Saturday, February 17th
2024 Medicare Supplement Plan Reviews
SelectQuote Senior
SelectQuote Senior is one of several brokers that refers prospective clients to various insurance companies for Medicare Supplement Plans. You'll get quotes for 20+ different providers through this service, depending on which companies are issuing policies where you live. Those companies may include Aetna, Cigna, Anthem and Humana; all insurers with whom they partner are at least A- rated. The business itself hasan "A+" rating and accreditation from the BBB, which means that in the company's 36 years in operation, they've done a good job of treating their clients fairly and honestly.
Online questions
You'll need to answer a series of questions online in order to look at plans through SelectQuote. These questions include:
- Are you currently enrolled in Medicare?
- Are you getting ready to turn 65, just retired or close to it, approaching Medicare eligibility due to disability, or have you recently moved to a new address?
- Do you want prescription drug coverage?
- Do you want vision/dental coverage through Medicare?
- What's your gender and date of birth? (optional)
From there, you are asked for your zip code, state, first and last name, phone number and email address. Notice that there's a checkbox for you to indicate if you'd like a free copy of "Health Matters: A Guide to Your Medicare Options". It's automatically checked, so be sure to uncheck it if you'd rather not get the guide.
Information sharing
Many providers of Medicare Supplement Plans state in their fine print that you're consenting to receiving lots of calls, texts, or (e)mail when you give them your contact info. SelectQuote Senior only lists three partners that will have permission to contact you, and they specify that you can call their toll-free number directly (855-356-4854) if you'd like to speak with them before providing that kind of information.
Get a call in 15 minutes
Let's say you go ahead and enter your information. What happens next? If it's during regular business hours, you'll get a call within 15 minutes; otherwise, they'll reach out to you the next business day. You may also get some preliminary quotes if you scroll down; we were given options from AARP Medicare Advantage, Medigap, FirstQuoteMedicare, and several others. Unfortunately, clicking to see our rates justredirected us to those companies' sites - where we had to start the process of entering our information and getting quotes all over again.
Quick initial quote
We reached out via SelectQuote's toll-free number (855-318-0531) to get a more accurate idea of the rates for our selected profile: a woman from Wisconsin that just turned 65, no tobacco use, and who was looking for the equivalent of a Plan G. We only had to give the agent our name and zip code to get a quote: no personal details required. After eight minutes on hold (listening to an annoying pinging sound like radaron a submarine!), we were then connected to "an office in our area".
30 minutes later, a transfer to another agent
After apologizing for the inexplicably long wait, the representative took some basic details like name, state and birthdate. It also took quite a while for his computer to load any quotes, which may have been due to his working from home. We were then transferred to a second agent after another long hold because his computer wasn't loading quotes for anyone living in WI. At this point, we had already spent 30 minuteson the phone and hadn't even gotten close to a quote yet. The rep was very apologetic.
Never heard that before
...and then the call got dropped when the first agent passed us to the second one. Fortunately, the second rep called us back, and we were able to get a quote. She too gave us an initial Plan G quote from Aetna, but when we asked her if she was referring to the Aetna Base plus riders to make the Wisconsin coverage equivalent to the Plan G in other states, she said she had never heard that before - and had actuallynever sold a Plan G supplement in WI.
Got the quote... finally
Her research showed that the premium, including the necessary riders, would be $137.00 for that Aetna plan, and in her system it was called a Part G Equivalent. There was an additional rider to cover travel emergencies in foreign countries, and that would bring the total to $153.50 per month. Both of those have that same $198 annual deductible.
Ongoing relationship
What happens after the coverage has been selected and the premiums have been paid? SelectQuote Senior will keep in touch on an annual basis, and may touch base throughout the year to see how things are going. They will also reach out to their clients if they get wind of any changes and see if a switch in providers or plans might be a good option to consider. We appreciate that kind of service; not every Medicare SupplementPlan broker offers it.
Almost an hour to get our quotes
While it might have just been a temporary technical issue on their end, it's worth noting that the entire process of getting a quote through SelectQuote Senior took the better part of an hour. We found comments from other customers who had the same experience with dropped calls and transfers that went nowhere - over six months prior to our calls to SelectQuote Senior.
Still some strong positives
You might be wondering, then, why this service still gets a relatively high ranking. We can't overlook the company's overall reputation for quality, shown by their BBB rating and thousands of 4-and 5-star ratings from happy clients on independently-verified sites. We appreciate the service they offer after the policy has been selected, and that all of the partner insurers they use have been vetted as reputable options.
Worth consideration
If you can get past the technical glitches - and you have the patience for what might turn out to be a long phone call - we recommend that you take a look at what SelectQuote Senior can offer you with respect to Medicare Supplement Plans.
