What is Medicare?

Part A — hospital coverage

Part A helps pay for hospital stays, skilled nursing care after a hospital stay, hospice, and some home health care. Most people don’t pay a monthly premium for Part A, because they already paid for it through Medicare taxes during their working years. If you or your spouse worked and paid those taxes for about ten years, Part A is premium-free.

It is not free of all costs — there are deductibles and daily charges for longer stays — but the monthly premium question, for most people, is settled.

Part B — medical coverage

Part B covers the medicine that happens outside a hospital bed: doctor visits, outpatient care, lab work, preventive services, medical equipment. Unlike Part A, almost everyone pays a monthly premium for Part B. The standard premium is $202.90 per month in 2026, and the annual deductible is $283 in 2026. People with higher incomes pay more.

Part B is also where the most expensive mistake lives: if you don’t sign up when you’re supposed to and don’t have other coverage that counts, you pay a late penalty — and that penalty is permanent. The details are on the enrollment periods page.

Part C — Medicare Advantage

Medicare Advantage, also called Part C, is an all-in-one alternative to Original Medicare, offered by private companies approved by Medicare. These bundled plans combine Part A (hospital) and Part B (medical), and usually Part D (prescription drugs), into a single plan.

Advantage plans generally work through a network — a list of doctors and hospitals the plan contracts with. We can explain to you how it all works for no charge.

Part D — drug coverage

Part D helps pay for prescription drugs. Like Advantage plans, Part D plans are run by private companies, and each one has its own list of covered drugs. Part D also has its own late enrollment penalty if you go without drug coverage — smaller than the Part B penalty, but it also follows you.

Medicare Supplement — the other path

A Medicare Supplement, also called Medigap, is extra insurance sold by private companies that helps pay your share of the out-of-pocket costs Original Medicare leaves behind — copayments, coinsurance and deductibles. It works alongside Parts A and B to fill the gaps in your basic coverage. With a Supplement you can generally see any doctor in the country who accepts Medicare — there’s no network.

A Supplement usually costs more per month than an Advantage plan, often substantially more. What you are buying for that premium is no network and far fewer surprises when you actually use care. Whether it’s worth it is a personal calculation, and it’s most of what we talk about on the call.

New York handles Supplement plans differently than almost every other state, in a way that favors you. There’s a question about it on the FAQ page.