ManhattanLife Medicare Supplement Plans

ManhattanLife was founded in 1850 in New York City and has since undergone many changes, including a recent logo redesign. The ManhattanLife corporate headquarters is now located in Houston, Texas. While the company initially formed as a response to growing consumer interest in life insurance policies, ManhattanLife has since diversified to include many other kinds of insurance policies as well. Now led by Chairman and CEO David W. Harris, the company continues to expand on its goals of serving its policyholders with better prices and better value.

ManhattanLife offers its Medicare Supplement plans (also called Medigap) under its own name as well as under its subsidiary, Western United Life Assurance Company, which is based in Spokane, Washington. Medicare Supplement insurance is ManhattanLife’s only Medicare-related product; it does not offer Medicare Part D or Part C plans. However, it does offer dental, vision, and hearing plans geared toward seniors.

The Basics of ManhattanLife Medicare Supplement Insurance

A ManhattanLife Medicare Supplement Insurance plan is, at the most basic level, a dependable tool for reducing your Medicare costs. If you have just Original Medicare (Parts A and B) you must pay some large deductibles plus roughly 20% of the cost of most Medicare-approved procedures, tests, hospital stays, and more. You can see a breakdown of typical patient costs under Original Medicare on Medicare.gov.

When you add a Medicare Supplement plan, the supplement picks up the tab on many of the bills that you’d normally be responsible for under Original Medicare. Be aware that these plans, which come in several coverage levels, do not cover things that Medicare does not cover. For example, homeopathic treatments, most prescription drugs, and visits to doctors that don’t accept Medicare will not be covered.

To qualify for a Medicare Supplement plan, you need to already have Part B, and you may need to meet other requirements as well. To guarantee your acceptance to a policy, it’s usually best to sign up right after getting Part B.

Although a Medicare Supplement plan uses the word “Medicare” in its title, it is not in any way paid for or operated by Medicare or any part of the U.S. government. Instead, it’s offered by private companies such as ManhattanLife. These companies assume full responsibility for the plans they operate, and they are held to strict rules regarding who they cover and what they pay for. You can visit the official Medicare website to learn about Medigap regulations.

Overview of ManhattanLife Medicare Supplement Plans

ManhattanLife carries five of the 10 possible Medicare Supplement plans. These plans are standardized and highly regulated, with the end result being they provide the same amount of coverage no matter which insurance provider you choose. The plans that ManhattanLife offers are A, C, F, G, and N. However, C and F are only available to those who were eligible for Medicare prior to January 2020. This restriction is due to the fact that Medicare is phasing these old plans out of the system. 

The chart below details the required converge that plans from ManhattanLife must provide. It only includes plans that are available to those who were newly eligible for Medicare in 2020.

*Excess charges occur when a doctor charges the patient more than Medicare is willing to pay. To find out if your doctor charges excess fees, ask if she or he “accepts assignment.” If the answer is no, excess charges are likely. 
**Plan N’s Part B copay/coinsurance coverage excludes some minor copays for office visits and emergency visits. Co-pays may be around $20 in many cases.

The Availability of Medicare Supplement Plans by Location

Medicare Supplement policies from ManhattanLife or from its subsidiary, Western United Life Assurance, are currently available in roughly 40 states. Currently, about 9 of those policies are directly from ManhattanLife while the rest are from Western United Life. However, the companies are connected. ManhattanLife is currently working to transfer all of its policies to Western Life, so the number of states covered by this company may increase in the future. The best way to find out if your state is covered is to use it to the ManhattanLife website to find the contact information of a local insurance agent. 

If you happen to live in Massachusetts, Minnesota, or  Wisconsin, then you are living in one of the three U.S. states that do not use the standardized “letter plans” discussed above. These three states still tightly regulate their Medigap plans, but the regulations and available plans are different than in the rest of the states. The links above will help you to understand these unique regulations. Once you have a basic understanding of what’s possible in these states, you can contact an agent to find out more about which policies are sold at this time.

The Cost of ManhattanLife Medicare Supplement Plans

The cost of your ManhattanLife Medicare Supplement will be based on several different factors. The range of premium costs in your area is likely $100-$300 per month, but this is only a rough estimate. ManhattanLife does not provide quotes to customers online; you must contact an agent to see the range of prices available to you.

