Page 2 - Cover Letter and Evaluation for Anne Parlin

You may be able to use New York’s year-round guaranteed issue law to your benefit (this law is
described in Attachment 1). One way to do this is initially to buy a less expensive Medigap
policy like Plan L or Plan N. These are both solid plans, although you will have some co-
payments. But unless you use a lot of medical services or have expensive treatments, you’ll
probably come out a few hundred dollars ahead each year.

Then in a few years if you begin seeing your doctors more often or requiring more expensive
tests and treatments, you could upgrade to Plan G or Plan F. Beginning in 2020, Plan F will no
longer be sold, although people who already have it at the end of 2019 can keep it. Plan G is
identical to Plan F except that Plan G does not cover the Part B deductible ($183 this year).

Plan G’s premiums should be about $180 less a year than Plan F’s premiums, although there is
quite a bit of variance among insurers. Also, fewer companies currently sell Plan G, although
that will change in 2020.

The other way that you may be able to use New York’s guarnteed-issue rule is to keep the same
plan, e.g., Plan F, but when it makes financial sense to do so, to switch your coverage to
another insurance company that has lower premiums. The website of the New York
Department of Financial Services updates its Medigap premiums monthly, and if at some point
you find that you can save several hundred dollars a year by changing insurance companies, you
can do so at any time of year without having to answer health or age-related questiions. For
future reference, this website’s Medigap premiums can be found at the following link:

http://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/caremain.htm#tables

At this site, you can click on the specific plan that you want (Plan F, etc.) to see each company’s
current premiums in your zip code. In your comparisons, I’ve assumed that you’ll get Plan F and
that in New York your premiums will be $230 a month (or about $2,750 a year). And in
Vermont, I’ve assumed that your Plan F premiums will be about $2,200 a year. Premiums from
CSG Actuarial and from the New York Department of Financial Services website mentioned
above are included in the attachments.

Rx Drug Coverage

As you know, when you have a Medigap policy you also need to enroll in a Part D stand-alone
plan. Most stand-alone plans are national plans that are available in every state, although the
plans’ costs may differ slightly from one state to the next. For the prescription drugs that you
take, the lowest-cost plans are the same ones in New York, Vermont, and Maryland.

If you get monthly refills at your local pharmacy, the Part D stand-alone plan that’s shown on
Medicare’s web site as having the lowest estimated annual costs for your drugs in all three
states is the AARP MedicareRx Walgreens Plan. According to these estimates, the MedicareRx
Walgreens plan will be about $244 less expensive in 2018 than will your current Humana Rx

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