This type of Medicare insurance can often confuse those who need them, or are interested in purchasing a plan. A Medicare supplement is a type of health insurance sold by private insurers to cover the gaps in Medicare, also referred to as “Medigap Plans.” These pay for the costs that normally Medicare would pass on to you.

If you have a supplement policy, Medicare will first pay its share of your medical expenses, and then your policy will step in and pay its share. This is usually the remainder of your bill, but it depends on which policy you choose from the standard offered plans.

Every Medicare supplement has to match the outlines created by Medicare itself when it standardized these plans in 1990. Each standardized plan is identified by a letter, such as A, B, C, D, F, G, K, L, M and N. Each one of these lettered policies is required to provide the same set of benefits from company to company.

This means that price, or monthly premium, is the main difference between supplements with the same letter offered by multiple insurance carriers.

Be sure to keep these points in mind when looking to purchase a Medicare supplement plan to go along with your original Medicare plan.