Medicare Overview
From The
US Department of Health & Human Services
Medicare covers
many of your health care needs. Today’s Medicare is working with
private companies approved by Medicare that provide different ways
to get your health care and prescription drug coverage in the
Medicare Program. The Medicare plan that you choose affects many
things like cost, benefits, doctor choice, convenience, and quality.
Your Medicare plan choices include:
The Original Medicare Plan – This is a fee-for-service plan that
covers many health care services and certain drugs. You can go to
any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare. When you get your
health care, you use your red, white, and blue Medicare card.
The Original Medicare Plan pays for many health care services and
supplies, but it doesn’t pay all of your health care costs. There
are costs that you must pay, like coinsurance, copayments, and
deductibles. These costs are called “gaps” in Medicare coverage. You
might want to consider buying a Medigap policy to cover these gaps
in Medicare coverage. You can also add prescription drug coverage by
joining a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan.
Medicare Advantage Plans – Available in many areas. If you have one
of these plans, you don’t need a Medigap policy.
These plans include:
·
Health Maintenance Organizations
(HMO),
·
Preferred Provider Organizations
(PPO)
·
Private Fee-for-Service Plans
·
Medicare Special Needs Plans
·
Medicare Medical Savings Account
Plans (MSA)
These plans may cover more services and have lower out-of-pocket
costs than the Original Medicare Plan. Some plans cover prescription
drugs. In some plans, like HMOs, you may only be able to see certain
doctors or go to certain hospitals to get covered services.
Medicare Prescription Drug Plans – These
stand-alone plans add prescription drug coverage to the Original
Medicare Plan, some Medicare Cost Plans, some Medicare Private
Fee-for-Service Plans and Medicare Medical Savings Account Plans.
Click here
for more information on Medicare Prescription Drug Plans.
The Medicare plan that you choose affects many
things like cost, benefits, doctor choice, convenience, and quality.
To compare your Medicare Health Plan choices,
Click here to go to the Medicare
Options Compare. To compare Medicare Prescription Drug Plans, go to
the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder.
Help Paying for Health Care Costs
There are wide ranges of health care coverage
choices that may help pay for some of your health care costs. These
health care choices work with the benefits you have from Medicare.
What you choose will affect how much you pay, what benefits you
have, which doctors you can see, and other things that may be
important to you. For more information about programs that may help
pay for some of your health care costs, please read Section 7 and
Section 8 of the
Medicare & You 2008 handbook.
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