If you split time between two states (e.g., a New Yorker who winters in Florida, a Pennsylvanian who summers in Maine), Medicare Advantage plans often don't work well because their networks are tied to your home county. Original Medicare + Medigap is usually the better path for snowbirds.
Why Medicare Advantage usually fails for snowbirds:
- MA plans have geographic service areas — typically your county of residence
- Outside your service area, MA usually only covers emergency and urgent care
- Routine doctor visits, specialist care, lab work, and prescriptions while you're in the second state are typically not covered unless the plan happens to have a national network (rare)
- Some PPO Medicare Advantage plans offer broader out-of-network access but at higher cost-sharing
- If you spend more than 6 months out of your home county, MA may drop your enrollment entirely
Why Original Medicare + Medigap works for snowbirds:
- Original Medicare is national — any provider that accepts Medicare anywhere in the U.S. accepts you
- Medigap policies (especially Plan G) cover Medicare's gaps regardless of state
- You can see your home-state cardiologist in October and your Florida primary care doctor in January with no network worries
- Medigap Plan G also includes 80% foreign travel emergency coverage (useful for cruises)
Trade-off: Medigap costs $130–$300/month vs. often $0/month for MA. You'd also need a standalone Part D plan (~$20–$60/month) for prescriptions. Total: $150–$360/month vs. $0–$30/month for MA. But for snowbirds, MA's coverage gap during the away-state portion of the year often costs FAR more than the Medigap premium difference if anything goes wrong.
Address-of-record matters:
- For Part D, your plan's pharmacy network is national — your prescriptions transfer to a network pharmacy in your second state
- For Medigap, your home-state address determines pricing (no impact on coverage portability)
- For Medicare itself, you typically register one address with Social Security; updating it triggers SEPs you may not want to use
Special situation — "snowbird dual eligibles": Some Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) accommodate dual-state residents in specific markets (e.g., NY-FL). These are rare and require careful network analysis.
What to do next: Call (866) 534-1886. We specialize in snowbird Medicare planning — checking that your home-state and away-state doctors are all accessible, comparing Medigap rates across both state markets (rates vary by where you're "sitused"), and projecting your total annual cost vs. an MA option. Free.