United Health Care

[Ms. Toad]

8. If it's for your AARP supplement, you agreed to it when you signed on.

Their plans have a significant discount from what is known as the community rate based on your age. They vary slightly from plan to plan - but generally you have an age-related discount that is fixed for the first few years (e.g. 60-65), then decreases every year after that until you hit a zero discount - generally somewhere in your 80s.

In addition, there may be an annual COLA.

When I reviewed plans, the historic COLA was lower than most other plans and the discount was reasonable - and ultimately it capped out. Many other plans continue the age-related pricing forever.

I plotted all of the plans in my geographical area out based on the age-related pricing until my spouse and I hit 99 each - and UHC AARP was, by far, the cheapest over my lifetime. But the charts are available with the plans (not just UHC, but all of them), so you could see when you decided which supplement to purchase what the age-related changes were (and those are locked in). No guarantees on the COLA - which is why I pulled the last 5 years for all of the plans that were even close.