If you have Medicare Part A and Part B you may have good protection, but this protection may not come close to being enough coverage. For this reason many Medicare beneficiaries have chosen to supplement their coverage or to choose a Medicare Part C policy instead of depending on Original Medicare.

Medicare Part A insures you in the hospital, but not entirely. You will have a deductible to pay. You have coinsurance to pay. There is a amount of days that you can be covered in the hospital before all of the costs have to come out of your pocket.

If all you have is Part A and Medicare Part B, you will may have to pay a substantial amount fo the costs if you need hospital care. In 2011, the Medicare hospital deductible will be $1,132. You won't have other expenses unless you are in the hospital longer then 60 days. If you stay longer, you will have to pay $283 a day for the next 30 days in the hospital.

If you are in the hospital longer than that during one benefit period, you will start using your lifetime reserve days. You will $566 a day to pay while you are using your lifetime reserve days. After you have exhausted your lifetime reserve days, you will be responsible for all expenses.

Medicare Part C insures doctor's visits. However, you will have a deductible to pay. You will have coinsurance to pay as well.

In 2011 the Medicare deductible has gone up. The new amount for doctor visits will be $162. You will have to pay for 20% of costs in excess of the deductible up to the amount that Medicare approves. You may also be responsible for any amount that your physician charges that are in excess of what Medicare approves.

Two things that neither Part A nor Medicare Part B covers well are Rx and long term care. Medicines received in the hospital are part of the hospital insurance. There is a very limited amount of protection provided by Medicare for convalescent home stays.

You can get insurance for most of the medical expenses that you might incur by Molina Healthcare Medicare Part C and Medicare Part D, a Medicare Part C plan that covers medicines or a Medicare Supplement policy and Medicare Part D.

Medicare Advantage policies are Part C plans. These are very popular options today.

A Medicare Advantage policy can be nearly all inclusive. It won't cover long-term care, but it can give you much better insurance than Original Medicare alone. Much of the risk that you would have in the hospital will be eliminated. The same is true in the doctor's office.

These options tend to pay poorly or not at all if you used health providers who are outside of the network for any non emergency treatment. Since emergency medical care is covered, travel inside the United States shouldn't be a problem so long as you don't need routine treatment while you are away from home. This limitation can hurt you if you are a snowbird or you have a health condition that requires routine treatment when you are away from home.