Many of those reaching the age of retirement begin getting concerned as to whether or not they should enroll in a Medgap plan to supplement their coming medicare coverage. In this writer’s opinion the answer is a very strong – Yes, of course you should.
Medigap enrollment is important in a number of ways, but the main plus factor is it can protect you from financial disaster in case of a prolonged illness or serious accident.
For those of you who are not familiar with Medigap, let me give you a short explanation of exactly what it is and what it does for the policy holder.
A medigap enrollment plan is a health insurance policy sold by private companies to supplement the services and benefits of medicare. Although it is sold by private companies it is closely regulated by both the state and local governments to be certain medicare participants have the opportunity to be covered if they so desire. It is called Medigap because its function is to take care of the “gap” between the cost of medical bills and what medicare will actually pay towards these costs.
There are a number of medicare plans you can enroll in, but regardless of which one you choose it is not going to cover all of your hospital, pharmaceutical and doctor’s bills if you are unfortunate enough to have a medical emergency. By not having participated in Medigap enrollment you could be opening yourself up for a financial disaster.
As we all know, medical cost have been skyrocketing for a number of years now and continues to do so. A major medical problem which included a long stay in the hospital could easily cost $100,000 or much more. Even if your medicare policy covered 80% of that cost, it would still leave you personally responsible for $20,000 or more in medical bills. Unless you are a wealthy person a few of these episodes could totally wipe out your savings at a time when you are needing it the most.
One of the best things about a Medigap plan is you are able to enroll in the one of your choosing at the age of 65 with no medical questions asked. This opportunity is only available for a period of three months before you turn 65 to three months after you turn 65. This means it is very important to participate in a medigap enrollment plan during this period. If you wait until this window of opportunity is closed you could end up paying a lot more for the same policy.
One thing you need to be aware of is a Medigap policy only covers one person; a spouse is not included and must have their own separate policy.
This short article has only given you the basics of what Medgap enrollment is and what it can do for you. However, our website has a very large number of articles on Medigap and Medicare so you may want to stay around long enough to read other articles and bookmark our page. We do add more information as it becomes available.