 Over a quarter of a million Minnesota seniors were told in October that their Medicare plan would no longer be offered and they would need to find a new plan for 2019. Many seniors were able to make the switch easily, but for some families the switch has been more complicated than they could have ever imagined. Our Anthony Scott has more. There are three major types of Medicare plans available in Minnesota. A Medigat plan, a cost plan, and an Advantage plan. In 2019, the cost plan will only be available in 21 counties. So the government said that when enough people enroll into the Advantage plans, two or more Advantage plans, so a certain number of people are in those plans, then that triggers this event where the cost plans go away. The cost plan has been available since the early 2000s and offers seniors a relatively inexpensive full coverage plan which has been very beneficial because he's had a lot of major illnesses that have picked up the cost where we haven't had to pay hardly anything. Meet Kathy Frank. Her and her husband Gilbert have lived and paid taxes to Aiken County ever since they moved here in 1980. The cost plan is not being taken away in Aiken County, but the Center for Medicare says the Franks live in Crow Wing County, where the cost plan will no longer be available. We've never lived in Crow Wing County. Right now, we're not, we're hitting dead ends. All you can do is stay at the lower level. You can't reach anybody at a higher level at this point. The Franks have gone to the Social Security Office and the Post Office to get their address straightened out, but the Center for Medicare still does not recognize the Franks as living in Aiken County, so they have turned to their Senator. We're hoping that Senator Klobuchar will come through and tell us that CMS has straightened the database out and that we live in Aiken County, which we do, and that he will get a letter stating that the cost plan is still available to him. If the issue can't get resolved, the Franks would have to enroll in either an Advantage plan or a Medigap plan. The Advantage plan typically comes with high copays, and the Franks are not eligible for the Medigap plan because they live in Aiken County, which is keeping the cost plan. If he were to change on his own, he would have pre-existing conditions, and they wouldn't cover that. So we need to stay in the cost plan until they drop the cost plan in Aiken, and then we could get into the Medigap without pre-existing conditions being considered. Medicare plans are already confusing enough, and the Franks address issue has only made the process more stressful for them. Reporting from Aiken, Anthony Scott, Lakeland News. For anyone losing their cost plans, you have until the new year to enroll in a new Medicare plan. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.