Medicare Supplement

How Medicare Supplement plans work for Wichita residents

WICHITA, Kan. — If you're new to Medicare, or helping a parent sort through the mail piling up on the kitchen table, you've probably run into the words "Medicare Supplement" and "Medigap." They mean the same thing. And once you understand how these plans work, a lot of the confusion around Medicare starts to clear up.

Here's a plain-English look at what Medigap does, what it doesn't, and how those standardized letter plans (A, B, G, N, and the rest) fit together.

What Medigap actually does

Original Medicare — Part A (hospital) and Part B (doctor and outpatient) — pays a big share of your covered medical costs, but not all of it. There are deductibles, coinsurance, and copays, and Original Medicare has no yearly cap on what you might owe out of pocket.

A Medigap policy is private insurance you buy to help pay those leftover costs. It works alongside Original Medicare. When you get care, Medicare pays its share first, then your Medigap plan picks up some or all of what's left, depending on the letter plan you chose.

Medigap does not replace Medicare. It sits on top of it.

The standardized letter plans

Here's the part that trips people up: Medigap plans are standardized by the federal government. That means Plan G from one insurance company covers the exact same things as Plan G from another company. The benefits are set by law.

What can differ between companies is the price, the customer service, and sometimes extras like a small gym benefit. But the medical coverage inside each letter plan is the same nationwide (with a few exceptions in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, which have their own systems).

The letter plans currently sold to new enrollees include A, B, D, G, K, L, M, and N. Two popular plans — C and F — are no longer available to people who became eligible for Medicare on or after January 1, 2020, because they covered the Part B deductible, which newer enrollees are not allowed to have covered.

Each letter offers a different mix of benefits. For example:

• Some plans cover the Part A hospital deductible in full; others cover a percentage.
• Some pay 100% of Part B coinsurance; Plan N has small copays for certain office and ER visits.
• High-deductible versions of Plan G and Plan F exist for people who want a lower premium in exchange for paying more up front.

You can see a full side-by-side chart on medicare.gov.

What Medigap doesn't cover

This is where a lot of surprises happen. Medigap generally does not cover:

• Prescription drugs (you need a separate Part D plan)
• Routine dental, vision, or hearing aids
• Long-term custodial care
• Private-duty nursing

If you want drug coverage, you'll enroll in a stand-alone Part D plan. In 2026, Part D has a maximum deductible of $615 and — importantly — a new $2,100 annual out-of-pocket cap on covered drugs. The old "donut hole" coverage gap was eliminated in 2025, so Part D now has three phases instead of four. If your drug costs are heavy at certain times of year, you can also opt into the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan to spread those costs out monthly.

Medigap vs. Medicare Advantage — they're not the same

This is worth saying clearly: you cannot have both a Medigap policy and a Medicare Advantage (Part C) plan at the same time. They're two different roads.

• Original Medicare + Medigap + Part D keeps you in the traditional program, lets you see any doctor who accepts Medicare, and uses your Medigap policy to fill cost gaps.
• Medicare Advantage replaces how you get Original Medicare, usually with a network, and often bundles drug coverage in.

Wichita is in Sedgwick County, where Medicare Advantage plans are sold by several private insurers. Medigap, by contrast, is available statewide in Kansas from a range of carriers — it's not tied to a county network the way Advantage is.

The best time to buy — and why timing matters

There's one deadline most people don't hear about until it's too late: your Medigap Open Enrollment Period. It's a six-month window that starts the month you're 65 and enrolled in Part B. During that window, insurance companies in most states can't turn you down or charge you more because of your health.

Miss that window, and in most states insurers can use medical underwriting — meaning they can look at your health history and decide whether to sell you a policy, and at what price. Kansas follows the federal rules here, so this timing really matters.

If you already have a Medigap plan and want to switch to a different letter or a different company later, you may face underwriting then, too. It's not impossible, but it's not automatic.

How to decide what fits

There's no single right answer. A few honest questions to ask yourself:

1. How predictable do I want my costs to be? Some letter plans leave almost nothing for you to pay after Medicare; others have small cost-sharing but lower premiums. 2. Do I travel a lot, or split time between states? Original Medicare + Medigap works anywhere in the U.S. that accepts Medicare. 3. Am I comfortable managing two policies? With Medigap, you'll also need a separate Part D drug plan. 4. What's my monthly budget? Medigap premiums are generally higher than Advantage premiums, but your other out-of-pocket costs are usually lower and more predictable.

Also worth knowing: higher-income enrollees pay IRMAA surcharges on Part B and Part D. Those start above $109,000 in income for a single filer in 2026.