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Protect Your Savings: The Medicare Supplement

By: Fabian Toulouse In 1965, Medicare became a part of the Social Security program. When President Johnson initiated former president Harry S. Truman as the first receiver, he could not have imagined the monster it would become. When the baby boomers fully flood the rolls, there will be around 77 million Americans taking benefits. Currently, the number hovers around 43 million.

Of those 43 million, many will opt to enroll in a Medicare supplement plan to help in paying for uncovered bills. These plans are private insurance plans obtained by individual recipients to handle such items as co-pays for extended stays in hospitals or particular nursing facilities. For while Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B pay for a world of services for seniors (those 65 and over), they do not pay 100% for everything. When you consider the cost of hospitalization and extended nursing homes admissions, it is a good idea to have a supplemental policy.

Pretend, for instance, that you are in the hospital and are diagnosed there as needing long term care in a skilled nursing facility. Medicare Part A, which all persons or their spouses who paid into forty quarters of FICA will be eligible for automatically upon reaching age 65, covers up to one hundred days in such a facility. It pays in full for the first twenty days. After that, however, the next eighty days demand a co-pay of $124 per day. Clearly, that can add up to a large amount rapidly, and that is only one of the situations where supplemental insurance can really make a difference.

There are a variety of supplemental plans to consider. There are HMO's, PPO's, private fee-for-service plans, and special needs policies. When choosing the right plan for you, it is great to have a place to go for answers. Reading through all the confusing, dense terminology can be mind numbing. Fortunately, there are insurance stores that offer policies from a variety of nationally respected companies who have made it their mission to seek out the most affordable plans and offer them to eligible folks, along with lots of helpful information