Medicare spends 80% of its budget on the sickest 20%. By Medicare's own statistics, if you include skilled care nursing (which Medicare covers very, very little of) and end-of-life care, on average it covers 51% of total senior medical expenses.

YMMV, depending on your own health and eventual cause of death.

Chisue, you've made this same argument at the KT many times. I'm sorry AARP's advertising continues to bother you.

I like my AARP Medicare supplement (same coverage as the Blue Cross/Blue Shield policy I started out with, but costs much less), and I like AARP. I don't have occasion to take advantage of their many discounts, but I find their publications useful.

jakkom, a similar statistic hold true if you look at total population-wide medical expenditures in the US and the shockingly high percentage that relates to care for people in their last few years of life.

What's the alternative?

Chisue,

You said " possibly a lot less than the thousands you'd pay every year to be 'protected' with a United HealthCare policy". In our state (WI) the two AARP UnitedHealthcare plans offered have monthly premiums of ZERO or $25.

When you post incorrect information, you may damage a business. Please be more careful in the future.

Have not seen the ad, but wonder if they are trying to sell a Medicare "Advantage" plan (which is like a HMO), rather than a supplemental plan. Because HMO's are more restrictive, they usually cost less.

honibaker -- Are you saying there is a UHC Medicare *supplement* plan offered in Wisconsin that costs nothing or as little as $25 per month? What does it cover? Which supplemental plan is it? Is it limited to a certain population? The only plans I've ever seen priced this low are Part D (drug) plans.

Regardless, the ad is misleading, making people new to Medicare believe that they surely will need supplementary insurance to pay 20% of the inflated medical bills we all read about that are vastly deflated after Medicare adjustments.

I'm not slamming AARP, although I agree with Elmer for the most part that the organization is 'a good idea corrupted'. It's just that this is the actual name of the product: AARP United HealthCare.

mdln -- I don't believe this ad is touting an HMO/Advantage Plan. I'll look again next time I see this little blue ball rolling along a wooden track, but I seem to recall a message about being able to choose your doctor.

@ chisue, in the Advantage plan you can choose your provider from their list. (For me, I am too picky to choose from a list. When I had an eye injury if I didn't like the UIC eye subspecialist, I was going to go out of state.)

The Medicare plans vary from state to state, even from zip code to zip code within a state. You can do a personalized search on Medicare.gov and it will only list the plans available to you. So it is possible that UHC have very different plans and benefits depending on where you live, and also offer more than one plan where you live. Open enrollment is until December 7, so there is still plenty of time to research what it available to you. You can contact the SHIP counselor in your state for unbiased assistance. Their contact information is on the back of the "Medicare and You" booklet that gets mailed every year.

Correction: the Medicare Gap or Supplement plans are exactly the same nationwide, but price and availability will vary state to state.

The Part D Prescription plans vary widely, however. Cooper, that is what is current;y in open enrollment until Dec. 7..

We never wanted an Advantage plan. We don't want to be limited either. The Medicare + Supplement plans let you choose any provider that accepts Medicare assignment. I'm pretty sure that's the case with the AARP UHC plan I find misleading.

Instead of the High Deductible Plan F supplement I chose (at $85/mo.), I could have been frightened by this ad into paying thousands a year for the Plan F that covers everything. (It would have only paid out on a few hundred dollars of my Medicare-adjusted costs the year I was hospitalized for pneumonia, while my premiums for the 'protection' would have been three times those paltry benefits.)

Years ago my DH's company *gave* us the equivalent of that Plan F. It was very nice to know that any bill that came to me was not my personal responsibility to parse because Aetna would decide what was owed and make payment. However, when you're paying the premiums out of pocket, you can paying a lot for the luxury of not having to sully your hands dealing with bills!

We don't have Plan F here. We have the standard Part A & B (hospital & doctors) and part D (prescription drugs) offered by all the companies. We go to each seminar where they explain what they cover, co-pays, and any plan changes for the coming year.

This year Aetna and our hospital/doctor network couldn't agree on a contract so they are all out of network. (Also their $0/mo plan went to $39.) No problem. We are moving to UHC where they are all in network. They also have a $0 plan, but the math on $36.mo plan works better for me. You have to do the math. For instance, DH could get a cheaper plan without part D because he got his meds from the VA

Forgot to mention, these are Medicare Advantage Plans, not Supplemental, which I know nothing about.

I believe every state licenses *supplementary* Medicare insurance companies to offer a Plan F -- along with Plans A through...whatever. These supplementary plans cover out of pocket payment ranging from very little to *everything* that would otherwise be out of pocket for the individual. (Plan F pays everything. Plan F High Deductible pays everything after the insured has paid the deductible -- about $2100 in our case.)

I just finished speaking with the Medicare claims department regarding my two hospital admissions in October. (Oct. 11 - 14 for colon resection surgery and Oct. 22 -25 readmission through the ER when I experienced a 'bleed' from the surgery).

