Medicare Supplement Plan G

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Welcome to Finishing Well with certified financial planner, Hans Scheil. And today, we are talking about the Medicare Supplement Plan G. And that may seem like a mouthful, but actually, I think this is a really, really, really helpful topic, a really, really helpful way to look at this Medicare situation if you're reaching 65 or you're beginning to help somebody with the idea of what they're going to do with their Medicare, all those things. And so as Hans and I were talking about what's a kind of biblical precedent that we might talk about as far as something we can learn from the Bible, especially when it comes to Medicare Plan Gs, and it kind of set this up, that in Exodus 6, verse 6, there is a verse there where God told Moses what all he was going to do, which I think is fascinating.

It's a 6-6 verse because that's the number of man. He was going to take the Hebrews or the Jews out of Egypt. That was the first thing. He was going to do four things.

It's called the four cups of redemption. He was going to take them out of Egypt. And then the next 40 years, he was going to spend getting Egypt out of them. He was then going to take them out from underneath the bondage. In other words, he knew that even though, you know, like somebody rescued out of a horrible situation, you may have gotten them out of it, but there's a lot of counseling and all that stuff to get that bondage back out of them. And so that was the second step. And then the third step was he was going to redeem them.

And then he was going to take them to go live with him, which is the four step when you actually go into the Promised Land. Well, when you look at Medicare, interestingly, you know, there was the original Medicare plan, but if you choose to go with the Medicare Advantage, and many, many people do because there's so much advertising along this line, when you do that, you actually come out from underneath the whole Medicare system and you go into an insurance company. And so you're going to come out from underneath Medicare and you're going to go into another insurance company and have them supply your Medicare. Medicare pays them in order to help you do that. So we're going to say that is kind of like, I'm going to take you out. But then interestingly, if you get a Medicare supplement, like we're going to talk about today, specifically a plan G, then that's kind of like, now we're going to take you and get rid of your bondage. Because if you stay with original Medicare and you get a plan G, you have all sorts of options you don't have under Medicare Advantage, you have options as far as the doctors that you may want to be in that you may want to see and not see you've got options as far as not paying all sorts of things you would pay with a Medicare Advantage.

And so the idea like all insurance is to give yourself as many options. And hopefully as little exposure as possible in the plan G does does that. So that is kind of like the third cup of redemption. But interestingly, if you don't, that Jesus said at the Last Supper, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until we drink it together in the kingdom. That is when God is going to literally take us to the promised land. And we haven't got there yet, Hans. But we are on plan G, right?

Well, we are. And so what we're wanting to do today is we're wanting to talk to people that are on Original Medicare, and they have a separate Medicare supplement. For those of you that are on Medicare Advantage, you've already gone the other way.

And there's advantages and disadvantages to that. And it just so happens being January is you could actually elect out of that, if you wanted to during January, February and March, you could elect out of your Medicare Advantage plan, back to Original Medicare, and then get a supplement, get a Medicare supplement, a plan G Medicare supplement, is what we're talking about today. So you still have options if you're over on the Medicare Advantage side. But you'd have to make some steps to get where we're talking about, which is on Original Medicare, you're getting your insurance from the government, you got the red, white and blue card, it's got part A and part B on it. And then you purchase a supplement to pay your deductibles and copayments. And that's, you know, that's what I have personally, is a plan G supplement.

And in your situation, that's exactly what you're just in the process of doing, Robbie. Right, I went I went on Medicare Advantage for a couple years, and then saw what happened with my mother in law with her Medicare Advantage and went, Whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, I can, I can afford a plan G, and I don't want the exposure that she had. And so, you know, that's a neat thing is it literally provides me the most exposure, I mean, the least amount of exposure, but at the same time gives me the most flexibility in order to see the doctors and all those kind of things that I need. Okay, so let's use today to talk about what all those options are for you and what your coverage is. So the best way to assess what a Medicare supplement does is just to look at Medicare all by itself. So if you have you have Medicare Part A, and Medicare Part B, I know that and you have a red, white and blue card that says so. Now, if that's all you had, and you went into the hospital, and you had a 60 day up to a 60 day stay inpatient in the hospital, your deductible one time would be $1,632. So that is what you'd pay out of pocket if you didn't have a supplement. But since you have the plan G supplement, that will be paid for you. So in other words, your costs to go in the hospital under Medicare Part A are zero, because whatever Medicare doesn't pay, your plan G supplement fits like a glove and it pays it for you.

Okay, beautiful. Yeah. Now, Part B of Medicare is where most of your expense is incurred these days. Because even my, my brother in law just had a shoulder replacement, which sounds pretty serious. And it was he never spent a night in the hospital. I mean, he went in in the morning, and he was discharged in the afternoon, complete shoulder replacement and sent home.

