Medicare supplemental health insurance is confusing and may seem to be overwhelming to many. Maybe this will help. There are two major categories of supplemental plans: government designed plans and government contracted plans.

Government designed plans are the Medicare Supplements or Medigap policies. They come in 12 standard choices with two of the choices available with a simple modification. The choices are called Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, Plan E, Plan F, Plan G, Plan H, Plan I, Plan J, Plan K and Plan L and the modified plans are the High Deductible Plan F and the High Deductible Plan J. As the letters increase from A to J, the coverage generally increases and the premiums are generally higher. Plans K and L are lower coverage and lower cost alternatives. The high deductible versions simply impose a deductible before the insurance company pays any benefits as a way to cut your health insurance premium costs.

One important thing to remember. You don't have to waste much time trying to figure out which company's Plan F Medicare Supplement is better than the other company's. The government designed these senior health benefits and the insurance company is just providing the benefits. Cost is the only difference between two or more Plan F policies other than customer service and quality of company issues. The plans shown above are notable because of the no-cost prescription discount card included.

Government contracted plans are the Medicare Advantage, Medicare Cost, Medicare PPO, and Medicare Private Fee For Service (PFFS) plans. For these plans, the insurance company and the government enter into a contract. As a perhaps an oversimplification, the government essentially provides the money and the insurance company provides the benefits and plan administration. The concept is that private industry can offer more benefits with the same money in exchange for some plan restrictions on your part, and they often do just that.