FIRST PERSON - Puzzling out plan options for Medicare
My mother turned 65 this summer, an event Medicare marketers ensured she would not overlook. In the months before her birthday, slick brochures flooded her mailbox, touting Medicare health plans whose names alone promised virtues such as choice, value and advantage.
Choosing a good plan was important. My mother, Harriet, suffers from Parkinson's disease and other ailments and takes more than a dozen medications every day.
Because I'm a veteran healthcare journalist, my mom asked me to help her pick the right plan, and I readily agreed. After all, how much work could it be? A few minutes to scan the options and pick the right one for her?
Wrong.
It wasn't quick or easy, and the more I studied the options, the more concerned I became that making a mistake could have serious consequences.
Most people know that when they turn 65, they become covered by Medicare, the federal entitlement program that insures about 44 million people. But beyond the basic set of benefits, there are dozens of other choices to fill gaps in coverage and cover the cost of prescription drugs.
It can take days to pick a plan that seems like the best fit. What's more, the number of options and their costs vary by region. My mother, who lives in a suburb of Detroit, had more than 100 plans to choose from.
One option would be a Medicare Advantage plan. These programs are designed to provide full coverage -- replacing traditional Medicare -- and include HMOs and preferred provider organizations. Mom had a smorgasbord of Advantage plans to choose from -- 40 in all, each with different premiums, co-payments, physician networks and limitations.
Alternatively, she could choose a "Medigap" plan. Also known as supplemental plans, these cover co-pays and deductibles that patients normally pay under Medicare. She had a dozen Medigap packages available to her, each offered by multiple companies.
Finally, if she wanted prescription drug coverage, there were 54 stand-alone plans from which she could choose.
In short order, I was drowning in choices.
Bonnie Burns hears stories like this every day. She is a training and health policy specialist with California Health Advocates, which provides guidance to counselors advising Medicare recipients statewide.
"People are just absolutely shocked and overwhelmed at the decisions they have to make," she told me. "The number of plans, the sheer number, is just incredible."
