Medicare Supplemental Insurance in Illinois

While Medicare insurance offers preventive and hospital benefits, it doesn't cover everything. For other kinds of services, Medicare beneficiaries need to purchase either Medicare Advantage, stand-alone Part D Medicare or supplemental Medicare plans, often called Medigap. Medigap plans are standardized and offer the same benefits in every state, with a few exceptions. Individual states can also set their own rules regarding which plans they offer and how to offer them. In Illinois, residents have their choice of Medigap policies, although not all insurance companies offer all plans in every county.

Open Enrollment

• In Illinois, all insurance companies that sell Medigap must let you purchase a policy, regardless of preexisting health conditions, if you meet certain conditions. If you're at least 65 years old and apply for enrollment within six months after joining Medicare Part B, you can't be turned down. You can exercise this right as often as you like during this open enrollment period, changing policies or canceling without penalty.

Free Look Period

• Illinois also mandates that Medigap insurance companies offer you a 30-day "free look" period whenever you buy a policy. During this time, you're allowed to cancel and have your money refunded if you decide you don't like the plan or the company. The state Office of Consumer Health Insurance maintains a database of the financial rankings and complaint records of Medigap insurance companies if you want to do some research before or after buying your plan.

Benefits

• Illinois Medigap plans all share basic benefits. These include original Part A and B Medicare coinsurance, copayments for outpatient hospital services, an additional 365 days of Part A hospitalization benefits, coinsurance for hospice care and the first three pints of blood per year. Additional benefits include foreign travel emergency services, coinsurance for skilled nursing facilities and excess charge coverage for Part B.

High-Deductible Plans and Cost-Sharing

• Some of Illinois' Medigap plans are offered as high-deductible or cost-sharing policies. This helps to keep monthly premiums down. Plan F can be bought as a high-deductible plan, and Plans K and L are cost-sharing plans with annual out-of-pocket costs of $4,640 or $2,320, respectively, as of 2010.

Medicare Select

• Illinois also allows insurance companies that sell Medigap plans to offer them as HMO-style policies: These are called Medicare Select plans. They have the same benefits as the regular plans but require customers to obtain their hospital services from health care providers, which are part of their network. Medicare Select isn't available in all areas, however.