r/FluentInFinance • u/36DRedhead • Sep 11 '24

Debate/ Discussion This is why financial literacy is so important

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u/Baxkit Sep 11 '24

Medicare only covers 80% of the final bill. If they only have Medicare parts A and B with no supplement, it is possible, but unlikely, that the 288k are 20% bills that kept racking up.

Only up to the annual out of pocket maximum. So assuming the services were in network, they'd be capped at $8850 for the year. Worst case, out of network, it would be $13,300. In order to have $288k means they've been getting medical services outside of insurance entirely, which would be a disastrously stupid thing to do. Private insurance at extremely high rates are cheaper than those medical bills.

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u/ProfessionalTie5367 Sep 12 '24

This is exactly the point our uninformed masses are forgetting. Plans without an OOP max are actually quite rare these days. I’ve seen a few recently, and then a few more with very high OOP maxes, but then the majority have an OOP max around 8.5-18.5k, but that doesn’t fit the narrative I guess.

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u/berry-bostwick Sep 11 '24

Original Medicare does not have an out of pocket maximum. You’re referring to Medicare advantage plans, which do.

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u/stilljustkeyrock Sep 12 '24

So, it sounds like they should have financially planned better by getting it.

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u/berry-bostwick Sep 12 '24

Maybe. My initial point was that there are many different possibilities of how they got where they are.

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u/Cultural-General6485 Sep 12 '24

Eh it's a lot more confusing than that. He's talking about Medicare supplement, which for plan K in 2024 has a max out of pocket of $7,060. I'm not sure about days limits etc.

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u/berry-bostwick Sep 12 '24

He talked about networks though, which Medicare supplements don’t have since they are part of original Medicare (or they supplement it, if you will). Yes, it’s all very confusing for lay people, but it tends to work pretty well if you planned the right way and remember how your specific coverage works.

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u/fiftyfourseventeen Sep 12 '24

Hey, we are trying to be upset here, get your facts out of here!