After years of suffering diabetes, I finally had to have my left leg removed, just above the knee. It was difficult to deal with an amputation, but my physical therapist assured me that a specialist could make a fake leg for me and I could walk around the house and take care of myself. I was really worried that I wasn’t going to be able to live at home anymore, and I’d have to burden my children with taking care of me.

After seeing the orthotic specialist, he told me the prosthetic leg would cost me about $8,000. Because the leg had a computer in it for walking up and down my stairs and I had so many problems with my circulation, I required a very expensive prosthetic model. I soon found out that Medicare did not pay for the limb, and I quickly looked into my Medicare supplement policy and found out they paid for a lot of the cost. I was able to afford the prosthetic leg and now I am pretty good at getting around with it.

My medicare supplements even paid for the co-pays to the orthotic specialist, and also paid a large portion of the deductible. My physical therapy lasted many months and my supplement Medicare insurance even paid for that. If I didn’t have the Medicare supplemental insurance I would never have been able to afford the prosthetic limb or the physical therapy to learn how to use it. Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to get it years ago.