United Health Raising Rates Mid Year

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@glow141 wrote:

Except during open enrollment (and California "birthday rule") if you change medigap plans they can evaluate you based on your medical history and refuse your application.  

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There is no nationwide open enrollment period for supplements.  Everybody can get a supplement without medical underwriting when they're first eligible for Medicare, but after that, it depends on what state someone is in.  In a few states, there are guaranteed issue periods (like California's birthday rule or New York's year-round guaranteed-issue period, among others) during which a person can change Medigap supplements, but in a majority of states, there is no general guaranteed- issue period or "open enrollment" period that allows anyone to switch supplements without undergoing medical underwriting.

If you're thinking of the "open enrollment" period at the end of every year, it has nothing to do with supplements.  

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@glow141 wrote:

Apparently we get a "discount" upon initial enrollemnt which DECREASES 3% each year for being a loyal customer. This in essence a 3% increase on every anniversary date.  

Actually, no it's not.  A 3% decrease in a discount is not equal to a 3% increase in the premium on which the discount is applied.  (And for the record, the discount is decreased by 3 percentage points, not 3%--they're not the same thing.) 

Basically, the increase due to the declining discount will start at 5% and will go down until a person reaches the age where the discount zeroes out (probably around age 81), and during that time the increase due to the declining discount will never be below 3%.

I posted about this a couple of months ago, showing how the math works:

community.aarp.org/t5/Medicare-Insurance/Declining-discount-of-3-on-supplements-actually-equals-5/m-p/2611018 

📎@TRL1111 , my comment to Lorraine @LorraineC792260 had ZERO to do with the "label" of LOW INCOME. Our discussion was about increasing rates mid year./lol 🤣😂

➡️[*** YOU SAID: Fixed income isn't necessarily low income. A retiree with a pension or an annuity that pays $200,000 a year has a fixed income--but it's not a low income. A retiree whose retirement is funded by withdrawals from a 401k or IRA doesn't have a fixed income--and whether he's low income or high income would depend on the amount of the 401k or IRA he's withdrawing from.

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@papawofboo wrote:

Quit with the AARP stuff and get to an insurance broker that has all kinds of plans for you to pick from. Be sure to take your info with you, which doctors you use and a list of all your meds.

Before going to an insurance broker, consider going to Medicare.gov and entering your information in the Medigap supplement plan finder to see the premium of all supplements available to you, just to get a feel for the lay of the land.  Supplements, especially Plan F or Plan G, are not cheap.

Also, at this time of the year it's not possible to change from traditional Medicare with a supplement to an Advantage plan, so it doesn't matter who your doctors are since only Advantage plans have networks.  It's also not possible to change drug coverage right now, so there's no need to have a list of medications because not only can you not switch right now, you can't even plan because what is a good plan for a given set of medications right now will not necessarily be a good plan next year.

But you can find out from a broker if you can possibly switch supplements, especially if you will be required to undergo medical underwriting because brokers are familiar with the requirements of the various supplements he sells (and note that brokers sell only supplements from companies they're contracted with).

Caveat:  traditional Medicare doesn't have networks, but there is a category of supplements called "Select" that does have a network of hospitals; before choosing a Select supplement, be very sure you know what it entails.