Tell Your Legislators: Protect Virginia Medicare Recipients!
Virginians on Medicare Advantage plans who want to switch to traditional Medicare often find themselves at a disadvantage when attempting to enroll in supplemental Medigap plans. Due to a loophole in federal healthcare policy, insurers can deny Medigap coverage to beneficiaries with preexisting medical conditions if they apply after the initial six-month guaranteed enrollment period when they first qualify for Medicare. This practice – known as medical underwriting – can leave millions of older seniors and disabled individuals on fixed incomes trapped in expensive and inadequate Medicare Advantage plans just as their healthcare needs are increasing.
Virginia legislators are considering a weak “birthday rule” bill that would create a brief guaranteed Medigap enrollment period following each recipient's birthday, but limit Medigap enrollees to plans with “equal or lesser coverage” to their current Medicare supplemental plans.
While this would be lucrative for the health insurance industry, it provides little benefit to the more than one million Virginia residents who are enrolled in Medicare.
Please use this form to demand that your legislator support stronger legislation that would include the following (based on recommendations from the Virginia chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program):
Require Medicare supplement issuers to provide guaranteed issue rights for all Medicare recipients – without medical underwriting – during the annual Medicare open enrollment period (October 15 - December 7);
Allow enrollees to upgrade Medigap coverage to meet their future health needs, rather than limiting their choice only to Medigap plans with “equal or lesser coverage” to their current Medigap coverage during this open enrollment period;
Ensure that ALL Medicare recipients have guaranteed issue enrollment in a Medigap plan, including those transitioning from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare; and
Prohibit Medicare supplement issuers from imposing waiting periods, imposing higher premiums, or denying coverage to Medicare recipients based on age, pre-existing conditions, or disability.
You are welcome to send this letter as-is, or modify it to include any personal experiences you or your family have had with medical underwriting or denials of coverage under Medicare Advantage.
We thank you for supporting this important legislation for Virginia’s Medicare recipients!
