Can you do this without The Clearing?
Yes. The information is public, and you can gather it yourself.
The real question is whether you want to organize, verify, preserve, and revisit the work on your own.
Membership does not replace free information. It replaces part of the work required to apply it, preserve the reasoning, and return to it later.
What doing it yourself actually requires.
Doing it well on your own means carrying all of it:
Membership does not replace free information. It replaces part of the work required to apply it, preserve the reasoning, and return to it later.
Available plans in the documented ZIP code
Separate verifications required
Plans worth serious consideration
These were not 135 pieces of Medicare content. They were repeated applications of one question: does this option meet the requirement, or should it leave the field? One documented example. Another person’s ZIP code, doctors, prescriptions, budget, coverage route, and tolerance for risk would produce different numbers.
The decision does not stay still.
Plans change. Prescriptions move tiers. Doctors leave networks. Health needs shift. Family roles change. A decision that fit last year may still fit — or may need another look.
Every fall, the Annual Notice of Change lists what a plan intends to change — but not which of those changes matter to you. That comparison still has to happen, in a quiet year or a busy one.
Coverage can renew automatically. Fit does not.
What the checking can catch. What the record can save.
Confirm doctors, prescriptions, timing, costs, and rules; test the options against the member’s Requirements List; and identify what still needs verification.
Preserve what mattered, what was checked, why the decision was made, and what should be reviewed next — so you can return later without starting over.
A prescription-drug deductible that exceeded the member’s stated front-loaded cost tolerance.
Identified before the decision was made.
Potential annual prescription costs under two zero-premium plans, once the member’s four prescriptions were run through them.
Identified before the decision was made.
These are not promised savings. They are examples of mismatches identified before the member chose. The checking did not create the savings. It revealed the mismatch before the decision was made. The time saved matters. The expensive mismatch avoided may matter more.
The price, in context.
Public membership is $299 annually, or $39 monthly. Founding Circle members retain the annual rate available when they joined while membership remains uninterrupted.
The annual rate remains $169 for the life of an uninterrupted membership. $299 annually or $39 monthly beginning August 20.
In the documented example:
Membership is priced as continuing decision support — not as a guaranteed financial return.
And still, use SHIP.
SHIP can provide free, plan-neutral counseling and help confirm Medicare rights, timing, and options. The Clearing does not replace that service.
The Clearing helps members prepare before the appointment, organize what they hear, complete the follow-up, and preserve the work for later. Use both when both are useful. Membership supports the work before, during, and after the appointment.
Organize your facts and prepare your questions.
Capture the answers and identify what still needs confirmation.
Complete the next steps, preserve the reasoning, and return when circumstances change.
The Clearing may not be necessary for everyone.
Some people have a process and the time to run it. Others want the work held together. This is how to tell which side of that line you are on.
Not sure which side you are on? Ask Hazel. She can explain what remains free and what membership adds.
Decide how much of the work you want to carry yourself.
The information is public. Membership adds a steady guide, a structured process, and a record you can return to when something changes.