Medicare is the federal health insurance program available to people 65 years of age or older. Medicare is also available to younger people with certain disabilities and people with end-stage renal disease - permanent kidney failure with dialysis or a transplant, sometimes called ESRD.

You may be wondering what all the changes in Medicare benefits mean for you.  Simply, they mean you have more choices.  As a person eligible for Medicare (called a Beneficiary by Medicare), you have many health care coverage options - perhaps even more than when you selected benefits through an employer or on your own when you were under 65.

Simply put, Medicare is now divided into Parts A through D. 

Parts A and B are the traditional Medicare that has deductibles, co-insurance and limits.  Most Beneficiaries purchase a separate Medicare Supplement or Medi-gap policy from a private insurance company to pay those out-of-pocket costs.  Between Medicare and a good supplement, Beneficiaries have very little out-of-pocket for medical expenses.

Part C is the new Medicare Advantage plans.  In a nutshell, this option allows a Beneficiary to choose a private insurance company to provide their Medicare benefits.  The Beneficiary is still part of Medicare but insured by a private insurance company for all of their hospital, surgical and medical benefits.

Part D is the new prescription drug benefit.  The beneficiary chooses a private insurance company to provide this benefit also.  This private insurance company can be the same company that provides the Medi-gap supplement if the beneficiary stays with regular Medicare Part A & B or it can be the same company that provides the Part C, Medicare Advantage plan, or it can be a completely separate company.

As with any government program or insurance plan, there are various rules, enrollment periods, exclusions and limitations with each option that your Assurecor agent will be happy to discuss and as always... there is no obligation.