Medigap Insurance Plans
Posted on 02 22 2011 by Julia Gilels
Medigap Insurance Plans are a necessity when talking about Medicare. Unfortunately Medicare does not cover all of our health benefits, in fact without Medigap Insurance Plans you could be at risk for large out of pocket expenses in the event of a hospitalization or even if an unexpected medical condition were to arise. This was recently the case with a woman named Judy who lived in West Palm Beach, FL. She found out the hard way that healthcare bills can add up very quickly.
Judy, only 67 years old, had been on Medicare for two years, but never bothered getting a Medigap Insurance Plan in place. She was at a friends house one afternoon and out of nowhere she suddenly started feeling dizzy and began having trouble walking. As she was going to sit down, she suddenly collapsed. Her friends immediately called 911 and paramedics arrived very quickly. The Emergency Medical Technicians rushed her to the hospital to receive treatment. The tests came back and showed that she had a severe heart attack and was in desperate need of open heart surgery to prevent another potentially fatal situation. She was rushed to the Operating Room and the surgery began. After six hours the surgery was finally completed and was a great success!
She was finally able to go home after four days in the hospital. Soon after however, she began to see several bills coming in the mail. One after another, with doctors names on it that she did not even know or had ever heard of before. The bills ended up totaling a over $324,000! The way the Medicare program worked for Judy in this situation seemed a bit complicated and very expensive. Her traditional Medicare, without a Medigap Insurance Plan, first would not even cover the actual hospital stay itself until Judy met a deductible of $1,100. Then there was a 20% charge from every doctor and surgeon that had assisted her while she was in the hospital. This even included the attending physicians, which she didn't even remember seeing, anesthesiologists, and outrageous surgeons fees.
When it was all finished, Judy ended up having to come out of pocket $65,900! This took a large portion of her retirement savings and made being retired, living on a fixed income even more difficult.
This unfortunate situation could have been much less stressful if she had taken the time to get the proper Medigap Insurance Plans in place. Even after she had been on Medicare for years, she was eligible to get a Medigap Insurance Plan at anytime. One of the best places to get Medigap Insurance Quotes is through a company called Medicare Supplements Made Easy. Their devoted staff do the best they can to make sure that their clients do ever have to through anything like Judy did. Call an agent today to get free information on Medigap Insurance Plans and get your Medigap Insurance Quotes.
Related Links
http://www.medicare.govhttp://questions.medicare.gov/
http://forum.medicaresupplementsmadeeasy.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=247