Do Medicare Advantage Plans Work? 
They work very well . They work similar to group health insurance that many people have through their employers . The insured pays very little premium because most of the premium is paid by Medicare . You have a network of doctors and hospitals you can go to with usually an HMO network or a PPO network . The HMO is a more restrictive type of network . The insured will pay co-pays and sometimes deductibles . You will have a maximum out of pocket limit which you do not have with traditional Medicare -LRB- unless you supplement Medicare with a Medigap plan . -RRB- The worst thing about the Medicare Advantage Plans is they are very political . They were brought out during the George W. Bush years and the current administration has stated in several interviews that they would like to end them . However their base of senior voters would not make that easy for them to pull off . Quite a bit of the government funding for Medicare Advantage is scheduled to be cut as part of the Affordable Care Act . That could have a bad affect on the program in future years . 