Medicare Pros And Cons

Turning age 65 can be considered a milestone in one’s life. During this time one may have to make lots of decisions. One major decision that has to be made is the choice of which Medicare options to choose. This can be very difficult if you are unsure or really don’t know much about the different health insurance plans offered through Medicare. There is Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D as well as private insurance. Some parts of Medicare are more complicated to understand than others. Medicare Advantage or what used to be called Medicare Choice is one that many older adults really don’t understand or have less knowledge about and for that very reason that is why I chose to write about Medicare Advantage. According to the Social Security Administration

The pros of having Medicare Advantage outweigh the cons of having it. According to Choose Your Medicare Options Wisely (2005), it was mentioned that the upside to having Medicare Advantage is that for those older adults or disabled individuals who accumulate massive hospital bills that this plan would help them to alleviate those problems while at the same time providing services such as preventive care such as eyeglasses and oral care that is not provided through basic Medicare. At the same time an individual is still able to receive Medicare Parts A and B, with fewer forms to complete while receiving extensive care without having to expect to pay extra fees for services rendered upon physician services (Choose Your Medicare Options Wisely, 2005). The downside as discussed by Choose Your Medicare Options Wisely (2005) to having Medicare Advantage is that on top of the Part B premium one would have to pay, they would also be required to pay a premium for Medicare Advantage that could be as high as $100 per month. Another issue with Medicare Advantage is that you have to choose a doctor within a network list that is already predetermined unless you are willing to pay the extra fee(s) associated to seek care by a physician of your choice and most of the plans require that you have a referral to seek a desired physician (Choose Your Medicare Options Wisely, 2005). Choose Your Medicare Options

Mobley et al. (2007) also noted that based off the study that was done resulting from people of different backgrounds and different categories included feedback that was given to show reports that some people opted out for reasons contributing to the lack of knowledge being given out to them through employees of the plan, individuals feeling as though the Medicare Advantage plans were not very beneficial to them and some even went on to say they understood and viewed the plan to actually be different than what they actually perceived it to