Page 3 - Cover Letter and Evaluation for Richard Hain

Insurance agents sometimes promote Plan F because it is the most expensive Medigap
plan and generates the highest commissions. But you can frequently save money with
Plan G because your premium savings are greater than the Part B deductible – even if
you pay the full Part B deductible, you will come out ahead. You should be able to
purchase Plan G for roughly $1,600 a year or perhaps slightly less.

2) Medigap Plan N. This is soewhat less comprehensive than Plan G but still provides a
strong set of benefits. People in relatively good health will often save money in Plan N
because they do not go to their doctors frequently and thus do not have many co-
payments. Its annual premiums are about $1,350, or perhaps $250-$300 less than Plan’s
G premiums, but if you do not use many medical services you will likely save money.

Medicare assignment

Both of your physicians accept Medicare-approved rates (or Medicare assignment), as shown in
Appendix A. And both are listed in the networks of the two Advantage plans that are compared
in your evaluation. But before enrolling in an Advantage plan, you should verify with your
doctors’ offices that they are still in the plan’s network. Dr. Holmes is not listed as a Medicare
provider (very few dentists are).

The pricing of Medigap policies

If you decide to get a Medigap policy, it’s good to give some thought as to the company that
you will buy your policy from and to make a few calls to get current quotes. While it’s important
to go with a company that has relatively low premiums, you may also want to factor in a
company’s financial strength and size. As a rule, larger companies have slightly lower annual
premium increases, according to a government study a few years ago.

The premium comparisons in Appendix B1 are from the Colorado Department of Insurance and
include insurance companies’ toll-free telephone numbers. Appendices B2 and B3 are from CSG
Actuarial, a firm that provides quotes to insurance agents. Some premiums in the CSG lists may
be lower than you can get because the commissions may not be included (unfortunately,
there’s no way to filter these out or for me to know which ones they are). Most of these
premiums, though, should be close to current quotes.

CSG Actuarial’s premiums can be helpful in a couple of ways. First, they can serve as a starting
point to identify the companies that have lower premiums; second, these quotes also show the
insurance companies’ financial ratings by A.M Best and (for the larger companies) Standard &
Poor. They do not show the companies’ phone numbers, which can be found in Appendix B1

Discounts

Insurance companies that sell Medigap policies offer discounts of various kinds. As an example,
some companies have discounts for automatic debit payments of monthly premiums or for

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