How's that grab you? And I have people with knee replacements, same thing. So that's all going to be under Part B of Medicare. And the way Part B works all by itself is you've got a $240 annual deductible.

So the first 240 bucks is on you. And the Medicare supplement plan G, this is the only deductible that it doesn't pay. So just make note of that your annual out of pocket costs for expenses not covered by original Medicare is going to be $240 when you have a plan G. Because after the first 240 bucks, it's 80%.

Medicare pays 80% of approved charges. And you would have to pay 20% out of your pocket. But your Medicare supplement plan G covers that in full. So it's a lot of talking, you know, you're out of pocket with the plan G and original Medicare Part A and Part B is going to be zero on the 20% portion, it's just going to be 240 bucks a year. And then you could also have charges that are beyond what Medicare approves. And that would be excess charges. And Medicare doesn't pay anything for Medicare approved charges, or Medicare excess charges. And your supplement plan G pays 100% of any excess charge. So, you know, what all that means is, is that if you go in the hospital or not even go in the hospital, and you have something major, that's $50,000, $100,000 is you're only out of pocket is going to be the $240 under the Part B deductible. I mean, it's fabulous coverage.

Right. And, you know, along those lines, the place that I saw my mother-in-law get, you know, bills that added up that you wouldn't even think about was the ambulance rides. Because, you know, she went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth to the hospital in the last few months of her life. And every one of those was five, six, $750. And for whatever reason, you know, that just wasn't covered at all on her Medicare Advantage plan. Yet, on my dad's plan G, you know, there was not a penny. In other words, it was completely covered under his plan, but not covered at all on the Medicare Advantage.

And I'll understand why. I just saw the results. You know, here's the bills. And there wasn't bills, right? Yeah, I mean, that's the coverage.

This is what I bought. And there's more to it than that. Because under the Medicare Advantage plans, typically you have a network. And you have to play the game by their rules. So if you have your Medicare Advantage plan with Humana or UnitedHealthcare or Aetna or any one of the whole list of other choices, and you're on a Medicare Advantage plan, you're now getting your Medicare from them.

And you got to play by their rules. And the first one is you got to go to doctors that are on their network. And then secondly, those doctors, for many things, have to get approval from the plan to do surgery, just like other insurance works. Just like under 65 insurance works. And that's not necessarily all bad.

But when it gets bad, it's ugly. And there's still rules under Medicare, but they don't have to get pre-approvals. And any doctor that accepts Medicare anywhere in the country, which is a lot of them or most of them, you don't have to do any pre-business.

You just need to get in and see them. And between your Medicare Part A and Part B and the supplement, it's going to pay all but that first 240 bucks in a year. So I mean, it's hard to beat that. Oh, absolutely. But interestingly, and the thing that you guys pointed out so well, actually, in the video on this subject, is even though you've switched now to Medicare with a supplement, Plan G, and you're going to talk about a drug plan maybe in a little bit. But still, the shopping program is no like, you know, this is something that you can continue to save money on every year, right? If you, you know, pay attention to it, and you're with the right person trying to help you.

Well, yeah. So now we've moved on to, you know, where it's a good place to be is to have original Medicare and then have the right Plan G supplement. But there's many people that got positioned there a few years ago. And they've just kind of gone to sleep because the coverage is so good. If they've used it a little bit, it's paid off that well.

And they've ended up through rate increases just paying way too much for it. Absolutely. So when we come back, we're going to get into all that. But first, we want to remind you that the show today is brought to you, as always, by Cardinal Guide, cardinalguide.com, where you're going to find the Seven Worries tab. And today's tab would be the Medicare. And there you're going to find the show notes on this Medicare Plan G, Supplement Plan G, as well as, you know, all sorts of resources, even a really cool little place where you can price shop this yourself without getting 10 million phone calls back or anything else.

You just put in your information and boom, it'll pop out a quote without having to be connected to them. It's all there at cardinalguide.com, as well as Hans' book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement and How to Contact Hans and, of course, Cardinal Advisors. And so we'll be right back with a whole lot more on this Plan G. Tom Scott investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, abbreviated BCM, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Cardinal Advisors are independent of each other.

Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Cardinal Advisors is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. Tom Scott Welcome back to Finishing Well with Certified Financial Planner, Hans Scheil. In today's show, we're talking about the Medicare Supplement Plan G coverage and different ways you can save money along those lines, as well as make sure you still got the optimal coverage, right, Hans?

