The Four Parts
Each letter of Medicare buys a separate slice of care. I line them up so the overlap stops confusing you.
Decoding Medicare
I Spell Out What Medicare Actually Covers.
I write short notes on the parts, the dates and the costs behind every bill you get.
Which piece should I open first?
Timing Windows
Your window opens around a birthday and can reopen when a job ends. Miss it and the price you carry climbs for good.
Drug Lists
Every plan rewrites its medicine list once a year. I show you the column to check before a refill surprises you.
Take Medicare apart and the pieces stop fighting you
Four separate subjects hide behind a single word, and I handle them one at a time.
Each page I write stays on one subject and says what a rule means at the pharmacy counter. When the answer depends on your own health history, I tell you that instead of guessing.
What I can tell you each part pays, and what it hands back- The dates I watch that decide when your coverage can start
Coverage Options
Four doors into Medicare.
Original Medicare
Parts A and B cover hospital and doctor bills, and I like how few doors they close.
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Medicare Advantage
Part C moves those same benefits into a private plan that runs on a network I always check.
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Prescription Plans
Part D pays toward medicine, and I read the list and the price tiers on every one.
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Medicare Supplement
A Medigap policy rides alongside Parts A and B and absorbs part of the bill they leave open.
Read MoreHow It Works
Three steps I take in order
01
I find your window
The first one runs three months on each side of 65, and leaving a job can open another.
02
I weigh the parts
I go through what A, B, C and D each pay, then point at the gaps that matter for you.
03
I file before it shuts
I get the form in while the window is open, so a late start never adds to your premium.
Feedback
What people tell me after they read
"I read one section a night for a week. By the end I could say out loud what Part B does for me, and no one pushed a plan while I worked it out."
"The drug list page told me exactly which column to check on my own paperwork. That one tip saved me a long phone call and a lot of second guessing."
"My window was open and I had no idea. Reading the timing notes here is the reason I sent my forms in before the date rather than a month after it."
Arthur Benning
New to Part B
Sylvia Redmond
Compared drug plans
Doris Hartley
Signed up at 65
Questions
The questions I hear most weeks
Part A covers hospital stays, Part B covers doctor visits and outpatient work, Part C bundles both inside a private plan, and Part D pays toward prescriptions. I always walk through them one at a time, because all four at once is a mess.
Most people get a window that opens three months before the month they turn 65 and shuts three months after. Coverage through a job can move that window, so bring me your own dates rather than a neighbor's.
An Advantage plan changes how your Part A and Part B benefits reach you, and it almost always runs inside a network. A supplement leaves Original Medicare in place and pays down a share of what it leaves you holding.
Every plan rewrites its list each year, so a medicine that is cheap today can slide to a higher tier or vanish. Hand me the notice your plan mails in the fall and I will read it against what you take now.
That turns on the route you pick and on what your own doctor takes. Original Medicare is accepted almost everywhere, while network plans keep their own roster. Ask the office yourself before you commit to anything.
Routine dental, vision and hearing sit outside Original Medicare entirely. Some Advantage plans fold in a small allowance for each, so I read what the plan really pays before anyone counts on it.