Factors that may affect your ManhattanLife Medicare Supplement plan costs include: 

• Gender: In most states, insurance companies can charge you more or less based on your gender. For Medicare Supplement insurance, men are often charged between $10-$20 more than their female counterparts who have otherwise similar traits and health status.
• Location: Insurance in densely populated areas is frequently more expensive than it is in rural areas. You may have a different cost in your state or county than someone similar in another location.
• Timing: During certain times of life you are entitled to Medigap protections, also known as Guaranteed Issue Rights. During these special time periods, a company must offer you a Medicare Supplement policy without raising your price based on health. The most common time period for guaranteed issue is the first 6 months after you signed up for Medicare Part B. 
• Habits and Health: If you don’t have guaranteed issue, then your health and habits may mean you’ll be charged more than some of your peers. Smoking is an especially common factor that can raise costs, but other factors include age and whether or not you have certain chronic conditions like heart disease, COPD, or diabetes. 
• Age: If you sign up during a guaranteed issue period, your age won’t necessarily impact your costs at first. However, ManhattanLife does use an attained-age pricing increase model where permitted to do so by the state or local government. This means that your premium will increase by a small amount each year as your age increases. Ask your agent for a chart that shows how much the premiums will go up over time so that you aren’t surprised later on.

Unique Benefits and Drawbacks of ManhattanLife Medicare Supplement Insurance

Benefits of ManhattanLife Medicare Supplements

• Stability: ManhattanLife has a great track record of stability. It currently has a B+ (“good”) rating from the rating agency AM Best, indicating that the company is quite capable of making good on its coverage obligations. It’s also been serving customers in the USA for over 170 years. The track record of stability and longevity is definitely an encouraging sign when you’re trying to choose a company that will meet your needs. 
• Discounts: ManhattanLife gives a discount of up to 7% to families when two household members both have a Medicare Supplement plan from the company. To put that in terms of actual dollars, this could save you $10 a month or $120 a year if you had a policy that cost $150. When you speak with an agent, you may want to ask if there are any other discounts in your area.

Drawbacks of ManhattanLife Medicare Supplements

• Company Complexity: ManhattanLife owns the Spoke, WA based company Western United Life Assurance. Many of the ManhattanLife policies are actually already under this subsidiary company, and the rest are slowly being changed over to it. The fact that the parent company operates some plans under a different name can definitely lead to initial confusion when trying to research and buy a plan. Picking the right department to speak with on the phone can be challenging for the same reason. 
• No Online Quotes: In an age of increased online shopping, it can be really disappointing to discover that a website like ManhattanLife does not offer any online quotes. It also does not offer detailed plan documents that provide information on price increases, underwriting processes, and other issues you may be interested in. Getting an automatically generated quote and plan documents online is a great way to get started shopping because it’s a no-pressure situation. With ManhattanLife, you’ll have to immediately begin by contacting an agent, which for some consumers can be stressful.

Customer Reviews of ManhattanLife Medicare Supplement Plans

ManhattanLife has remarkably few reviews on the internet, even when you look at multiple websites. This company has 13 BBB reviews, 3 Yelp Reviews, and no reviews on its Google profile or on TrustPilot. On both the BBB and Yelp, the company has a 1/5 star rating. Many reviews are available on a highly curated review site called Shopper Approved that ManhattanLife contracts with.

Positive Reviews from ManhattanLife Customers

Due to the extreme scarcity of ManhattanLife reviews and the predominance of negative reviews on most review websites, there’s unfortunately very little to be said about positive customer feedback. However, you can find many positive reviews by clicking the “reviews” link at the bottom of the ManhattanLife website (it’s in the About Us section). These reviews are solicited from customers through email surveys, something that’s also true of many Trustpilot reviews. 

Positive reviews usually mention customers’ satisfaction with their insurance agents and various customer service representatives. One reviewer comments on her experience with Medigap from this company by writing that signing up was a “no pain transaction.” Another Medicare Supplement customer described her agent as “friendly, helpful, and even made me laugh. Much appreciated.”

Negative Reviews from ManhattanLife Customers

Just as there are few positive reviews of ManhattanLife found online, there are also very few negative ones. The negative reviews that do exist aren’t necessarily about the company’s Medigap plans. Many refer to other forms of insurance offered by ManhattanLife. The most commonly repeated complaint is that payments on claims can be very slow. 

On the BBB website, one customer expressed his frustration by writing, “it seems the procedure is delay, delay, and delay.” Another customer on the BBB notes that the vision and dental plan that was marketed to her as a product perfect for seniors didn’t meet her expectations. This reviewer says that “neither of my doctors for vision or dental would accept this plan.”

We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.