Here are the scary bills that make people think they need supplemental Medicare insurance.

My first hospital-only bill is $40, 659.71. My second hospital-only bill is $14,790.71.

If I had no supplementary insurance I would pay $1288.00 on these bills that total $55,450.42 -- because Medicare will pay the hospital its adjusted rate. ($16,433 and $6,791, respectively.) I pay ONLY my Part A Medicare deductible of $1288.00 -- owed once in any 60 day period. I will pay the $1288 because our supplementary has a deductible of $2100. OTOH, I have paid only $1020 in premiums for my supplemental insurance, not $3000 in premiums for the unlimited Plan F.

If you are not generally healthy and can expect frequent hospitalizations or other medical care, you might very well be ahead to buy a lot of supplemental coverage. I'm just saying that not everyone just starting on Medicare needs Medicare supplement insurance -- other than coverage against catastrophic expenses.

You are not going to be paying 20% of some $55,000 hospital bill. You will pay a hospital deductible of $1288 plus 20% of greatly reduced doctor bills. (My surgeon's bill is $10,641. I will pay $116.)

Great, accurate examples, Chisue.

The plans strive to induce fear in order to get as much money from retirees as possible. My wife pays $9 per month for a generic prescription. A Part D in this county starts at $35 per month along with a $360 annual deductible. No thanks! Absolutely no advantage (pun intended)

BTW, we're healthy seniors. Health checkups, screenings, immunizations, etc., So for now, we'll skip the disadvantage plans.

Brushworks -- You may regret not taking a Part D plan. My DH took zero prescription drugs when Part D became available. He didn't take a plan. Now he pays a penalty that is almost a third of his Part D plan premium. You may want to look into the penalty. Also consider that eventually many of us DO need an expensive medication, or three!

I do resent having to pay for Part D insurance. You pay an insurance premium for the privilege of getting a discount on an unregulated, vastly overpriced prescription medication. (My maintenance asthma medication, Advair, is now $400/mo. retail; patented more than a decade ago, made of two cheap ingredients; tied up by the manufacturer's lawyers so it will never go generic.)

Yes, I do understand the 1% per month penalty. I also know that some plans like $0 premium link the penalty to the copay. A $9 copay will cost you $9.90 after 10 months of penalty, after the $250 deductible of course.

chisue, I won't justify US drug prices for non-generics. It's a small part of a broken system. But without patent protection and some period of exclusivity, there would be no reason for drug and other biotech companies to go through the long and expensive process of treatment innovation, testing, and approval. There would be no advances and no improvements in meds. Generic drug companies do nothing more than turn out drugs from formulae that others developed, either under license or after patent protection expires. Nothing else.

Patent protection, copyrights and trademark protection are all for a wide range of products and industries and all for the same reason.

Drug Development

It's not cheap, and takes more than a weekend.

Glaxo came out with Advair about 2000. It combined two already-available ingredients. Prior, asthmatics could buy fluticasone propionate and salmeterol separately, for very little, and inhale them one after the other. Advair combined the two in one inhaler. Glaxo then bought the patents for one of the ingredients -- I believe it's salmeterol -- removing that option from the market. Glaxo has had 16 years to reap rewards for its monopoly. It now charges $400/mo. retail for Advair -- no changes/improvements, and no other options for me.

As a young college grad in the workforce when the Oil Crisis of 1973 occurred, I was appalled at how much money the oil companies were making from the shortages that had me and others waiting in long lines (on alternate days) to fill-up at outrageous prices. That's when the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach came to me, to make me feel better. I bought Chevron stock and made a tidy profit.

If you think Glaxo SK is making unreasonable profit on its practices, become a shareholder and benefit personally.

AFAIC AARP is 90% scam anyway. When I saw what they were doing and saying I laughed but at the same time was saddened thinking about the number of people who will be taken in by the con job.

@ chisue, take a look at 2014 compensation for United Healthcare's CEO...

How disgusting. How do these men hold their heads up? Can't take it with you, fellas.

If you don't like it, become a shareholder of these companies and speak up.

Good grief. Stephen Hemsley went from $12.1 million in 2013 to $66.1 million in 2014! Quite a nice raise.

Oh, please. You think "speaking up" would change this? Never.

For me, issues like these are like political ones. People can choose to get involved, voice their opinions and be active concerning "problems" they feel strongly about. Or, failing to do that, indirect support for such conduct is given and so is assumed because the disapprovals remain unheard.

Like so many other people, I have investments in stock of public companies directly and through funds. As some have expressed above. I think executive compensation in too many cases is at unjustifiable levels. It doesn't bother me enough to say or do anything, because for most companies it doesn't amount to much or make any difference, and so I don't. My silence, along of that of my fellow shareholders in any particular company, will be viewed as my approval. I'm okay with that - it's my choice to do and say nothing.

.

https://nyti.ms/2qD4TnK

We need more whistle blowers. What took the Feds so long to join the suit?