Medicare Advantage Plans Not Always A Good Deal (Medical News Today)
New York City, May 19, 2006--Beneficiaries in poor health can pay more out of pocket for care in Medicare Advantage (MA) managed care plans than in traditional Medicare with Medigap supplemental coverage, a new Commonwealth Fund report finds. [click link for full article]

Mind the Traveling Medigap (Kiplinger Magazine via Yahoo! Finance)
Q&A editor Kimberly Lankford answers questions from readers about Medigap for people who travel often, tapping a child's custodial account to buy a family home, prepayment of the child tax credit, escrow accounts for property taxes, and tax liability for the sale of a rental home.

Reports Examine Out-Of-Pocket Medicare Costs, Medicare Drug Plans, Medicare Trustees' Projections; New Data Added To (Medical News Today)
"Medicare Beneficiary Out-of-Pocket Costs: Are Medicare Advantage Plans a Better Deal?" Commonwealth Fund: The new issue brief, by Brian Biles and Lauren Hersch Nicholas of George Washington University and Stuart Guterman of the Commonwealth Fund, compares out-of-pocket costs under Medicare Advantage and in fee-for-service Medicare. [click link for full article]

Too much choice (Colorado Springs Gazette)
Dozens of drug-prescription plans. More than 8,000 mutual funds. Fixed-rate, interest-only and option ARM mortgages. Regular 401(k) plans vs. Roth 401(k)s. Countless flavors of bank accounts.