Original Medicare
Part A for hospital stays and Part B for doctor visits, plus the share of each bill left to you.
Figure out Medicare at your own pace
The letters, the plan names, the deadlines that seem to sneak up. Take them one at a time here, compare the parts that matter to you, and ask me when something does not add up.
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About me
The person behind every answer here
I work on Medicare and nothing else. There is no office full of agents behind this website and no call queue, just me, going over the questions people bring every enrollment season: which part covers what, when your window opens, and what a plan really costs once the year gets going. Every answer I give is in writing, so you can hold it against your own letters and come back to it whenever you need.
Get to know me
One at a time
Six pieces, one decision
Each one gets its own space here, so you can settle one before moving on to the next.
Medicare Advantage
Private plans that bundle Parts A and B, often with drug benefits, tied to a network of doctors.
Supplement plans
Medigap policies that sit beside Original Medicare and pick up some of the costs it leaves open.
Part D drug plans
Stand-alone prescription plans, each with its own list of covered medicines and pharmacy levels.
Premiums and costs
What comes out every month, what is paid at each visit, and the yearly cap some plans build in.
Yearly changes
The notice every plan sends before the year ends, plus the window that lets you switch after it.
How it goes
Four steps from the first letter to a settled choice
There is no rush here. Each step waits until you are ready for the next one, and I am a message away at every point.
Sign up and save
Your doctors, your medicine list and the dates that apply to you go in one place, so nothing lives on a scrap of paper.
Go through each part
Original Medicare, Advantage, Supplement and Part D each get their own look, measured against the list you saved.
Ask me what is unclear
Send a question about any plan detail and I answer in writing, so you can come back to it as often as you like.
Enroll when ready
Once the choice is settled, enrollment goes through Social Security or Medicare itself. I stay around for the yearly notice that follows.
After the decision
How it felt once the choice was made
Sticking points
Questions that come up early
Short answers to the things people ask before anything else.
No. Enrollment itself goes through Social Security or the official Medicare enrollment channels. An account on this website keeps your notes, comparisons and dates together while you work toward that step.
Not always. If you have health coverage through an employer with 20 or more workers, you can usually delay Part B without a penalty and use a special window once that coverage ends. Smaller employers follow different rules, so check yours first.
No. A Supplement policy only works alongside Original Medicare, and it is against the rules to sell you one while you are enrolled in an Advantage plan. It is one route or the other, and switching later is possible but not always simple.
That is the yearly notice of change. It lists what moves for the coming year: the premium, the copays, the drug list, the pharmacies and the doctors in the network. Go through it before the switching window closes, because staying put is a choice too.
You get a place to save your medicine list, your doctors and the dates that apply to you, plus a way to send me a question when something in a plan does not make sense. I answer in writing, so you can come back to it later.