Health Insurance

What's Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap)?

Medigap is Medicare Supplement Insurance that helps fill "gaps" in Original Medicare and is sold by private companies. Original Medicare pays for much, but not all, of the cost for covered health care services and supplies. A Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap) policy can help pay some of the remaining health care costs, like:
Copayments
Coinsurance
Deductibles

Medigap policies don't cover everything

Medigap policies generally don't cover
Long-term care (like non-skilled care you get in a nursing home)
Vision or dental services
Hearing aids
Eyeglasses
Private-duty nursing

Dropping your entire Medigap policy

You may want a completely different Medigap policy (not just your old Medigap policy without the prescription drug coverage). Or, you might decide to switch to a Medicare Advantage Plan that offers prescription drug coverage.
If you decide to drop your entire Medigap policy, you need to be careful about the timing. When you join a new Medicare drug plan, you pay a late enrollment penalty if one of these applies:
You drop your entire Medigap policy and the drug coverage wasn't creditable prescription drug coverage
You go 63 days or more in a row before your new Medicare drug coverage begins