SUMMARY
For Medicare beneficiaries, purchasing Medicare supplemental (Medigap) coverage helps fill gaps in their Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) benefits. This report describes the Medigap coverage options, demographics, and the most recent enrollment trends by using the latest available data sources: the 2017 National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) data, the 2017 California’s Department of Managed Health Care data, and the 2016 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) results.
Highlights
One out of three fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare beneficiaries in 2017 had a Medigap insurance (35 percent), with this share rising to 39 percent (2016 data) among beneficiaries without additional insurance coverage (such as Medicaid, employer-provided insurance, etc.).
Between December 2016 and December 2017, the national Medigap enrollment increased from 13.1 million to 13.5 million beneficiaries.
Medigap is an important source of health coverage for Medicare beneficiaries of all income ranges. Notably, in 2016, 37 percent of Medigap enrollees had annual combined beneficiary and spouse income below $30,000; that percentage jumped to 42 percent in rural areas.