Video: How to Understand Medicare Plans

Video Transcript

Narrator: Okay, so you're trying to understand Medicare and it can be really confusing. Like when do you have to start thinking about all this stuff? Well, if you're coming up on the magic 65, it's time. Or if you're like a lot of us and retiring later, you're ready as soon as you don't have employer health insurance anymore.

Maybe you already have a Medicare plan but you're thinking about switching it up a little bit. No matter what's going on you need to know some basics. So, let's get started.

Medicare has four parts: A, B, C and, yep you guessed it, D. Plus there's this fifth thing called supplemental. We'll get back to that. So, what do the letters really mean? Well, Part A is for when you go to the hospital.

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Narrator: And you get it just by signing up for Medicare. We have a whole other video that explains signing up. For most, you get Part A automatically and it costs you zip, zero, nothing. Parts B, C and D, on the other hand, are optional. If you want them, you buy them.

Part B is for when you go to the doctor; stuff like routine physicals, blood pressure checks, tests, you know, things like that.

Part C? Well, let's say you want to add eye care or dental coverage or something else. That's where part C comes in. It's also called Medicare Advantage and it's pretty cool. Part C combines A and B along with some of the other stuff you want.

Then there's Part D. Part D is prescription drug coverage. Now you can buy it on its own, or you can get it with Part C and wrap the whole thing up in one neat little package. You can also buy a supplemental policy if you want. They're called that because they cover some of the costs not included in A or B.

Well, there you go. Those are the basics. Still want to know more? Go to medicare.gov or check the other videos in this series at medicaremadeclear.com.