Here's How Much We Paid With Medicare | Medicare Supplement vs Advantage

2 minor corrections: The 1st Part A - Medicare paid amount should show $8,000 - not $7,000. A note comes up as we write it. Luckily, this number is not consequential for the purpose of the video. 2. The date on the final picture should say: 1953 - 2024 Thank you!

This must’ve been a very difficult video to make.I admire you for still wanting to help people with this information it had to be a little painful.

Thank you so much for doing this comparison. I was caught by a Kaiser Advantage plan Oct- lot of diagnostics, no hospital stays and hit my MOO of $6500 with MRIs + biopsies. As you say MOO reset with the calendar year and I got another hit up to MOO. Thankfully- at the end of it all: there was nothing 'wrong' with me, just inflammation! And it left me $13,000 poorer! I still think it is criminal that 70 year olds are supposed to 'figure out' their best gamble. Maybe if ALL public office holders were limited to original Medicare coverage, things would change.

I’m sorry about your mom. She was a brave soul to battle cancer for so long. God bless her memory and those she leaves behind.

Another elephant in the room is that the advantage plan typically requires the private insurance (advantage provider) preauthorize treatment and increasingly cap treatment based on algorithms that in many cases disadvantage the patient. This caveat cemented my decision to pony-up for a supplement plan and just budget for those premiums.

My husband is battling Cancer in Canada. He is also 70. So far we have been charged $45.00 for an ambulance which I can claim on my income tax. He has spent 3 weeks in hospital so far, has had ultrasounds, MRI’s CT Scans, radiation and chemo treatment.

Having just retired and signed up for Medicare I researched Medicare extensively. This is the best video I've seen. It makes everything very clear.

I’m 72 years old and retired, live in the UK, in Jan 2019 I had an MRI scan which showed tumours in my spine. After various tests I was diagnosed with Solitary Plasmacytoma of the bone and Multiple Myeloma. They gave me radiotherapy daily for five weeks this was followed by keyhole surgery to clean the tumour from my vertebrae, and injecting orthopaedic cement into my vertebrae to repair it. After this I had five months of chemotherapy, this was followed 5 months later by a stem cell transplant in December 2020 which required a 4 week inpatient stay in hospital. Since then I have to take low dose chemotherapy daily and have been in remission ever since. Due to our healthcare system in the UK I have paid nothing for my medical care other than our usual taxes.

We lost my mother on Christmas Eve 2021, ending an 8 month battle with cancer. We went through chemo, transfusions, and hospital stays nightmares all during this fight. The doctors never gave us the true facts on her condition. They kept giving us hope that she would recover up till the very end. My heart goes out to you and your family.

I had heard of people going bankrupt due to medical bills even after having Medicare. This presentation showed me how having supplemental insurance on top of Medicare could help me prevent that from happening. This is the best presentation on how to avoid this that I've ever seen.

Wow, this is one of the best pre-Medicare videos I've seen. I'm 64.5 and 6 months away from Medicare and this was EXTREMELY useful!! Thank you!

I work in healthcare. Many doctors just abused the system. I just had an 86 year old patient going through Chemo that has Aortic Stenosis (valve doesn’t open enough) and her doctors are trying to talk her into having it replaced. They want to do the surgery before she dies of cancer. I have had patients with Dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s al with the same valve issue and they DO THE SURGERY! All to prolong the misery of both patients and caregivers and to enrich themselves. DISGUSTING!

By contrast, my wife lived with stage 4 ovarian cancer for 8 years. During that time, she received countless amounts of chemo at excellent hospitals in Ontario, Canada. Her care and the various drugs extended her life well beyond her projected life expectancy. The only expenditures for which we were responsible were the hospital parking fees.

After 2 visits to hospital and an operation for bowel cancer…my mother in law started to have pain after…she was told her cancer had returned. She refused more interventions and chemo. Not very long after she went to an end of life facility and passed away peacefully under pain medication. I believe that once there is really nothing they can do except pile on expenses…it is Ok to put a stop to all extra expenses especially for people that do not have all that extra $ to pay. May God rest her brave soul, I truly miss her but she did the right thing.

First, I am very sorry for your loss. As a 63 (as of this month) semi-retiree, I have been searching for a video just like this. I am sending the link to a dozen of my friends who have been looking for something like this as well. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all the work that must have gone into this during a very difficult time.

Wow ! 😢I'm so sorry about your mom, but that bill was huge, thank you very much Eddie

With original Medicare, it's much easier to determine what will be covered. There are no guarantees with the prior authorization process. Although there are new rules to speed the process, imagine the stress of having to wait for the determination and the real possibility of denials and appeals. I worked in healthcare for 50 years. I've seen what that added stress does to the healing process. When I went on Medicare, it was a simple decision based on eliminating for-profit insurance companies from my healthcare decisions.

I'm sorry for the loss of your mom. Sounds like she was a real fighter. Praying for peace and comfort for your family. God bless you all.

What a comprehensive comparison! Thank you SO MUCH. How mind boggling for seniors to make decisions.

This is insane. Thank you for explaining what most retired or soon-to-retire Americans DO NOT UNDERSTAND. Your chart and explanation shows how complicated and convoluted our healthcare payment system is at every level and in every circumstance. We need a national healthcare system.