Mom has Medicare Supplement Plan F, would Medigap Plan G save her money?

sorry for the typos - doing this from an iPhone : )

Hi Tina,

You're comparing two different things here, so be careful.

Medicare has three Parts - Part A, Part B and Part D

Parts A&B are your medical coverage and Part D is your drug coverage.

Medicare Supplement Plans - MedSup - fill the gaps in Original Medicare (Parts A&B).

So, whether you have Supplement Plan F or Supplement Plan G will not impact what she pays for prescription drugs.

I'll come back to drug costs in a second, but when it comes to switching MedSup plans know this:
1. Plan F is generally considered the "cadillac" of MedSup plans. It provides the most coverage the with lowest out-of-pocket costs to you. But, the monthly premiums tend to be higher.
2. You cannot always switch a MedSup plan. Outside of your initial enrollment period when you first sign up for Medicare, the MedSup plans can be underwritten and your application can be declined. This is not ALWAYS the case. It can vary state by state and from insurer to insurer, so call a licensed expert and find out what your options are before you switch.

DRUG COVERAGE:

If your mom is on MedSup, she should also have a stand-alone prescription drug plan (Part D coverage).

She can change he drug coverage every year during the Annual Election Period or AEP (which starts today and runs through December 7).

We strongly encourage people to use AEP to do a comparison search for drug coverage. The plan prices and co-pays for each individual drug and dose change every year.

We publish a study each year looking at what the average person saves by comparing plans and prices and last year it averaged out to over $600 a year.

If you compare drug plans please have the following avaiable:
1. The name of the drug plan your mom is on
2. The names of the drugs she's taking
3. The dosages of the drugs she's taking
4. The name of the pharmacy she uses

All of these factors can change her out of pocket costs for drugs. Once you have all of that, you can go to PlanPrescriber.com, eHealthMedicare.com or Medicare.gov and out-of-pocket costs for her drug regimen side-by-side to find the lowest cost plan.

I like our sites eHealthMedicare and PlanPrescriber if you're not a Medicare expert. We spend a lot of time making them easy to use, but Medicare.gov is also good.