Medicare Supplement

How to compare the same Medigap letter across Irving insurers without guessing

Medigap shopping in Irving can feel strange the first time you do it. You pick a plan letter — say Plan G — and then you find out that more than a dozen insurance companies sell that exact same Plan G in Texas. The coverage is identical by law. So what actually differs? Mostly the price and the rules the insurer uses to set it.

Irving is in Dallas County, and the list of insurers approved to sell Medigap in Texas is set at the state level. That means an Irving resident and a neighbor in Fort Worth are choosing from the same lineup. Below is a plain guide to comparing the same plan letter across those insurers — pricing methods, rate history, household discounts and medical underwriting — without any prices attached.

The same letter really is the same coverage

This is the point people miss most often. A Plan G from one insurer covers exactly what a Plan G from another insurer covers, because the federal government standardized the letters. Same deductibles, same cost-sharing, same rules on which providers you can see (any doctor in the U.S. who accepts Medicare).

So when you compare insurers on the same letter, you are not comparing benefits. You are comparing the company behind the policy, the way they price it, and how they treat you over time.

The table below lists every insurer selling Medigap in Texas and which plan letters each one offers. In Irving, if you are newly eligible for Medicare today, the letters available to you are A, B, D, G, G-HD, K, L, M and N. Plans C and F are only for people who were eligible for Medicare before January 1, 2020.

The three pricing methods to ask about

Texas insurers are allowed to use different pricing methods for the same plan letter. When you call an insurer or an agent, ask which one applies. There are three:

• Attained-age rated. The price is based on your current age and generally goes up as you get older, on top of any across-the-board rate increases.
• Issue-age rated. The price is based on the age you were when you first bought the policy. It does not rise just because you had a birthday, though it can still change with general rate increases.
• Community rated (also called no-age-rated). Everyone in the same area pays the same base rate regardless of age. General rate increases can still apply.

None of these methods is automatically better. What matters is how the method fits your budget now and over the next 10 or 20 years. Two policies that look similar today can drift far apart in price by the time you are 80.

Look at rate history, not just today's quote

Insurers can raise Medigap premiums, and they do. Because the coverage is fixed by law, the way to tell insurers apart over the long haul is to look at how often, and by how much, they have raised rates in the past.

The Texas Department of Insurance publishes a Medicare supplement rate guide that shows premium ranges and, in many cases, rate history for companies licensed in the state. It is free and it is not a sales tool. Ask any agent to walk you through the last several years of rate changes for the specific company and plan letter they are quoting. If they cannot or will not, that itself is useful information.

Household discounts and other quiet differences

Some insurers offer a household discount — a percentage off if you live with another adult, or with a spouse who also has a policy with them. The size of the discount and the rules for qualifying vary by company, and not every insurer in the table offers one at all. This is one of the few places where the same plan letter can end up costing meaningfully different amounts depending on your situation.

Other quiet differences worth asking about:

• Whether the insurer offers an electronic funds transfer discount.
• Whether they have a separate discount for new applicants in their first year (and what happens in year two).
• How they handle billing, customer service and claims — the boring stuff you will actually deal with.

Medical underwriting: the timing question

This is the part that catches people off guard. When you first enroll in Part B at 65 or older, you get a one-time, six-month Medigap Open Enrollment Period. During that window, any insurer selling in Texas must sell you any plan letter they offer, at their standard rate, regardless of your health.

Outside that window, most insurers can use medical underwriting. They can ask health questions, look at your prescriptions, and either decline you, charge you more, or make you wait. This is true even though the coverage itself is standardized.

That means the "best time to compare insurers" and the "best time to switch insurers" are not always the same. If you are in your Open Enrollment window, you have the widest choice. If you are past it, ask each insurer upfront whether they will underwrite you and what their questions cover before you fall in love with a quote.

How to actually run the comparison

A simple order of operations for an Irving resident:

1. Decide on a plan letter first (A, B, D, G, G-HD, K, L, M or N for people newly eligible today). Compare apples to apples. 2. Go to Medicare.gov and use the Medigap policy search for your ZIP code. It lists every insurer selling that letter in your area and shows premium ranges. 3. Pull the Texas Department of Insurance Medicare supplement rate guide for rate history and pricing method. 4. Call two or three insurers, or an independent agent who represents several, and ask specifically about pricing method, recent rate increases, household discount and underwriting. 5. Contact your local State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), called the Health Information, Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP) in Texas, for free, unbiased help. Their counselors do not sell anything.