Arizona has one of the highest snowbird populations in the country. Every fall, hundreds of thousands of seniors arrive from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, the Dakotas, and Canada to spend the winter in Mesa, Apache Junction, Sun City, and the rest of the Valley. And every spring, plenty of full-time Arizona residents do the opposite and head to a cabin in Colorado, Idaho, or back to wherever they used to live. Either way, your Medicare plan needs to work in both places. That is where snowbirds run into trouble.
I have been a licensed Medicare broker in Mesa for 7 years, and the snowbird question is one of the most common ones I get. The short answer is that Original Medicare paired with a Medigap supplement is almost always the better choice if you spend more than a month or two outside Arizona each year. Here is why.
How Medicare Advantage Networks Work Against Snowbirds
Medicare Advantage plans are run by private insurance companies. They contract with networks of doctors and hospitals in a defined service area. Most Advantage plans in Arizona have an HMO or PPO network that is local. UnitedHealthcare’s most popular plans in Maricopa County, for example, contract heavily with Banner, HonorHealth, and a few other Valley systems. If you go see a doctor in Wisconsin, that doctor is not in the network.
Most Advantage plans cover emergency care and urgent care anywhere in the United States. That is required. But routine care, follow-up visits, lab work, physical therapy, and specialist appointments outside your home network either are not covered or are covered at a significantly higher out-of-pocket rate. Some PPO plans offer out-of-network coverage at, say, 50 percent. That sounds reasonable until you realize it means you pay half of every visit, every test, every procedure for the four months you are gone.
Some Advantage plans now offer “travel benefits” that extend coverage for a limited number of days each year. These programs vary, the rules are confusing, and the day limits are usually shorter than a real snowbird stay. They are better than nothing, but they are not a substitute for coverage that simply works everywhere.
How Original Medicare Solves This
Original Medicare, meaning Part A and Part B together, has no network. Any provider in the United States that accepts Medicare will see you, period. That is roughly 95 percent of doctors in the country. Whether you are at home in Mesa or visiting your sister in Spokane, you can walk into any Medicare-accepting clinic, hand them your red, white, and blue Medicare card, and be seen as a regular patient.
The catch with Original Medicare on its own is that it leaves you exposed. After Part B’s annual deductible, you pay 20 percent of every doctor visit and outpatient procedure, and there is no annual cap on your out-of-pocket costs. One bad year with a hospital stay and a few surgeries could leave you with bills in the tens of thousands. That is what Medigap is for.
A Medigap supplement, also called a Medicare Supplement, fills in those gaps. The most popular plan in Arizona is Plan G. With Plan G, after you pay the small Part B deductible each year, the plan covers everything else that Original Medicare leaves on the table. No copays at the doctor. No 20 percent coinsurance. Predictable costs. And because Original Medicare is the underlying coverage, you have access to any doctor in the country who takes Medicare. The supplement travels with you everywhere Medicare does.
What This Looks Like in Real Numbers
Let me give you a typical snowbird example. A 68-year-old woman in good health splits time between Mesa and Wisconsin. Six months in each state.
If she enrolls in a $0 premium Medicare Advantage plan with a $5,500 out-of-pocket maximum, her monthly cost is just the standard Part B premium. As long as she stays in Arizona, that plan works fine. But the four months she is in Wisconsin, she has to either fly back to Arizona for non-emergency care, pay full price out of pocket, or use the limited travel benefits if her plan has them. If anything serious comes up while she is gone, her exposure can be significant.
If she enrolls in Original Medicare plus a Plan G supplement, she pays the standard Part B premium plus roughly $130 to $180 per month for Plan G in Arizona. That is around $1,500 to $2,200 per year more than the Advantage plan in premiums. In exchange, she has predictable costs, almost no copays, no out-of-pocket maximum risk, and full coverage in Wisconsin, Mesa, anywhere she travels in the country. She also picks up a standalone Part D drug plan that works nationwide.
For most snowbirds, the extra cost is worth the peace of mind. They are not driving back to the Valley for a follow-up appointment in March. They are not paying half-price for a specialist in Wisconsin. They go to their doctor when they need to, wherever they are, and the bills work the way they expect.
When a Medicare Advantage Plan Can Still Work for Travelers
There are a few cases where a snowbird can still do well on Advantage. If both the home and away states fall within the same plan’s broader PPO network, that can work. Some national carriers have larger PPO networks that include providers in popular snowbird states. If you are healthy, do not have ongoing conditions that require regular specialist visits, and your travel destination has solid in-network options, an Advantage PPO can save money compared to a supplement.
If your time outside Arizona is shorter, say a couple of weeks for a vacation each year, the math also looks different. Emergency and urgent care are covered nationwide on every Advantage plan, so a brief trip is not a coverage problem.
The plans that work for travel also tend to be the more expensive Advantage plans, often with monthly premiums. Once you are paying $50 or $80 a month for the Advantage plan and still dealing with a network, the cost gap to a supplement narrows considerably.
What to Do If You Are Already on the Wrong Plan
If you are already a snowbird on a Medicare Advantage plan and realizing it is not working for your lifestyle, there are two ways to switch.
The Annual Enrollment Period from October 15 through December 7 lets you change plans for the following year. This is the easiest path. During AEP, you can switch from Medicare Advantage back to Original Medicare and add a supplement.
The Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period from January 1 through March 31 is another window. During this period, anyone enrolled in Medicare Advantage can switch to a different Advantage plan or move back to Original Medicare. If you go back to Original Medicare, you can usually pair it with a Part D plan during the same window.
The wrinkle with switching back to Original Medicare and adding a supplement is medical underwriting. Outside of your initial Medigap open enrollment window when you first enrolled in Part B, supplement carriers in Arizona can review your health and either decline you or charge a higher premium. Arizona does not have a continuous guaranteed issue rule like some states. This is one reason it pays to talk to a broker before switching. We can tell you in advance whether you are likely to qualify for a supplement at a standard rate.
Special Considerations for Canadian Snowbirds
Canadian residents who are wintering in Arizona are a different situation entirely. Medicare is U.S. coverage and does not generally help unless you are also a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen who has earned the right to enroll. Most Canadian snowbirds rely on travel medical insurance from a Canadian carrier or a private U.S. plan during their stay. If you are a Canadian who has lived and worked in the U.S. long enough to qualify for Medicare, the same snowbird logic applies. Original Medicare with a supplement gives you the most flexibility.
Need Help Choosing the Right Plan for Your Travel Lifestyle?
If you are splitting time between Arizona and another state and want to make sure your Medicare plan actually works in both places, I can help. I work with snowbirds in Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, Scottsdale, Apache Junction, Sun City, and across the Valley. We will look at where you go, how long you stay, your doctors in both places, and your medications, and find the plan that fits.
Call me at 480-296-5804 or request a free consultation. No pressure, no obligation, and no cost to you.