As you are probably aware, there are many health care plans to choose from nowadays, and the larger the offer, the less costly it gets for us. On the other hand, just because there are many plans to choose from doesn’t necessarily make picking the best and the one that suits you the most any easier. That is why we will today focus more on that by creating a pros and cons list of Medicare Advantage, but first, let’s clarify what it is.
As you are probably aware, there are many health care plans to choose from nowadays, and the larger the offer, the less costly it gets for us. On the other hand, just because there are many plans to choose from doesn’t necessarily make picking the best and the one that suits you the most any easier. That is why we will today focus more on that by creating a pros and cons list of Medicare Advantage, but first, let’s clarify what it is.
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What is it?
Source: aarp.org
Medicare Advantage is an alternative to Original Medicare. Original Medicare is a program funded by the federal government to provide health insurance for people 65 and older and people with certain disabilities. There are two parts to it, part A and part B, and even though there are even more of them, these two are the most important. Now, the main catch and what mostly confuses people is that with plan B, the government covers only 80% of the costs, and the remaining 20 percent is your responsibility. Furthermore, with Original Medicare, there are certain limitations regarding some routine exams, as eye exams and most dental care, for example, are not covered by this plan.
On the other hand, with Medicare Advantage, these routine checkups and exams are covered, and yet another advantage is that you don’t need to pay for Medigap as you simply don’t need it. Of course, private companies that offer Medicare Advantage Plan have different rules and even certain limitations, usually about where and what treatments are covered and which ones are not. Besides this, if you plan to travel abroad, you should be aware of the fact that coverage is usually limited only to the U.S., except for some special plans that offer emergency services abroad. But don’t let all of these confuse you as luckily, there are also many resources and tools available that will make your decision regarding which plan to take less time-consuming.
How to pick the right plan?
As already mentioned, picking the best option that fits all your needs can be pretty challenging, and doing some research is a must because there are many of them to compare and learn more about them before the final decision. Doing it on your own requires a lot of time, study, and nerves, and you will always question yourself whether you made the right decision or not, which is not why we are here. Luckily, we can find many useful tools that will help us with making the right decision, compare the plans and help us find the best fit for us. That gets us to another problem, which is smaller than this one but still requires some research, and it is how to find the best tool. Don’t worry, as we have got you covered, and one of the best tools available is Hellahealth which you can check by simply visiting https://www.hellahealth.com.
Pros
Source: aarp.org
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It covers all
One of the biggest advantages is the fact that most of these plans imply cooperative medical supervision. It literally means that no matter which health problem we have, it will be covered by one plan administrator, which makes our treatment much more efficient. Every health provider communicates with each other, and depending on the plan we decide to go with, every possible assistance and specialty will be covered. It also means that we can be sure there is a whole team taking care of us without some extra expenses we need to think about, and which we all know how high they can get. Overall, it might even revolutionize the entire system, but much more time is needed to get to that point.
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It is personalized
Thanks to many different plans, we can easily find the one that fits all our needs, so we do not need to worry about our health. There are different plans for chronic conditions that can help us to deal with all the costs in a much easier way and packages that include extra services such as hearing or dental ones. Regarding that, there is a perfect solution for every person, no matter what their needs are, and finding it can solve many problems. It’s all about the coverage, and understandably, the larger the coverage, the more costly it all gets, but what’s great about this one is that the overall expenses are much reduced.
Cons
Source: aarp.org
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Lack of freedom to choose a provider
Now, like with most things in life, there are some benefits and some downsides, and here, most packages give us a limited list of providers we can ask for help, and choosing someone not on their list can result in paying much higher fees. That leaves us with choosing a provider from a restricted list, which is sometimes not a good fit for us and cannot solve our problem the way we expect, want, or wish. Once again, the overall coverage, even provider wise, is pretty vast, meaning that this shouldn’t be that much of an issue, but since there are certain limitations, we needed to mention it just to present all the facts and make your decision regarding which plan to get much easier.
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The regional network of providers
One of the biggest disadvantages of these packages that affect the most people who often move to different areas is that they mostly have a regional network of providers. If you want to use its coverage, you need to live in a certain area for six months or more per year, which is pretty challenging for those who travel a lot. It means you won’t get the necessary help if you change the addresses often and will end up without any medical coverage or need to pay much higher fees than usual. Now, even this can be easily solved by simply not changing the address as you don’t need to change it every time you travel or stay somewhere new for a week or two. On the other hand, for those who are constantly on the run and move more often well, this might be an issue, as they also have to change their address more often, which limits their options.
