IBM Medicare Via Benefits Medicare Recipient Insurance Cost Analysis from 2007 - 2020

I have been keeping track of how the cost of Medicare deductibles, coinsurance and copays have increase since 2007.  It is significant!   The current administration has been very aggressive at increasing how much seniors have to pay for Medicare.
   
The way this cost increase is passed along for those using Original Medicare with Medicare Supplement plans (aka medigaps) is the supplement insurance plan premiums increase. It is way too risky to not have a medigap if you use Original Medicare.  People without medigaps are often forced into bankruptcy because Original Medicare does not have an annual cost cap.

The way Medicare Advantage plans pass along the cost is by increasing the cost of things such as premiums, adding deductibles or raising the annual out of pocket maximum cost to the government limit ($6,700).  The other way is to pass along cost increases by cutting services by doing such things as shrinking provider networks, the choices for DME devices decrease or zero copay hospital days coverage decrease.  Then there is always their favorite ways to do it. They increase the denial of claims because they know sick people are often too overwhelmed to appeal a denial and just pay it or they push physical therapy facilities to discharge patients before they are fully recovered.
 
No matter how you get Medicare coverage (Original or Medicare Advantage),  the policy holder always has to pay the part B premiums unless they are really low income ($18,000/year with no cash assets). There is no insurance to cover the part B cost. The part B fee is paid to the government and entitles you to receive insurance coverage for provider services such as office visits or lab tests. It's your choice how you get that insurance coverage. If you stay with Original/Tradition Medicare it becomes an insurance premium for the government insurance pool. If you enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan, the government gives your part B payment to the insurance company issuing your policy.

A picture is worth a whole lot of words so I created the following analysis. To access this file, you may have to download it:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pAF75fHqCqLKcFXo0PxRI52NZJA_8PBk/view?usp=sharing