A Medigap Policy is the same thing as a Medicare Supplement Insurance Policy.

New plans may be offered each year and some plans are discontinued, so you should consult the information from medicare.gov and not rely on this chart to be up to date.

Original Medicare coverage doesn't cover everything, so some people purchase a Medicare Supplemental Insurance Policy to be more fully covered. Your other option is to purchase a Health Care Advantage policy which replaces Original Medicare and Medigap.

Which Medigap plan should you choose? There are 14 different Medicare Supplement Plans called Plan A, Plan B, etc. through Plan L. Plan F and Plan J have high-deductible options. Choosing a plan is difficult, because you don't know what the future brings. Will you need care in a skilled nursing facility? Who knows? Will you get sick overseas in a country that doesn't offer free healthcare? You also have to decide what coverage you want considering what monthly premiums you can afford.

This flowchart tries to lead you to a plan that meets your basic needs. Just answer each question until you get to the end. Once you are finished you may want to look at the plans bordering your choice. For example, If you end up with Medigap Plan F, look at Plans E and G to see what benefits these may add or subtract.

Once you pick a plan, then you need to compare prices at different insurance companies. You also have to pick an insurance company that you trust will pay if you become ill. In general, a plan with more benefits will cost more. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes a plan which covers more will actually cost less. It depends on how the prices are set by the insurance company.

If you haven't already done so, first download the free trial version of RFFlow. It will allow you to open any chart and make modifications.

Once RFFlow is installed, you can open the above chart in RFFlow by clicking on medicare-supplement-insurance.flo. From there you can zoom in, edit, and print this sample chart. It is often easier to modify an existing chart than to draw it from scratch. You may want to add prices to each plan after you decide on an insurance company. You could also modify this plan to add at-home recovery or a Part B Deductible.

To draw this chart without downloading it, run RFFlow and use the Sample Stencil.