Medicare Open Enrollment – Oct. 15 to Dec. 7
Medicare health and drug plans can make changes each year—things like cost, coverage, and what providers and pharmacies are in their networks.
“October 15 to December 7 is when all people with Medicare can change their Medicare health plans and prescription drug coverage for the following year to better meet their needs.”
You can go to Medicare.gov to review your 2024 plan options. There is also an option to review 2023 plans if for some reason you need to change now versus waiting until next year.
Plans are based on where you live, thus you will enter a zip code to proceed to review 20224 plans. You can have an account with Medicare.gov and login with that account or create a new account to log in. I don’t use an account to review plans.
You can review the three different types of plans for 2024, Medigap (Medicare Supplement ) policy, Medicare drug plan (Part D), or Medicare Advantage Plan (Part C).
“In Original Medicare, you generally pay some of the costs for approved services. Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) is extra insurance you can buy from a private company that helps pay your share of costs.”
Medigap is a better solution if you need more flexible coverage (keep coverage if move, better coverage when traveling) and may have access to most specialists without referrals. Medigap helps pay some of the health care costs that Original Medicare doesn’t cover, like Copayments, Coinsurance, Deductibles, and maybe more.
Medicare Advantage (e.g. HMO, PPO) is a type of Medicare health plan offered by a private company that contracts with Medicare. It is an alternative to Original Medicare. Medicare Advantage Plans provide almost all of your Part A and Part B benefits and more than likely Part D benefits.
We are going to have to change our Medicare drug plan (Part D) this year because the price of our current plan is doubling, from $30 to $60. We were totally surprised. We’ve had our current plan from the beginning, 4 years. We have the AARP Medicare Rx Walgreens from UHC (PDP). I called them and tried to find out why the drastic increase but it was virtually impossible to get anything but a vague response. At least there are other options for the future.