Why the chart exists
Every Medicare Supplement plan is standardized by the federal government and named with a letter. Plan G is identical from every company that sells it. The comparison chart puts the letters side by side so you can see exactly which costs each plan covers, and which ones stay with you.
Read it column by column
Each column is a plan letter, each row a cost category: Part A deductible, Part B coinsurance, skilled nursing coinsurance, foreign travel emergencies, and so on. A filled cell or checkmark means the plan pays that cost. A blank means you do. A percentage means the plan pays that share.
Start at the rows that represent real money: the Part A deductible ($1,736 per benefit period in 2026) and the Part B 20% coinsurance, which has no cap on its own.
The three columns that matter in practice
For anyone new to Medicare today, the realistic shortlist is Plan G, Plan N and sometimes a high-deductible G. Plan F covers slightly more but closed to anyone eligible after January 1, 2020.
G covers everything except the small Part B deductible. N trades a lower premium for modest copays at the doctor and ER, and it does not cover Part B excess charges, a rare but real billing quirk worth asking about in your state.
What the chart cannot tell you
Price. Since benefits are identical by letter, the same Plan G might differ by hundreds of dollars a year between insurers in the same ZIP code. The chart tells you what to buy; comparing carriers tells you who to buy it from. That second comparison is exactly what an independent agency does for you, free.