For those who have mentioned and questioned obtaining a Supplement after the special enrollment period which is within a six month period of your Medicare effective date I will explain.
Your are free to Downgrade your supplemental coverage, but you probably won't want to. The reason is the downgraded coverage will cost you more than your current coverage. Insurance companies will charge you more now because of Pre-X and because you will also be penalized if you are out of your 6 month Medicare Part B enrollment period.
example...you currently have Plan F and have had it for five years, your cost is $200 a month. You want to downgrade to Plan C. Plan C might now cost you $240 a month, where as it is only $160 for new enrollees. So, if you want to downgrade, it will cost $40 a month more.
You want to upgrade your supplement to a better one.....not allowed.
You have an Advantage Plan and want to switch to Traditional Medicare during the open enrollment period from Oct to December. There will be no issue switching coverage to Medicare.
Your issue is with trying to purchase a supplement. Some insurance companies will not sell you a supplement. The insurance companies who do , will subject you to an underwriting process. That means you will have to provide at least two years worth of medical history, plus answer a whole team of questions about your lifestyle. They can and will decline to sell you coverage for Preexisting conditions and other medical issues. They can and will charge you more for the coverage, even if you have never been sick.
It will be a substantial increase, not just slightly more, often hundreds of dollars more a month to purchase a supplement at this point. Also, if you want RX coverage, you will pay more for that too. A penalty is added and is based on how long you were eligible for Medicare Part D and didn't have it.
There are some circumstances where these penalties will not be applied. if you move to another state for example, or you have an serious illness listed by Medicare as a reason to switch. If fact, Medicare might force you to go back to Original Medicare for some issues.
The bottom line is...if you choose an Advantage Plan, be prepared to stay in some sort of Advantage Plan for the rest of your life. It is cost prohibitive to get a supplement outside of your Medicare Part B enrollment period if you can even find a company that will insure you.
If you have Original Medicare, you can always switch to an Advantage Plan with no penalties. You can also change your Advantage Plan every year during the October to Dec open enrollment period.
Always choose an Medicare Part D coverage if you have a supplement. If you do not use RX drugs..choose the cheapest plan you can find. You can always upgrade next year to a better RX plan. If you do not choose an Medicare Part B Plan when you are first eligible, you will owe stiff penalties later.
If you have creditable RX coverage through your employer, those RX penalties will be waived with proper documentation.
The next time a broker tells you you can switch to Original Medicare during the open enrollment period and purchase a supplement, ask him or her how many people do it and what company sells them the supplements and at what cost.
These brokers only give you half of the information, they aren't lying, they are leaving info out.
How do I know this? Well, I was the person who listened to older people and their family members cry and complain to me when these issues came up when someone because really sick and big bills started to come in. There was nothing I could do for them except feel so very sorry and sometimes cry with them.
i have seen the worse cases where people didn't understand what they were buying and Medicare rules that are applied. All these rules are put in place by our government to protect people. They also keep people from choosing a cheap policy when they are younger and healthier and switching to a more comprehensive policy when they are older and sick. If people were allowed to do this, most of us would and our rates would be higher than they are now.
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