When a person looks over all of the Medicare Supplemental plans available to him, he may wonder why so many of the plans seem to be the same. If he only looks at the plans offered by companies, he may find out that a lot of the plans offered by different companies are the same. In fact, the only difference between Medicare supplement plans that the companies offer is the price. It is not competition between the companies that causes it. As a person might suspect, interference from the federal government is responsible for the lack of similarity between the plans.
The reason most of the plans offered by different companies are the same is because the federal government regulates what companies can sell as Medigap policies. A company does not have to offer all the plans designated, but it cannot offer plans not set forth by the government. If a company wants to offer additional coverage, it can do so. Most providers of Medicare Supplemental plans do not choose to do this. If a person looks and finds that the letters of the plans seem to be the only thing are different, he should read the plans carefully.
If a person does not see much difference between plans, he should look again carefully. Sometimes a plan with a similar letter may only offer a slight difference between a plan with a lower letter. Sometimes the difference is something as simple as the deductible and deductible amounts between the plans. While an insurance agent can sell Medicare supplemental plans to almost anyone, they do not always have the best interests of the client at heart. Health insurance coverage requires a person make well informed decisions to get exactly what he needs.