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Sounds like you have Original/traditional Medicare and a Medigap plan to cover the 20% Medicare does not pay. Me too, I have Original Medicare (Parts A and B) and I am so glad I do. I have had two surgeries, a stent and many PET and CT scans in the last two years and I have never seen a bill. And I had no problem self-referring myself to Mayo Clinic.
We have been discussing Original Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage plans in another thread on Connect, warning people about shortcomings of Medicare Advantage. It may sound cheaper, but if you have health issues you easily arrive at Medicare Advantage max out of pocket expense. My Medigap plan costs me much less than I would be paying with Advantage now and I go to whatever doctor I choose when I choose.
Replies to "Sounds like you have Original/traditional Medicare and a Medigap plan to cover the 20% Medicare does..."
We have the Medicare advantage Highmark BCBS plan and love it. With original Medicare, we had to,pay for a supplemental, vision, eye and RX. We now save hundreds every month and have never any issues. After surgery, many tests etc out of pocket was under $500. We have 0 copay for specialist and we even go to one not on our plan, which they do pay. I would rather save $735 a month from what we were paying and put that money away.
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Wow, you sound incredibly well informed about all the Medicare plans and obviously have the perfect plans for yourself. To be perfectly candid, after a dreadful experience my husband's parents had with health insurance, we decided to use an insurance agent who would fully understand all the complex details of every single plan. Each year we complete a health form and then rely on him to tell us which supplement we should enroll in for the upcoming year. We also have been extremely fortunate not to have had out of pocket expenses. I think it's unfortunate, though, that the system has to be SO complex.