Medicare Supplement

Medigap in Charlotte: what each Medicare plan letter covers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — If you have Original Medicare and you've ever tried to compare Medicare Supplement plans, you've probably run into a wall of letters: Plan A, Plan G, Plan N, and more. It looks confusing, but there's a reason those letters exist — and once you understand them, shopping gets a lot easier.

Making sense of Medigap in Charlotte

Medicare Supplement Insurance, better known as Medigap, is private insurance that works alongside Original Medicare (Part A and Part B). It helps pay some of the out-of-pocket costs that Original Medicare doesn't cover, like coinsurance and copayments. This guide walks through what Medigap does, how the standardized letters work, and where Charlotte readers can get personal help.

What Medigap actually does

Original Medicare pays most, but not all, of your hospital and medical bills. After Medicare pays its share, you're often left with coinsurance, copays, and deductibles. Medigap steps in to help pay some of those leftover costs.

A few basics worth knowing:

• Medigap only works with Original Medicare. It does not work with a Medicare Advantage plan.
• You pay a monthly premium to the insurance company, in addition to your Part B premium.
• Medigap does not include prescription drug coverage. For drugs, you'd add a separate Part D plan.
• Medigap policies generally don't cover long-term care, dental, vision, or hearing aids.

Why the letters exist

Here's the part that trips people up. Medigap plans are standardized by the federal government. That means Plan G from one company must offer the same core benefits as Plan G from another company. The letters (A, B, C, D, F, G, K, L, M, N) each represent a different set of standardized benefits.

What can differ between companies selling the same letter plan:

• The monthly premium
• Customer service and how the company handles claims
• Optional extras some insurers bundle in

So when you compare, say, two Plan G policies, you're really comparing price and service — not benefits. That's the whole point of standardization: it makes apples-to-apples shopping possible.

Note: Plans C and F are no longer sold to people who became eligible for Medicare on or after January 1, 2020. If you were eligible before that date, you may still be able to buy them.

How to read the letter chart

When you look at a Medigap comparison chart on Medicare.gov, you'll see checkmarks under each letter showing what that plan covers. The benefits generally fall into these buckets:

• Part A hospital coinsurance and extra days after Medicare runs out
• Part B coinsurance or copays
• The first three pints of blood each year
• Part A hospice care coinsurance
• Skilled nursing facility coinsurance
• Part A deductible
• Part B deductible (only certain older plans)
• Part B excess charges (when a provider charges more than Medicare approves)
• Foreign travel emergency coverage (up to plan limits)

Plans with more checkmarks usually have higher premiums. Plans with fewer checkmarks tend to cost less each month but leave more for you to pay when you use care. There is no single "right" letter — it depends on your budget, your health, and how much predictability you want in your bills.

Timing matters: your Medigap Open Enrollment Period

This is the piece many Charlotte readers miss. You have a one-time, six-month Medigap Open Enrollment Period that starts the month you're 65 or older AND enrolled in Part B. During this window, insurers must sell you any Medigap policy they offer at their best available rate, and they cannot turn you down or charge more because of your health history.

Outside that window, in most states, insurance companies can use medical underwriting. That means they can ask about your health and potentially deny coverage or charge higher premiums. North Carolina generally follows federal rules here, so timing your first Medigap purchase carefully is important.

What's available around Charlotte

Charlotte is in Mecklenburg County, where multiple insurance companies sell standardized Medigap plans. Because the letter benefits are the same across companies, the smart move is to pick the letter that fits your needs first, then compare premiums and company reputation for that specific letter.

You can see the full list of Medigap policies available in your ZIP code using the "Find a Medigap policy" tool at Medicare.gov.