I’m on the hunt for a new Medicare supplement plan.  Why?  While the premium is only going up by $12/mo., they’ve increased my deductible by $500/yr.  For someone who is retired, that’s quite a bit.  They increased the deductible to keep the premium down.  For those of you familiar with Medicare Supplement plans, we currently have a Plan F, and we are looking at a new Plan F.  If you’re not familiar with Medicare plans, I’ll discuss them in a future post.

So, what have I done?  I’ve contacted two different insurance brokers to see what they have to offer.  I have talked with one and am now waiting to talk to the other.  Our current premium will go up to $370/mo. for each of us.  If we switch, it will drop to around $210 apiece for medical and drugs.  That truly is a significant change.

But there are tradeoffs.  Our current policy pays for a membership at the YMCA which we do use.  And, if we purchase glasses, our policy will reimburse us up to $150/yr for our spectacles.  And yes, we could certainly afford those things with our savings, so I’m not discounting that.  The biggest issue is that our current carrier can’t ever drop us no matter how ill we might get.

I have also put in a call to our financial planner to get his thoughts.  While this may not be his area of expertise, he does have a good handle on how we should spend out money.  If he believes it’s a good idea, then I’ll consider it further.  If he thinks we should stay with our current plan, then that’s probably what we’ll do.

Moral of the story:

Searching for a new Medicare supplement plan has been a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.  But, as I mentioned, there’s a significant premium disparity from my current carrier to a new one.  I’ll let you know what I decide when I do figure it out.  I have until December 7^th to make a decision and that’s just in a couple of weeks.