Welcome to our Medicare Choice guide.
We offer features Medicare’s guide does not. For instance, you can filter Medicare Advantage plans according to Medicare’s quality ratings, according to their likely cost to you, and according to the plan’s monthly premiums. If you want to see only the highest-rated plans with the lowest cost, we’ll help you do that.
In fact, choosing the set of plans you want to explore is the first step in using our guide.
» 2022 Guide to Medicare Advantage Plans
» 2022 Guide to Medicare Prescription Drug Plans
Medicare Advantage plans are made available at the county level, so your state and county of residence are the first two questions to answer.
The next step is to enter a cutoff level for overall quality ratings, which Medicare calculates on the basis of patient feedback and data on medical outcomes. Ratings are conferred on a 1-5 scale. If you want to see only the highest-rated plans for your area, select “5 stars.”
Bear in mind, though, that some plans are too new or too small to have been given quality ratings by Medicare, and that some plans may suit you better even if they have somewhat lower overall quality ratings. If you want to see all the plans, or every plan that does have a rating, those are options, too.
Also on our first search screen, you can select a value to indicate the maximum monthly premium you’re willing to pay. The trick there, though, is that some plans may have low premiums but high costs for typical users. If you want to screen plans according to their typical overall annual cost as calculated by Medicare, that’s an option, too.
Once you’ve selected a set of priorities, our guide will show you the plans that meet your criteria. To drill down into the ones that seem most interesting, tap or click on the plan name.
Another advantage of our Medicare Choice guide is the compact view of plan characteristics. More than 100 plan characteristics are listed in the details pages, arranged and labeled for easy review. From pricing to performance to contact information, it’s all there, easily read and easily printable. Medicare’s site would require navigating through multiple pages to access all that information.
That’s not to say that our guide is the only resource you should consult.
Medicare’s website allows you to enter the prescription drugs you’re taking and get highly customized estimates of those costs.
Providers have websites, too. We link to them, as does Medicare. Those sites may be the only places to get up-to-date information on which providers are available or in-network (and therefore more affordable) under each plan.
Choosing the best plan takes time and consideration. We don’t have all the answers. But we can get you off to a good, fast start.
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