Medicare was created to help senior citizens acquire health insurance at a reasonable price. The majority of people are in need of health insurance far more often in their senior years than in their younger ones. Realizing that seniors pose a bigger health risk to insurance companies than the younger generation, the United States government knew that if insurance providers were allowed to operate without any kind of regulation in how they dealt with seniors, they would charge much more expensive premiums to the elder generation. This would have priced many seniors right out of healthcare coverage.

Medicare aims to tackle this problem, but it does leave gaps in coverage which forces a participant to pay for some costs associated to their healthcare out of pocket. To help with this, the government took a slightly different approach. Rather than administering coverage itself like it does with Medicare, the government instituted Medicare supplemental insurance plans. These are standardized plans that private insurance carriers can choose to issue.

The Medicare supplemental insurance plans, also called Medigap plans, will cover varying degrees of the gaps left by Traditional Medicare. Insurers cannot change the coverage options under each plan. They can choose which of the 10 Medigap plans they wish to carry and at what price they will offer them.

Unlike most insurance plans, what this offers consumers is a real opportunity to compare apples to apples when shopping for an insurance policy. It is not like shopping for car insurance where every provider has a few different tweaks and coverage options. In this case you are getting the exact same plan. It is only a matter of price and choosing a company you trust and feel comfortable with. A Florida Medicare supplement is going to be identical in coverage as the same California Medicare supplement.

The cost of each plan is going to be based on one’s age, gender, overall health, and location. If enrolling during Open Enrollment (this is the 6 months after turning 65 or after enrolling in Medicare Part B for the first time), there is no health examination or screening. An individual with a serious health condition or a lifestyle that poses a higher health risk, such as a smoker, will be offered the same rate as an otherwise healthy individual.

Medigap policies generally do not cover long-term care, vision care, dental care, hearing aids, glasses, or private-duty nursing. Outside of those needs, Medicare supplements provide the opportunity to have almost all out-of-pocket costs not paid by Traditional Medicare to be covered.