The first way to cover the 20%
How does a Medicare Supplement work?
A Supplement sits alongside Medicare and pays the share Medicare leaves behind. You pay more each month, and little or nothing when you actually use your coverage.
Also called Medigap. You may have heard them called Plan F, Plan G or Plan N.
Don't know a word? Press any purple word to see what it means. They're all listed at the bottom of the page.
Meet Ray
A short story. It stops before the ending.
Read the script
The one picture to remember
It's the same 80/20 picture from step 1, with the gap filled in.
How it works
Five short cards. Open "Going deeper" only if you want the detail.
It has one job: cover the 20% Medicare leaves
Medicare pays its 80% first. Then your Supplement pays the share Medicare left — so there's little or nothing left for you to pay. Your preventive care is covered, and so is the big thing nobody plans for: a surgery, a hospital stay, cancer treatment.
It isn't a separate set of benefits with its own rules. It follows whatever Medicare already approved, which is why people who have one rarely think about it. There's no plan to learn.
Exactly how much is left for you depends on which lettered plan you pick. That's the next card.
Plan F, Plan G, Plan N — and what each one leaves you
Supplements come as lettered plans, and the letters are set by law — Plan G from one company covers exactly what Plan G from another company covers. Only the price and the service differ. These are the three people usually compare:
All three cover the big things the same way. The difference is only what you handle on small, everyday costs.
Going deeper — the other letters, and three states that do it differently
There are other letters (A, B, D, K, L, M) and two high-deductible versions. K and L work differently again: they pay a set share and have their own yearly out-of-pocket limit.
Massachusetts, Minnesota and Wisconsin don't use the letter system at all. They have their own standard plans, so a comparison written for the other 47 states won't match what you see there.
What a Plan G or Plan N costs depends on your age, your ZIP code and your state's rules. A licensed support agent can put actual numbers next to them.
No obligation. You can request help from one of our licensed support agents at any time.A higher monthly cost, and that's mostly the end of it
What you pay for a Supplement depends on your age, your ZIP code, whether you use tobacco, and which letter you choose. Two people on the same plan letter can pay very different amounts.
Going deeper — why the price can go up as you age
States allow companies to price these plans in different ways. In most states the price is tied to your age, so it rises as you get older. A few states require everyone to pay the same regardless of age.
Prices also rise over time for everyone, the way most insurance does. Worth asking how your state works before you pick a letter.
Today’s price isn’t the whole question
The price you see is today’s price. What it does over the next five years is a different question, and a real one — two companies can charge almost the same now and be a long way apart later.
No website can tell you that. Every company files its increases with the state, and a licensed support agent here can pull that history for you. It costs you nothing and they don’t need anything from you to look.
Any doctor in the country who takes Medicare
This is the part people care about most. A Supplement has no network of its own. If a provider accepts Medicare, your Supplement works there — in your town or across the country.
No referrals, either. You can book a specialist yourself.
So if you need serious surgery, you can go to any surgeon who takes Medicare, instead of only the ones a plan's network includes.
A Supplement does not cover prescriptions
It covers your medical care. Your medications come from a separate prescription plan, which you sign up for at the same time.
Two plans, two jobs: the Supplement handles the medical side, the prescription plan handles the pharmacy side. Going without a prescription plan means a permanent late fee added to your prescription coverage for as long as you have it — even if you take nothing today.
Try it
Two quick tools. Nothing you pick is saved.
See who pays what
With this plan:
Plan G: the Supplement picks up your share once you've paid the Part B deductible for the year.
Made-up round amounts to show the math, not real prices. However high the bill goes, your share stays the same — that's the point of these plans.
Which one sounds like you?
No score, no right answer. Just tap the one that fits.
Tap one to see what it usually means.
How Ray's story ends
Same surgery as Mary's in step 1 — different ending.
Read the script
- Paid his share of the surgery, so the bill wasn't his problem.
- Let him pick the surgeon, because there was no network to stay inside.
- No referral needed to see the specialist in the first place.
A higher payment every month for years before the surgery — including all the years nothing happened. And a separate prescription plan on top.
That trade is the whole choice, and it's step 5.
You're going to pay for your coverage one way or the other. Either more each month and you're covered when you use it, or less each month and more out of pocket if something major happens.
How Hunter puts it on a callWords on this page
- Copay
- A flat amount you hand over at the visit. Twenty dollars to see your doctor, for example.
- Deductible
- What you pay yourself first, before the plan starts paying its share.
- Out-of-pocket maximum
- The most a plan can make you pay for covered medical care in a year. Original Medicare does not have one, which is why most people add a second plan.