Hans Scheil Well, yeah. So the beginning of the show, we were really, we highlighted the difference in the biblical message was removing restrictions, it was getting you out of bondage. And so we talked about being on original Medicare as opposed to a Medicare Advantage. And then we moved on to talking what a Medicare Supplement and then the Plan G actually covers. And so we're only talking about one of the 10 plans when we talk about Plan G. And it is the highest of the 10 plans and the best of the 10 plans because there's only one deductible or copayment that it doesn't pay. And that's the annual $240 Part B deductible. So that's your out of pocket, folks, for your medical expenses for the whole year, if you got the two of these things put together, which is fabulous coverage. Okay?

Darrell Bock Right. Hans Scheil And so what we moved on to was, if we are getting a Plan G, don't go to sleep with the same Plan G for many, many years, because I think because it pays so well, people have a tendency to stay with the one they originally bought from because it just sounds like a pretty good deal to them, because they just know it's paid real well. And so I'm not saying run out and replace your coverage if you've been happy with it, but it wouldn't hurt to take a look at what some of the other guys are charging for the same thing. Okay? Now, in the video, we ran an example and you can find those videos on YouTube at Cardinal Advisors, and that's A-D-V-I-S-O-R-S. So it's O-R-S is how it ends, Cardinal Advisors on YouTube. And we put one out every week and they coincide with the radio show. And so what we did in the video is we showed buying a Plan G from six different companies, all of whom we offer for, and we offer many, many more.

We're just trying to fit a nice clean little example here. And in North Carolina, Allstate has the lowest price. This is a 70-year-old male single, so he's not getting a household discount. And Allstate is selling him a plan for $120 a month, and Cigna, $130, Mutual of Omaha, $135, and on up where the AARP plan is $145 a month.

And that just happens to be the one I bought, and it also happens to be the one you're applying for, Robbie. And the AARP, you say, well, why would you pay $25 a month more for the same thing? And there are several reasons, but one is here in North Carolina, the gym membership that they include, which is a huge value to me because I actually go use it. And the second thing that they do is they've just had a history of having, you know, you may be paying a little more for it now, but I'm 10 years down the road. This might be one that you can stick with.

That's what I'm hoping. Now, we have many people that are 70 years old that bought from one of these other companies five years ago, and they're paying $200 a month for this. It's the exact same plan G, perhaps even with one of these companies.

So if that might be you or you're just even in the high 100s, it may be time to just shop around. And there's laws and protections in place that if you do this with the proper and ethical agent, that you can change Medicare supplements and still feel safe that they're going to pay your claims on the other side. And they're protecting you. Now you do need to go through underwriting.

So you're going to have some health questions. And they're not very difficult. But there are some people listening that won't be able to change. They're just kind of stuck with a higher premium one because of the severity of their health conditions is none of these new companies will take them.

But that's somewhat rare, the person that we can't help save some money on this. Yeah, and that's one of the things that took me a while of working on this show to understand completely that a plan G is a plan G is a plan G. In other words, once you've qualified for it with that other insurance company, the coverage is identical, whether it's AARP or UnitedHealthcare or Allstate, right? The coverage is as far as the main coverage is not the added deal of the gym membership, but the other things. But the coverage is a G is a G is a G, right?

That's correct. And the insurance department dictates what insurance companies can sell. And they standardize them. This was well before Medicare Advantage in 1990, is when the law passed, that says, we're going to make all these Medicare supplements exactly the same.

The companies can only sell these 10 plans. And the G is at the top of the heap. And so what you have is once somebody has a plan G, they can feel safe looking at the pricing for other plan Gs. And they're moving to exactly the same thing. And you know, as I said, there's protections in place that if you do make this move, if you do it properly, that you're going to be guaranteed that your claims are going to be paid by the new company. And you're going to be saving some money. So I'm not telling everybody to move, I'm just suggesting doing a little shopping.

And you can actually do that on our website, cardinalguide.com. You go to the Medicare tab, and there's a rate calculator there that allows you to put in your age, whether you smoke or not, whatever your zip code is, and it puts you on the map, and it doesn't give you the household discount. So that would factor in as well if you have another adult in your household that's over 60. But the rate calculator doesn't go that far, but it'll allow you to see the pricing from about 40 different companies for all the plans.

Yeah. You know, by comparison, if you are listening in Florida, I mean, in Florida, the same plan G that I have that's $145, and I went to the most expensive place in Florida, by the way, is 238 bucks a month. For the same thing, you can buy in North Carolina for 120 a month to 145.

And if you're in New York, this thing is 306 bucks a month is the least expensive option that we got for you. So they vary all over the country. They vary by age.

