What Kind of Medicare Supplement Option Do You Have?

• A supplement from a former employer
• A public Part C Medicare health plan such as Tufts Medicare Preferred, usually called Medicare Advantage
• A private Medigap plan such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts Medex Bronze

There are a few other less popular possibilities and counting the fact that almost 20% of us seniors get some type of Medicaid help, it turns out that more than 100% of us have some kind of supplemental Medicare insurance (because some of us have two different types of supplement).

If you don't have a Medicare supplement of some type, you are at great and often unnecessary financial risk. If you think you re too poor to afford a supplement, you probably qualify for financial assistance to get one.

To get supplemental Medicare insurance, we typically buy it as individuals and have many choices. But we could get a very good deal on supplemental Medicare insurance from a former employer and therefore accept what they give us, which may or may not include fewer choices but save us money.

Make sure you understand which bucket you are in because it affects your exact supplemental benefits as well as often affects the time of year you have to take action to renew. This is particularly an issue if you get a Tufts "Medicare-Advantage-like" supplement or a Blue Cross Medex-Bronze-like supplement from a former employer.  They may sound like the same supplemental insurance that a friend or relative on Medicare buys individually but they are not necessarily the same.

(Also if you are reading this blog post from outside Massachusetts, check your own state's availability of supplemental Medicare insurance.  It is different in every state.)