Medicare Supplement plans (Also called Medigap) are insurance policies that provide coverage on a secondary basis to Original Medicare. When a Medicare Supplement is purchased, it will pay for some or all of the Medical expenses not covered by Original Medicare. Connecticut is a unique Medicare Supplement state in a number of ways.
The first is that Connecticut is a guaranteed issue state that does not allow for age banding or smoker status with Supplement plans. In other words, the rates are the same for everyone regardless of age or health status. Connecticut is also a standardized offering sate (most actually are). This means that a supplements benefits can not be different from company to company. If a company offers a Plan F supplement, the benefits of the plan F will be the same regardless of the company offering it. If someone says, “I was told that (Pick a company) has a better supplement plan that the other companies”, don’t listen. The benefits are the same. The only difference is the price.
There are a number of supplement plan types (Plan A through M) Each letter represents a different level of coverage. This can get confusing but the most popular supplement plans currently are Plan F, N and L. High deductible plan F is the best choice but it takes a while to explain why it is such a good deal. Click Here To Learn More About High Deductible F (Note that the deductible has gone up to $2,110 for 2014)
Currently, AARP/United Healthcare dominates the pricing for Supplement plans in the state of Connecticut. They win in every offering with the exception of High Deductible Plan F (Anthem BCBS wins that in a landslide)
You are able to switch Medicare supplement plans at any time (first of any month) in Connecticut. There are no pre existing condition clauses allowed (unless you have not had any coverage for at least two months) so making a switch in Connecticut is fairly pain free.