Medicare is more broken than we thought

Yeah.

Back then, we were taking our first deep look at Medicare itself.

And as we said then, the whole thing kind of blew our minds.

Before we did that story, I was under the impression that you wake up on your 65th birthday and never have to pay a medical bill again, never have to deal with health insurance companies again.

In fact, that's the dream of Medicare for All.

But it's not the reality of Medicare as it exists.

For one thing, just signing up means making a dizzying number of choices.

And that dream of never dealing with insurance companies again? No.

No way.

Turns out they run a lot of Medicare.

So you could end up choosing among dozens of different plans offered by different insurance companies.

But here's the most important part.

When you sign up, you have to choose between what's now called traditional Medicare run by the U.S. government and Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurance companies.

And they both have downsides.

Traditional Medicare doesn't cover everything.

For outpatient medical care, you know, doctor visits, outpatient procedures, infusions, physical therapy, x-rays and MRIs, like you name it.

Medicare only pays 80 percent of the bill.

And those other things can get so expensive, the remaining 20% can run to thousands of dollars that most seniors don't have.

And so if you want all that covered, and I mean, you do, you actually have to buy what's called a supplemental policy.

People call them Medigap plans.

They're offered by private insurance companies.

You pay a premium.

Oh, and wait, did I mention you're already paying a premium to the feds for your Medicare? Yeah, like exactly how much depends on your financial situation.

But most people pay just over $200 a month.

And that a gap premiums to the private companies are on top of that.