They work very well. They work similar to group health insurance that many people have through their employers.
The insured pays very little premium because most of the premium is paid by Medicare. You have a network of doctors and hospitals you can go to with usually an HMO network or a PPO network. The HMO is a more restrictive type of network.
The insured will pay co-pays and sometimes deductibles. You will have a maximum out of pocket limit which you do not have with traditional Medicare (unless you supplement Medicare with a Medigap plan.)
The worst thing about the Medicare Advantage Plans is they are very political. They were brought out during the George W. Bush years and the current administration has stated in several interviews that they would like to end them. However their base of senior voters would not make that easy for them to pull off.
Quite a bit of the government funding for Medicare Advantage is scheduled to be cut as part of the Affordable Care Act. That could have a bad affect on the program in future years.
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The insured pays very little premium because most of the premium is paid by Medicare. You have a network of doctors and hospitals you can go to with usually an HMO network or a PPO network. The HMO is a more restrictive type of network.
The insured will pay co-pays and sometimes deductibles. You will have a maximum out of pocket limit which you do not have with traditional Medicare (unless you supplement Medicare with a Medigap plan.)
The worst thing about the Medicare Advantage Plans is they are very political. They were brought out during the George W. Bush years and the current administration has stated in several interviews that they would like to end them. However their base of senior voters would not make that easy for them to pull off.
Quite a bit of the government funding for Medicare Advantage is scheduled to be cut as part of the Affordable Care Act. That could have a bad affect on the program in future years.