A couple of hundred a month is about $2500/year. Do you think you would have deductible or copay of that or more each and every year? We haven't. We have had the Medicare Advantage Plan for 12 years now and only had one year when we used any of our $5300 annual copay max. I think that was about $2000 for one of us. We do pay the $20/40 copay when we have a Drs appointment but that is less than 5 times/year. Everything else has been covered, "knock on wood." Clearly the Supplemental plan is better if you have frequent medical problems. But when we made the initial decision we had pretty normal medical circumstances so guessed that the MA plan would be long time less expensive for us. So far it has been. My mentor chose the full $400/mo for both of them Med Suppl plan. His wife ended up having significant medical issues so that worked for her. He has been pretty healthy.

That is the real problem with the decision when you are 65......You have to guess what the future holds for you in terms of medical costs. High future costs, means that Medicare and a Med Supp plan will be best. Low future costs means a MA plan will work for you best. Unfortunately folks without means and experience in medical decisions often just take Medicare alone and that has significant holes as well as maximums that are easily exceeded.