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 Medicare is the federal health insurance program for:

• People who are 65 or older
• Certain younger people with disabilities
• People with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or a transplant, sometimes called ESRD)

The different parts of Medicare help cover specific services:

• Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance)
  Part A covers inpatient hospital stays, care in a skilled nursing facility, hospice care, and some home health care.
• Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance)
  Part B covers certain doctors' services, outpatient care, medical supplies, and preventive services.
• Medicare Part D (prescription drug coverage)
  Helps cover the cost of prescription drugs (including many recommended shots or vaccines).

What is a Medicare Advantage Plan (Part C)? A Medicare Advantage Plan (like an HMO or PPO) is a Medicare health plan choice you may have as part of Medicare. These plans, sometimes called “Part C,” are offered by private companies approved by Medicare.  

If you join a Medicare Advantage Plan, the plan will provide all of your Part A (Hospital Insurance) and Part B (Medical Insurance) coverage. These plans may also offer extra coverage, such as vision, hearing, dental, and/or health and wellness programs. Most include Medicare prescription drug coverage (Part D).

Medicare offers prescription drug coverage to everyone with Medicare. If you decide not to join a Medicare drug plan when you’re first eligible, and you don’t have other creditable prescription drug coverage or you don’t get Extra Help (a Federal program to help with your prescription costs based on income), you’ll likely pay a late enrollment penalty.  

To get Medicare prescription drug coverage, you must join a plan that is run by an insurance company or other private company approved by Medicare. Each plan can vary in cost and drugs covered. 

A Medigap policy (also called “Medicare Supplement Insurance”) is private health insurance that’s designed to supplement original Medicare. This means that it helps pay some of the health care costs (“gaps”) that original Medicare doesn’t cover (like copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles). If you have original Medicare and a Medigap policy, Medicare will pay its share of the Medicare-approved amounts for covered health care costs. Then your Medigap policy pays its share.  

A Medigap policy is different from a Medicare Advantage Plan (like an HMO or PPO) because those plans are ways to get Medicare benefits, while a Medigap policy only supplements your original Medicare benefits.

Long term care insurance (LTCi) is a type of coverage available for people who potentially may require extended custodial health care. It is insurance that helps pay for the costs associated with caring for an individual who cannot care for him or herself, such as activities of daily living (ADLs) or less “formal” activities like cooking and cleaning, helping with laundry, etc.  

There are six different ADLs: eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, and continence. If you have an LTCi policy, the benefits may be triggered (meaning the policy will pay) when you are not self-sufficient in at least two of the six activities of daily living, or if you have a severe cognitive impairment AND you have met the “waiting period” you choose in your policy. Long term care insurance covers things that health insurance does not and can also protect your income (and assets indirectly).  

When you purchase an LTC policy, it can substantially reduce the burden on your children or other loved ones who provide care for you. These policies typically cover such things as nursing homes and adult care, but they can also sometimes cover things such as home care and assisted living. The policies of today don’t have to be expensive and are very customizable to what you can afford, based on how much coverage you purchase and other factors.  

If you need long term care but do not have an LTC policy, you will probably have to pay for it out of your own savings. If you’re legally impoverished, government programs like Medicaid may cover your nursing home care (and/or possibly some limited degree of home health care). Medicare and virtually all health insurance programs may only cover LTC for a short time (less than 100 days) and then, only in part. For everything else, the bill will come to you.  The need for long term care can happen to anyone. As we get older, all of us need help. A stroke, Alzheimer’s, or even a bad fall can leave you debilitated and unable to care for yourself. Long term care insurance is assurance that your income and family will not be depleted while trying to care for you.

Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary sum of money (the “benefits”) upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger payment. The policy holder typically pays a premium, either regularly or as a lump sum.  Life insurance may be divided into three basic classes:  Temporary (term) Permanent (whole life) Universal Life (UL)

Final expense insurance is an insurance policy used to pay for funeral services and a burial when the named insured dies. These policies help ease the financial burden placed on a family when this event occurs. Planning in this way can relieve your family of significant stress and uncertainty over arrangements.  

If you never purchased a life insurance policy when you were younger and you are now trying to plan for a funeral or leave a legacy to your named beneficiaries, but have been denied traditional life insurance coverage, your best option is to apply for a final expense life insurance policy. It may be easier to qualify for and obtain a final expense policy than it would be for traditional life insurance. 

Final expense policies merely ask health-related questions instead of going through a paramed exam and the applications are not processed through full underwriting. Final expense insurance can prove to be extremely beneficial when a potential insured has been declined coverage with an insurance company, who processes applications utilizing an underwriting process, but coverage may cost a little more than a fully underwritten policy.