Published on February 3, 2010 at 11:23 PM
Consumers can switch from original Medicare plans to Medicare Advantage plans until March 31 and to help them understand the options,
The Associated Press offers answers to frequent questions about Medicare Advantage plans. "The average Medicare beneficiary has about 33 Advantage plans to chose from this year. ... In addition to basic Medicare coverage, many provide extras such as vision, dental or hearing coverage. Insurers have developed more than 2,000 Medicare Advantage plans serving more than 11 million people, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. All these options come with their own sets of variables like different deductibles, premiums and co-insurance." The AP answers questions and provides advice on selecting a plan by looking at factors such as premiums and hospitalization coverage (Murphy, 2/2).