Advantage and Medigap information

Much information about Medicare on websites or in the media is oversimplified, out-of-date, or biased for business reasons.

Official information on Medicare Advantage and Medigap.

The official Medicare site http://www.medicare.gov is very thorough and well done. (Not medicare <dot> com ! )

You can download and search: https://www.medicare.gov/publications/10050-medicare-and-you.pdf
- Pages 13-20 explain what you need to do -- and when.
- Pages 11-12 explain, point-by-point, the tradeoffs between Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans.

More detailed articles on the official Medicare site:
- "Understanding Medicare Advantage Plans" https://www.medicare.gov/publications/12026-understanding-medicare-advantage-plans.pdf
- "Choosing a Medigap Policy" https://www.medicare.gov/publications/02110-medigap-guide-health-insurance.pdf
- "Your Guide to Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage" https://www.medicare.gov/publications/11109-your-guide-to-medicare-prescription-drug-coverage.pdf

--Curt Gowan, Benefits Forum moderator and hpalumni.org maintainer

Why is Advantage so inexpensive compared to Medigap?  (Posted 10/22/26)  page revised 11/3

Current Medicare policy cancelled early -- or recent new enrollment canceled.

Medicare maintains a central "Enrollment DataBase" to ensure that someone cannot be enrolled in multiple Advantage or Drug plans for the same time period. Insurers automatically report new enrollment approvals to Medicare, which continuously checks for coverage overlap. If a new policy that covers the same time period is found, Medicare causes the previous policy to be canceled.

If a problem, contact the insurance sales agency that sold you the misdated plan. Or contact Medicare.

Verify the starting date entered by the agent (or yourself) when you are applying for a new policy. One member discovered that their current plan had been cancelled when picking up a prescription.

(This page is based on reports from HPAlumni members, research -- plus articles and reports from KFF, the nonprofit health policy research and news organization.)

Next step: Menu of key Enrollment issues: https://www.hpalumni.org/enroll-menu (Membership not required.)