What is Medicare?
Original Medicare is health care insurance provided through the federal government. It is sometimes called “traditional” Medicare.
Original Medicare consist of 2 parts:
Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance)
- Part A covers inpatient hospital stays, care in a skilled nursing facility, hospice care, and some home health care.
Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance)
- Part B covers certain doctors’ services, outpatient care, medical supplies, and preventive services.
Once you have Medicare A and B you can choose to enroll in another policy to help cover some or most of the out of pocket cost left by Original Medicare.
These optional policies come in the following variations:
- Original Medicare Only (No Rx coverage and No Maximum to exposure or out of pocket costs)
- Original Medicare + Medicare Part D (Rx coverage only)
- Original Medicare + Medicare Part D + Medicare Supplement (covers some or most of what is left over by Medicare)
- Medicare Advantage Plan (Rx, Hospital and Medical coverage; copays and coinsurances based on services used) These plans generally allow you to combine ALL of your Medicare benefits into one plan. These plans can have a premium starting at $0 monthly in some markets.
