Medicare Supplement

Medigap Coverage Categories A Through N for Bismarck Readers

BISMARCK, N.D. — If you've started shopping for a Medicare Supplement policy, you've probably run into a wall of letters: Plan A, Plan G, Plan N, and several more. It can feel like an alphabet soup, but there's actually a clear system behind those names — and once you understand it, comparing coverage gets a whole lot easier.

Making sense of Medigap's ABCs

Medicare Supplement Insurance, often called Medigap, is private insurance that works alongside Original Medicare (Part A and Part B). It helps pay some of the out-of-pocket costs Original Medicare leaves behind, like coinsurance, copayments, and certain deductibles. For folks here in Bismarck weighing their options, knowing how the letters work is the first step toward a confident decision.

What Medigap actually does

Original Medicare pays a big share of your hospital and doctor bills, but not everything. You're still responsible for deductibles and a 20% coinsurance on many Part B services, with no yearly limit on what you might owe out of pocket.

A Medigap policy is designed to fill some of those gaps. Depending on which plan letter you pick, it can help cover:

• The Part A hospital coinsurance and extra hospital days
• Part B coinsurance or copayments
• The first three pints of blood
• Hospice coinsurance
• Skilled nursing facility coinsurance
• The Part A and, in some older plans, Part B deductible
• Foreign travel emergency care (up to plan limits)

One important note: Medigap does not include prescription drug coverage. If you want help with drug costs, you'd add a separate Part D plan.

Why the letters are "standardized"

Here's the part that makes shopping easier. In most states, including North Dakota, Medigap plans are standardized by the federal government. That means Plan G sold by one company covers exactly the same set of benefits as Plan G sold by another company. The premium can differ, and customer service can differ, but the covered benefits are identical letter to letter.

The currently sold plan letters are A, B, D, G, K, L, M, and N. Plans C and F are still held by many people who had them before, but they are no longer available to people who became eligible for Medicare on or after January 1, 2020, because those plans covered the Part B deductible. Plans E, H, I, and J are no longer sold at all.

You can see the full benefit grid on Medicare.gov's Medigap page.

How to decide which letter fits

Because the benefits inside each letter are set by law, comparing plans really comes down to a few personal questions:

• How much certainty do you want? Plans with broader coverage (like Plan G) leave fewer surprise bills but usually cost more each month. Plans with cost-sharing built in (like K, L, or N) can have lower premiums but more out-of-pocket costs when you use care.
• Do you travel outside the U.S.? Some letters include foreign travel emergency benefits; others don't.
• When are you enrolling? Your six-month Medigap Open Enrollment Period begins the month you're 65 or older and enrolled in Part B. During that window, you have "guaranteed issue" rights — insurers can't turn you down or charge more because of your health. Outside that window, in most cases, they can.
• What's the premium pricing method? Companies can price policies using community-rated, issue-age-rated, or attained-age-rated methods. That affects how premiums may change as you get older.

A quick word on Bismarck and Burleigh County

Bismarck sits in Burleigh County, and Medigap plans in North Dakota follow the same standardized federal letters used across most of the country. Availability of specific carriers and premiums can vary by ZIP code, so it's worth using the Medicare.gov plan finder to see which insurers offer which letters in your area.

Also keep in mind that Medigap is different from Medicare Advantage (Part C). You generally can't use both at the same time — Medigap only works with Original Medicare.