Medicare provides a powerful insurance plan with is original Medicare coverage. However, that may not be ample medical coverage for some people. There are those who have a lot still to pay from their own pockets, once that Medicare coverage has been provided. They may benefit from Medigap insurances in 2020, which is what we will cover here.

Medigap Eligibility

This Medigap insurance is great for filling in coverage gaps that Original Medicare creates. However, not all those who could benefit from it will be able to sign up for it and be approved. They may be rejected if they do not meet the minimum requirements for these plans.

So, why qualifies for the coverage? Well, it’s generally anyone who is 65-years or older. They also need to be US citizens, and they have to have Original Medicare. That Medicare plan is a required coverage prerequisite for Medigap plans. If you don’t have that plan then Medigap plans have no coverage gaps to fill in. They are designed to work together.

The Medigap coverage is only something that can be signed up for at certain times. You may not be able to apply for it at any time of the year you want to. Once you are age 65, you can apply for it any year after that, but it helps to sign up at the correct time. There is a period known as Open Enrollment in which you are guaranteed to be approved for one of the plans you applied for, if you met the other requirements. This is the best time by far to apply, since your pre existing medical conditions are not taken into account when insurance companies determine the rates you need to pay.

Open Enrollment takes place near the end of the year, and 2020’s Open Enrollment runs through most of the last two months of 2018. Once you sign up for Medigap in that period and are approved, you can enjoy the coverage at the beginning of the new year in 2020. You always have to sign up for the coverage the year before if you want it to activate at the beginning of the year. Keep that in mind as you are trying to find the right coverage plan. Make sure you don’t miss the deadline to apply, and remember that it takes some time to receive approval.

How Medigap Fills in Coverage Gaps

You probably realize by now that Medigaps name comes from how it fills in the holes or gaps in coverage that Medicare leaves behind for you. Medicare covers a lot of medical expenses, but not all of them, by a long shot. So, it helps to have some of the leftover expenses strategically covered by another insurance plans. There are actually ten Medigap plans in all, and you may find these listed as Medicare Supplements. It’s the same thing, and they are designed to meet a wide variety of needs.

That means that there are a few different levels of coverage with these plans. Some of them are what is known as low coverage plans. These only cover a few expenses or cover many expenses, but only partially. Other are high coverage plans, which cover lots of expenses, and these are obviously more expensive.

Let’s look at those items that these plans can cover for you. To start with, let’s look at those expenses that you have to pay as a result of signing up for Medicare. At the top of the list are the copayments for Medicare Part A and Part B. These two individual expenses are covered separately, meaning that not all the Medigap plans will cover both of them for you. Some only cover one or the other. These expenses are what you have to pay for each visit for related services, once Medicare provides it coverage for that service.

You can also be covered for deductibles, which you pay every year results of being coveted for some expenses by Medicare. There is a deductible for Medicare Part A and one for Part B. The Part A one is way more expensive, and it is covered by more of the plans. Only a couple of them will cover the Part B one for you.

The Medicare Part B excess charges, which are not as common as the expenses we already listed, are covered by a couple of the Medigap Insurances in 2020 as well. Not many of them cover this, so if you need it covered, then you should pay close attention to which plans offer this.

Next up is the blood coverage provided by most of the Medigap plans. This takes care of the cost of three more pints if blood annually than what you get with the Original Medicare plan.

The Original Medicare plans covers you for hospice care and for skilled nursing care as well, but you still have coinsurance to pay on those. Those coinsurance payments can be covered by the Medigap plans, and most of them provide this coverage.

Finally, the Medigap plans can cover you for foreign emergency medical transport costs too. This covers you for up to 80% of the cost of being transported to a foreign medical facility during an emergency.

How to Apply

If you think you might be able to use Medigap, then you probably want to know how to apply. Unlike what many people think, this is not something that you can get through Medicare. Medicare’s name may be on these plans, but that is because it designed these and not because it sells them.

You will need to go to private insurance companies to get these plans. A lot of different companies sell them, and they all have different prices for what are exactly the same ten plans. Not all companies sell all the plans. They usually only pick a few of them and sell those, but they can choose, for the most part, which ones they want to sell. So, before you go and look at each company individually, you should first look at the plans themselves that Medicare has created under the Medigap label. Find out which one you need and then find a company that sells that plan to you at the best price.

You can apply during Open Enrollment as we said, and once you sign up, you should be signed up for a year’s term. Once that term is over, you may switch to another plan or cancel you plan if you like. Of course, you can always renew the plan, but the price may not stay the same. You should be looking for a better deal each year, because you may just find one. The same plan that worked for you may not work for you year in and year out, as your needs change. The price can go higher than you might like as well, and when that happens, it may be time to find a different plan or find the same plan from a different provider.

Compare the Plans

Some of the best advice we can give you about finding the right Medigap plan is to compare these plans. There are ten of them and they are sold at all sorts of different price points from different insurance companies. That means that you have your work cut out for you if you want to find the best plan at the best price.

You can narrow down the list of plans to just a few that seem to fit your needs. In order to do that, you’ll have to look at what you are paying for out of pocket for medical care and what you can afford to pay for coverage, if those expenses were to be mostly or completely covered. Then find the plans that do a good job of covering those expenses for you without costing you a lot.

Once you narrow down the list to a couple of plans, you can start comparing prices on those plans. You can do that by using a free price comparison service online. This lets you source a bunch of quotes at the same time. You can easily compare the prices to pick the best one out of the bunch. You should do this for each plan that you are interested in, and you will be able to get back quotes that are relevant to you.

We suggest taking plenty of time to compare the plans. You may have trouble figuring out whichever is right for you. It can take time and you want to be looking at these plans long before it is time to sign up. Open Enrollment for 2020 hasn’t started yet, but by the time it does, it is good idea to at least know which of the Medigap Insurances for 2020 you would be best off signing up for, if any. You may not need one of these plans, but if you could benefit from their coverage when it’s in your best interest to learn about them before you start putting in applications for coverage.