Looking for advice - I am 64 years, 8 months - Medicare is coming at me fast!

[hedda_foil]

10. AARP sells one of the most expensive Medicare supplement plans on the market/

The plans are exactly standardized by the government. Same benefits, same plans, same payments, same everything except the price. AARP sells a lot of those plans because of their brand and their advertising but every company that sells supplemental Medicare plans sells exactly the same thing. The only thing that varies from company to company is the price and that varies wildly, with AARP always at or very close to the top.

The most important thing is that Medicare supplement plans do NOT pay 20% of what's billed by the provider. Medicare pays a negotiated rate that's somewhere around 75% lower than the amount that's billed. Then they pay 80% of that. So if your provider bills 400, for example, the Medicare negotiated payment rate is around $100. Medicare pays $80 and either you or the supplement plan pays the remaining $20. This is just an example and not exact, but the commercials make it sound like you wind up footing 20% of the whole bill.