Medicare has created 10 Supplement plans which it does not sell but allows other insurance companies to sell for it. These are coverage plans that take care of expenses not already covered by the Original Medicare plan, and the highest coverage of all these is Aetna Medicare Plan F.
It’s a medical insurance plan with a lot to offer the average senior, but it can also be prohibitively expensive to the point where you would be better off with a cheaper plan, in many cases. This article examines what Plan F is offering, how it may be able to benefit you, what you need to do in order to sign up for it, and how it compares to some of the other Supplement plans. Our hope is that this information will benefit you as you try to make an informed decision as to which plan you should sign up for.
Medicare Plan F
Aetna Medicare Plan F is the single full coverage Medicare Supplement plan, and what that essentially means is that it is the one Supplement plan to include coverage for all the supplemental medical expenses, which are medical costs that the Original Medicare plan does not cover.
Now, that original Medicare coverage plan does take care of a number of major, common medical expenses for you, but it also leaves you with a lot to pay from your own pockets. You can either pay those costs on your own or find a coverage plan that will take care of them for you. Other Supplements plans will cover bits and pieces of the full supplemental item list, but Plan F covers them all in their entirety.
Only people who were enrolled into Medicare Part A and B before January 1st of 2020 may enroll in a Medicare Supplement plan F.
Plan F is only something you can sign up for if you already have the Original Medicare plan. If you do sign up for Plan F before you have that basic Medicare coverage, then your Plan F coverage will not go into effect until you get the basic Original Medicare plan. You have to have that basic plan in order for the Supplement plan to do what it is supposed to do.
There will be some plans that you cannot be signed up for at the same time that you sign up for Plan F. You cannot sign up for two Supplement plans at the same time, for instance. You also can’t sign up for Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) at the same time. If you have medical insurance through your employer or through a union, then that will probably overlap with Plan F, and you will have to drop it.
Aetna Medicare Supplement Plan F – Coverage
There are a lot of different medical expenses that are going to be covered under Plan F. We will cover them all for you here and you can look through the list to see if they all apply to you. If you only think few of them pertain to your situation, then you should try to find a lower coverage plan. Remember that Plan F ranks at the top of the 10 different Supplement plans when it comes to coverage, so there are nine other plans you can pick from if you want something with less coverage and a lower price tag.
Plan F covers all your deductible for Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B. That would be an expense that you pay once per year as a result of having Original Medicare cover you for Medicare Part A and Part B expenses.
Plan F also takes care of the cost of Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B copayments. This would be what you pay each time you visit a hospital or a doctor’s office and receive the Part A or Part B services. As a reminder, Part A applies (in general) to long-term care, while Part B generally refers to short term medical care. There is more to these basic parts of Medicare, and you can look into exactly what they cover by going to Medicare’s website.
With Medicare Plan F, you would also be covered for Medicare Part B excess charges. That’s an expense that not a lot of people would have to pay, and it is really only charged to you if you go for Part B services at a medical facility that will not completely accept Medicare and its coverage plan.
Part A coinsurance for hospice care is covered too under Plan F. This gives you more coverage than what you get with the basic Medicare plan. In fact, it covers you for 365 days more. That doesn’t mean that it replaces your basic Medicare coverage for this expense, but rather that it adds coverage onto what you already get.
An Aetna Medicare supplement Plan F covers you for nursing care coinsurance as well. That only applies to skilled nursing care at approved facilities, though.
You are covered for blood as well, which adds three more pints (each year) onto what you already get from basic Medicare coverage.
The final bit of coverage from Plan F is for the foreign travel exchange, which covers you for 80% on each incident. That’s not any less than any of the other Supplements plans provide, though, so you are still getting the maximum allowable coverage.
Plan F Benefits
Many people are signed up for Medicare automatically once they reach a certain age. However, you have to choose to be signed up for a Supplement plan. You have to pick your Supplement plan and you have to choose a provider to get it from. Unlike basic Medicare, Supplement plans are not only available from a single source. You get these supplemental insurance plans by visiting a private insurance company (either physically or through their website), and then filling out an application form. Once your form has been approved, you can start receiving supplemental coverage. That coverage is good for an entire benefit term, which is usually one year.
You are then obligated to make payments each month for that plan, as well as paying any costs for basic Medicare, since you have to have that at the same time you have your Supplement plan. If you signed up for Plan F, but you decided you no longer want it, then you will probably have to wait until your current term is over to switch plans or cancel your coverage plan outright.
Before you apply for Plan F, though, you need to know what it takes to qualify. You will need to be 65 or older and need to have US citizenship. Once you meet those requirements, you should not have any difficulties in getting approved for the plan you want, especially if you apply within six months of turning 65.
Is Plan F the Best? – Medicare Plan G
Is an Aetna Medicare Plan F your best choice? We can’t answer that for you, because we don’t know your situation, and you can’t answer that until you look at not only plan F but also the other plans that are similar to it. The ones we think most seniors should be looking at are two plans- G and N.
Plan G covers just about everything we just listed above for Plan F up above. The only difference is a single item, which is the Medicare Part B deductible. That’s all that Plan G won’t cover out of all the supplemental expenses. As you can imagine, Plan G costs less than Plan F since it covers less. The deductible it does not cover and asks you to pay is going to cost you $183. Once you compare the prices between Plan F and Plan G, you will be able to tell which one is the better deal.
Plan N is often considered a good deal among the high coverage plans, since it covers only a bit less than either of these two plans we already talked about, yet it costs a lot less, in many instances.
Look at these plans and your other choices to tell if Medicare Plan F is right in your situation. You probably won’t know the answer to that for a while, but you can be sure it will be worth it to take the time to look at these plans and what they have to offer.
