United States Seniors: What's Step 1 in Signing Up for a Public Part C Medicare Advantage Health Plan?

As I wrote on the post on October 19, there are some relatively easy steps to signing up for a public Part C Medicare health plan or to switching from one to another. As a first step in signing up for a Part C health plan (most of which are labelled Medicare Advantage), you can call all the insurance companies  (not agents) that do business in your County one by one and ask them if they offer Part C of Medicare. Or... it's a lot easier to go to the medicare.gov Medicare Plan Finder, enter your zip code, hit "Find Plans," and you will reach the above screen.

You can fill this Step 1 screen out completely (and possibly get some better recommendations when you get to the end of the Medicare Plan Finder process) or you can simply answer "I Don't Know..." to both questions and hit "Continue on...."  There is no real risk of identity theft by answering the questions because you never give any personal information¹. But if you are concerned about putting in your personal information, just hit "I Don't Know..." in answer to both questions, hit "Continue" (and look for my subsequent post on Step 2 to appear on this blog October 21 or 22).

If you DO want to fill out the two sections of Medicare Plan Finder Step 1, here's what they are looking for and why:

• In answering the first question, choose your present status between Original Medicare² or Medicare Health Plan. Plan Finder will then ask you which private supplemental plans you have (if any) if you chose Original Medicare and it will ask you what public Part C plan you are already on if you chose Medicare Health Plan. (If you do not have Medicare yet -- the other option along with "I Don't Know..." --  you can keep going in the process if you want to see what some of your options will be but you can't enroll in Part C -- or Part D -- until you first sign up for Medicare Parts A and B.)
• The second question asks a series of questions about your state's (broad Medicaid or Medicare Savings Program) or Federal (SSI or Extra Help) assistance you might be receiving currently. This is important because it might influence the best drug plan for you and it will definitely influence the price of either Part C or Part D (which are lower for people on Social Security Extra Help/LIS and Medicaid).

After answering these questions, unless you choose to enter "Don't Know," hit "Continue."
¹On the screen where you entered your zip code, you could have -- as an option and if you are already on Medicare -- entered your Medicare number and birth date. If you did this, the medicare.gov system will display information about your current Part A/B/C/D status. If you used the Medicare Plan Finder last year, medicare.gov will also give you the drug list you entered last year when you get to Step 2, making that process easier. I do worry about ID theft but -- in this case -- the government already knows all this stuff so... what the hay...

²As explained here and elsewhere, using that term in that context is incorrect but that's what it says; the Democratic-party civil servants that really run the U.S. government are beginning to correct their own politically motivated misleading error. But they haven't fixed every point in the millions of words about Medicare where  the mistake appears (and they are undoubtedly still secretly hoping that the Democratic Party politicans succeed in repealing Parts C and D of Medicare because, "Boy does having choice in Medicare make a lot of work for us hacks.")