothing the Dr's can do for the cold, or the cough.

[Kirk W]

1 hour ago, packnrat said:

and every year for the past ten, the brand of sick was not what the drug was said to have been made up for.

yes as i type this i am trying to get over a bad cough (i get every time i get sick).  nothing the Dr's can do for the cold, or the cough.

3

The flu shots proved to be highly effective this year.  

1 hour ago, packnrat said:

the chem's in it are done up in communist china, a country that still has the official policy of kill all Americans.

How about documenting that statement? All of the sources of vaccine I can find are in the USA.

Sanofi Ships First Flu Vaccines for 2018-2019 Season

[2gypsies]

2 hours ago, packnrat said:

never get the so called flue shot, the chem's in it are done up in communist china, a country that still has the official policy of kill all Americans.

and every year for the past ten, the brand of sick was not what the drug was said to have been made up for.

yes as i type this i am trying to get over a bad cough (i get every time i get sick).  nothing the Dr's can do for the cold, or the cough.

Who brainwashed you?  There is no truth in this whatsoever!!

[Sehc]

If you had your flu shot you would not be as sick, if  at all. 

Please provide scientific evidence of what you state about immunizations. . 

[packnrat]

well this sick is just a bug, not anything worse. i get a cough after any sick that hangs on for a time.

as to proof.  how can anyone trust a goverment that publicly wants to kill you?

true said statement was said decades back. but the comunist overloards there now have never said otherwise.  and many products from there are contamated with(?). as in toys with lead in them, paint/ink with lead.  most never get a “recall” but where i work over the years there have been many such.

i deliver frozen, fresh foods and all the dry items to a big fast food chain.