Should You Change Your Medicare Plan?
TL:DR (AKA Too Long, Didn’t Read. As the kids say!)
Depends, but be open minded yearly. Don’t be lazy.
A good agency/broker should tell you point blank if your plan is good or not based on your specific needs. No one is getting rich off 1 Medicare sale.
Changing yearly isn’t necessary, but every so many years is good to at least double check.
People ask us all the time about themselves or family members “should I change my plan”, the answer is, “depends”. If you just got it and haven’t had any issues, why would there be a reason someone wants to switch you. THAT SAID, there are plenty of reasons why you may want to switch. Contrary to popular belief, agencies and brokerages don’t make more money for switching you. I could actually argue you could be doing your agency a disservice by switching people, but I digress. However, we always do what is in the best interest of the client.
If you recently moved out of state, legally you have to switch. If you just got a new doctor, not a reason to switch. It solely depends on your health, finances, plan, wants, etc.. I do always go with the old adage “if it ain’t broke”, but sometimes you don’t know what’s broke.
I had a client of many years who needed to switch from her long time beloved carrier, to a different carrier, due to a procedure for how it was being billed and coded, with one versus the other. Her current carrier wouldn’t approve the procedure at her age because they viewed it as “experimental” . The other company (she hated this health network) said “we’ll pay no problem!”. That’s an example of a time to switch and we did switch her. However the following Annual Enrollment Period, she went back to her previous carrier and couldn’t have been happier with the transition.
It isn’t always necessary, but sometimes it’s needed. Don’t be lazy, call a local brokerage and at least inquire. As I said, any good agency will say yes, your plan is good, no need to switch.
