Post #515 by FishBulb on the Retirement Investing board

Personal Finance Topics / Retirement Investing

Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (5)

Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!

No. of Recommendations: 1

I think the consensus opinion here is that Medicare Advantage is inferior to Original Medicare.

Can someone boil down the top 3 or 5 factors that make it so?

I was under the impression that it was not permitted to switch back to Original Medicare, but I don't see that in this publication:

https://www.medicare.gov/publications/12026-unders...

Print the post

Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!

No. of Recommendations: 2

I think the consensus opinion here is that Medicare Advantage is inferior to Original Medicare.

Can someone boil down the top 3 or 5 factors that make it so?

----------------

Some have HMO style requirements for PCP referrals to see specialists and pre-authorization for treatment plans and procedures.

High co-pays for out of network services.

Provider networks dropping plans due to pre-auths, slow pays and low re-imbursement rates.

Print the post

Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!

No. of Recommendations: 2

One of the deal breakers when I was shopping for my mother's plan was no out of state coverage, so we stayed with traditional Medicare and a supplemental plan.

Print the post

Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!

No. of Recommendations: 1

It is permitted to switch back to original Medicare, but you will be subject to medical underwriting to establish the cost and coverage of your supplemental.
Kind of like pre-existing conditions.

Print the post

Post Reply | Report Post | Recommend It!

No. of Recommendations: 8

By Federal law, you can switch back within one year after first buying a Medicare Advantage policy. After that, you are only permitted to switch back to traditional Medicare without medical underwriting in 4 states; Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Maine.

Here's the analysis I did comparing MA to traditional Medicare before I turned age 65 in 2021.

https://retireearlyhomepage.com/medicare2020.html

intercst

Print the post

Post New

Unthreaded | Threaded | Whole Thread (5)

Prev | Next

Announcements

Retirement Investing FAQ

Contact Shrewd'm
Contact the developer of these message boards.

A community forum supporting civilized, and highly helpful, self-educating investors that come together for Shrewdness and merry spirits. These message boards closely follow the look and feel of the old message boards at boards.fool.com prior to the boards redirected to discussion.fool.com. Shrewd'm is not affiliated with the comprehensive and excellent investment website, The Motley Fool (TMF), in any way. The Shrewd commmunity here has owed, and continues to owe, gratitude to The Motley Fool for nurturing a culture of jovial irreverence towards Wall St, and that tradition will continue here.