I am Phil Daigle and I author the Healthcare Shopper Blog. I am the founder and CEO of HealthcareShopper.com, LLC. - a national health insurance agency based in Laguna Beach California. I pioneered the marketing of health insurance via the internet in 1996. Today, HealthcareShopper.com provides health insurance to individuals and families throughout the United States. Currently, we have over 2,000 customers.
I share what I know about the health care business with my customers. potential customers, and friends to help them become informed consumers of healthcare.
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Phil, I have a Wisconsin medigap type plan for which my wife and I pay $8100/yr. This includes prescription drugs. The policy seems to match a 'C' type plan.
The total we have paid under this policy far exceeds the amounts received in secondary coverage, even though I've had prostate surgery and monitoring for a CLL condition.
I've been looking at other policies such as the AARP plans, which are cheaper. Your 2006 article questions whether supplement plans are worth it, not counting drug plans. This has occurred to me, as we can afford the supplement payments - considering the absence of premiums. Most of the stuff on the web doesn't talk about this option.
Do you still hold this view, are there any caveats?
Thanks for any help
Dear Bruce,
Yes. I still hold the opinion that medigap coverage is a waste of money. It's not so much that you don't recover your premium in savings on out of pocket expenses (after all this is insurance), but the amount at risk (medicare deductibles and coinsurance) is not a large enough amount to justify insuring at least not for what you'd have to pay for the coverage.
I do recommend Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage because it's cheap. I imagine your Rx drug costs are pretty high.
Phil