They vary by health history. But the coverage itself is identical from company to company to company. Yeah. And it seems crazy, but I guess the doctors in those other states probably charge a lot more than the doctors in North Carolina. And they know that, right?

Well, they do. And in some of these states, like, for instance, in New York, they don't allow any health underwriting. So you can be laying in the hospital, and I could drive over there and sign you up on one of these things in New York.

And you would be covered immediately without answering any health questions. Whereas in North Carolina, I'd be asking you health questions, and that would kick you out. So there's, Florida has got some of the same type of laws around the pricing and things. So a lot of this difference, some of it is the costs are higher for the insurance companies. But the other part of it is that the insurance regulators in any given state are going to be very restrictive against the insurance companies. And then the customers, the consumers end up paying for that. Wow, that seems backwards, doesn't it, the way it should be.

Now, I'm sorry, go ahead. Well, yeah, I mean, it does seem, because what we're talking about is the intent on the one side by the government to protect the consumers. But then the effect is the insurance companies are going to get their money. And so they're just going to charge, when you pass consumer-friendly laws, they become price unfriendly laws.

And all the insurance companies have to deal with them. By the way, there are three states that don't play with this ABCDG Medicare plan or the standardized plan, and that's Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts. So if you're in one of those three states, your plan, if you come to us, your plan is going to be very similar to a plan G, but it's not going to actually be called that.

There's three states that didn't play with this, what's called Medicare 10. And so the message here is, let's shop this if you've had a plan for a few years. Or if you're on a Medicare Advantage, and this all sounds good to you, then this is the time of the year, January, February, and March, what's called open enrollment, open enrollment, where we can actually get you out of the Medicare Advantage, back onto original Medicare, and we can get you a supplement, because you can change your supplement any time of year. And then I have another point that I want to go over, is when you're on original Medicare, and you purchase a supplement, you're still going to need a separate Part D drug coverage under Medicare.

And we can help you with that as well. And it has, it's similar, with the Medicare Advantage, the Part D drug plan is just thrown on, it just rides along. With this, you need to purchase it separately. And it's, it's fairly inexpensive, 10, 15 bucks a month. And the good side is you get to actually pick the drug coverage company that you're on. So, and technically, it is Medicare Advantage. So they're going to have you part of that no matter what.

We sell it to you. And, you know, we have other videos where we go through and other radio shows where we've talked about Medicare Part D, in general, but let's just understand when you're on original Medicare, and you have a supplement, you're going to need to have separate coverage for plan Part D of Medicare, which isn't going to cost you a lot of money. But also, you know, one of the advantages to me of, of having a supplement, and being on a separate Part D plan is you literally, you know, you give Tom or Hans, whoever you're talking with, a list of your medications, and they figure out which plan fits your medications better, where if you're on Medicare Advantage, you're stuck with the plan, with the one plan wherever you're at, right?

Well, sure. We have a lot of husbands and wives. They're on different plans with different companies just because they're on a different set of drugs.

Now, we can put them on the same plan if they want to be, but we're going to determine what's best for you and make a recommendation. Exactly. Well, again, we've run out of time before we ran out of show.

We want to remind you, as always, a car is not the car. The show is brought to you by cardinalguide.com. If you go to cardinalguide.com, there you're going to find the Seven Worries tab.

And Seven Worries tab, today's show is under Medicare. And again, there's a wonderful show notes there that show you all the pricing ways to get, you know, that quick price quote, and all those things are all there at cardinalguide.com. And again, the video from today's show, which is actually on YouTube at Cardinal Advisors. And then, of course, how to contact Hans or Tom is also there at cardinalguide.com.

And Hans' book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement. So, thank you for listening. Great show, Hans.

Thank you and God bless you. The opinions expressed by Hans Scheil and guests on this show are their own and do not reflect the opinions of this radio station. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable, although it should not be relied upon as such.

Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results. Any strategies mentioned may not be suitable for everyone. Information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for you. Before acting on any information mentioned, please consult with a qualified tax or investment advisor to determine if it's suitable for your specific situation.

Finishing Whale is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject covered. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, abbreviated BCM, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Cardinal Advisors are independent of each other.

Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Cardinal Advisors is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. We hope you enjoyed Finishing Whale brought to you by cardinalguide.com. Visit cardinalguide.com for free downloads of this show or previous shows on topics such as Social Security, Medicare, IRAs, long-term care, life insurance, investments, and taxes, as well as Hans' best-selling book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement, and The Workbook. Once again, for dozens of free resources, past shows, or to get Hans' book, go to cardinalguide.com. If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for future shows, click on the Finishing Whale radio show on the website and send us a word. Once again, that's cardinalguide.com. Cardinalguide.com. This is the Truth Network.