Medicare & Senior Insurance

Our Medicare roots

VyKare's roots are in helping people with Medicare. In the summer of 2017, our founder Garry attended a seminar on becoming a certified Medicare Advantage agent, passed the certification exam before summer was out, and started advising during that October's Annual Enrollment Period.

Medicare, in brief

Medicare sits within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and leans heavily on the Social Security Administration to process enrollments and the financial side. It began in 1965 as a simple hospital-and-medical program for seniors, and over six decades it has grown into a complex, multi-part system:

• Part A, hospital care
• Part B, outpatient care
• Part D, prescription drug plan (PDP)
• Part C, private-plan alternatives (Medicare Advantage)

The parts, and what they cost (2026)

Parts A, B, and D are the core enrollments. Part A is premium-free for most people (paid in through about 40 quarters of payroll withholding), with an inpatient hospital deductible of $1,736 per benefit period. Part B carries a monthly premium of $202.90 (higher for upper incomes, via IRMAA) and an annual deductible of $283. All of these adjust every year. Miss your enrollment windows for Part B or Part D without documented comparable coverage and you can face lasting penalties, call us and we'll make sure you avoid them.

Part D, prescription drug plan (PDP)

Part D is the optional federal prescription-drug program, in effect since 2006. "Optional" comes with a catch: if you're eligible for Part B and go more than 63 days without a Part D plan (or comparable coverage), a penalty kicks in and grows until you're covered, and that's true whether you take zero prescriptions or forty. The good news is that most areas have low-premium plans, and even $0/month isn't unusual.

Beyond Medicare, ancillary coverage

Folks who choose an Advantage plan often add a hospital indemnity policy alongside it, those inpatient and outpatient copays can stack up toward $2,000 in a single benefit period, and indemnity coverage helps offset that. Also available are policies for major accidents and serious health events, heart attack, stroke, cancer, and other critical illnesses. And because Original Medicare (and therefore Medigap) doesn't cover Dental, Vision, or Hearing, standalone DVH plans are common.

Choosing your path: three strategies

• The one-and-done. Original Medicare (Parts A, B, and D) paired with a Medigap plan. The simplest and most predictable path, standardized plans allow a range of fixed monthly costs that give budgeting confidence.
• The actively managed. Start on a Medicare Advantage plan (low or $0 premium), review it every year, and switch to Medigap when the math says to. During periods of good health, this can be the least expensive route overall, but timing matters.
• The MSA route, for the healthy. A one-and-done built on a group MSA plan, designed for healthier clients. MSA plans use the broad CMS provider network, carry a $0 monthly premium and an annual deductible that doubles as the MOOP. Fenyx makes annual deposits into the MSA account that allow tax-free investment growth for health care expenses. The longer you can let the account grow, the more it steadily lowers your effective out-of-pocket over time.

Not sure which fits you? That's the whole point of a conversation with us.