You Can Save On Medicare Supplement Insurance

I’ve reached middle age; ugh! It’s really not a bad time of life. I have a husband and one daughter and our extended family includes my mother. Yes, Mom is 95 and living with us. Frankly, it’s wonderful to have her around. Her mind is clear – she even remembers stuff that I forget. She remembers things that keep us on track like, “Don’t we have a doctor’s appointment on Monday?” or “Isn’t it time to pay the condo maintenance fee?” Well this week she reminded me, it’s time to think about what we are going to do for her health insurance for next year.

You see, the open enrollment period for Medicare Supplement insurance (Medigap) runs from October 15 through December 7. And Mom just got a letter letting her know the policy she has to fill the gaps in her Medicare insurance will automatically renew for next year – we don’t have to do a thing.

But, we learned last year and the year before that blindly renewing the policy could cost us — big time. So this year, we’re going to start a little early and compare plans from different insurance companies. It just plain makes sense to get the best deal we can.

After all, why would we want to pay more for the same benefits? That’s right, years ago Congress set universal standards for the benefits that are offered to supplement Medicare insurance — from no-frills “Plan A,” all the way up to the top-of-the-line plans.

So, a “Plan A” policy with one insurance company is identical to a “Plan A” policy with any other company. Same for Plans B, C, D and so on. And, you’d think that each company would charge pretty much the same.

Not so! When we comparison shopped, we discovered that instead of tiny price differences from company to company, lots of insurers charge dramatically different prices for the very same benefits.

Lesson learned: It’s a good idea to check competitors’ policy rates to see what’s available, before we renew the policy. So, we’re not going to let that policy automatically renew this year, or ever. In this day and age, where every dime counts, we’re going to look for the best benefits at the best price that will fit Mom’s medical needs.

When we started to shop though, we found that most price quotes came from the insurance companies themselves. So, it was almost impossible to get a look at the range of prices across multiple companies. And, my boss found the same thing when he started looking for supplement insurance. When we found there wasn’t any real comparison information out there, we realized we actually had a way to get the information from our own database.

The data we’d been collecting for insurance companies to compare prices with their competitors was exactly the information we needed ourselves. And, we realized our friends and their families needed the same information. And other consumers needed it too.

We decided to put together a search tool that we could use to compare benefits and prices. And this year, we put that tool on the internet so others could use it too.

And we found savings. Right now, for example, a 71-year-old woman living in Dayton, Ohio will have to pay an exorbitant $3,372 per year with Humana Insurance Company for a Medigap Plan C. But if she goes with Gerber Life Insurance Company, she’ll pay only $1,585 for the exact same policy.

Can you believe that? With Humana, she’ll wind up paying more than DOUBLE the premiums she needs to pay. In contrast, with Gerber Life, she’ll save a whopping $1,787 per year, and still get the same benefits.

Her 82-year-old husband can save even more — $2,927 per year, for a total of $4,714 in savings between them.

That’s just for one year! Over the next 10 years, the couple could save $47,140 with Gerber Life. And at 3% interest, those savings alone would pile up to $61,997!

Not exactly penny change!

This is just one case. So don’t take this as a recommendation for Gerber Life – because in YOUR particular case, they could be the MORE expensive option.

And that’s just one example.

As you can see, you could save a small fortune just by shopping around. That’s what we found out.

Ironically, most insurance agents can’t give you this information. They just don’t have access to pricing data beyond the companies they represent.

Each person is different and each insurance company charges different rates, depending on where you live, how old you are and whether you’re male or female.

We also found that the lowest priced plan isn’t always the best fit. You have to look for the combination of benefits and price that will give you good coverage at a price you can afford.

It’s also important to know if the insurer you select is financially strong. After all, you’ll want them to be there if you need them.

So, like us, when you get your renewal letter, don’t just let your policy renew. Be proactive and learn more about the plan benefits that are available, current prices and the stability of the insurance company.

You’ll be glad you did!

Weiss Ratings does not sell insurance, no insurance agent will call you and Weiss will not benefit by any insurance you happen to purchase based on their information.