Medicare
 

Good day

I’m hitting 65 in November so, will need to sign up for Medicare soon. I think I’m in the right place to ask for any suggestions. Please share any recommendations and mistakes you made going through this process. I’m a blank slate relying on good info from you. Thanks in advance.

Start the process now. Dont wait. I think the recommendation is to apply 6 months before 65.

You will be bombarded by companies offering Medicare Advantage plans. These are private companies whose plans more or less take over as your primary provider, and coordinate to get your benefits directly from Medicare.

Thats different than a Medicare Supplement, in which Medicare is primary, and any other private insurer (like any insurance you currently have) becomes secondary.

Lots of details and nuances and wording you must read carefully. Start with the official site medicare.gov for info, rather than one of those sponsored seminars or advantage plan salesmen.

PS my Medicare A & B started automatically because I was already receiving my social security benefit. I dont know how or why, but I didnt need to do anything else to enroll. But please check into it. I continued using my employer-sponsored private insurance as my Supplement (secondary) provider, but needed to call them to tell them.

There are at least two ways to look at the insurance offered. Affording insurance when you are healthy or having good insurance when you are sick. The insurance that pays the most the longest is the latter and it is a touch more money every month. For that I suggest calling a Medicare insurance broker. What they will do is set you up with the least expensive insurance in your area and your medications. I have A, B and G. All other insurance offered give free this and that and may not be as expensive. But when you get really sick you will find where they are deficient leaving you or your family in a financial situation. Allot of people get really sick before they die. Many Congressmen want to make it so that those bundle insurances are illegal. For insurance companies it's where the moneys at. Many will disagree with me, but I've stated my experience. Good Luck!

Hi Mike,
Been there. The best nugget I can give you was also mentioned above:
You don't even have to leave that site. It's excellent. You can do everything there, including picking the plan that fits you best by comparing plans from different providers. They have all their updated info. You can call them and ask questions. They don't have an agenda, other that helping you get on Medicare.
Once you pick a plan, you can book it right there through the site. They take care of everything, including deducting the premium (for plans A and B) directly from your SS account, if applicable.
Initially, like you, I wasn't sure how to start the process, so I was calling around to the various providers to get the ball rolling. That was a mistake. You don't have to talk to any of them. Let Medicare handle it for you.

Medicare A is free. You'll want to add Medicare B, which costs a set monthly amount (in the neighborhood of $150), usually taken directly from your social security payment. It pays 80% of most health related costs, after a small (?) deductible.

When I was researching this, most commenters said Medicare Advantage plans were NOT the way to go.

I'm pretty healthy and don't expect any big medical bills, so I got a high-deductible Medicare Supplement (Plan G HD), which will basically pay the 20% that Medicare doesn't pay -- after I pay the $2K or $3K deductible. The monthly premiums for the high deductible plan are considerably lower than regular Plan G, which costs in the neighborhood of another $150 per month. But then you're basically fully covered.

My wife and I had the same positive experience as Andre- signing up (and getting info) from fed site was straightforward and trouble-free. Yes you will be bombarded by insurance companies offering "Medicare Advantage" plans. These are supplements to government Medicare and offer additional services and coverages, but at a cost of course. These companies however are all "approved" by fed Medicare but vary quite a bit in what they offer and charge. So if you decide to look into these you need to do some research and figure out what works best for you (and is offered in your area).

One other thing we learned and typically gets overlooked is vision and dental coverages. There is some provided in our Med.Advantage plan but pretty minimal for non-catastrophic injuries routine sorts of stuff. So we elected to pay monthly out-of-pocket for senior dental and vision insurance plans with two other companies. We also learned that individual plans tend to be more expensive and less complete than when we were both on the job; our financial advisor told us that is because companies can amortize employee benefit costs spread over lots of employees, vs individual plans.

Oh, and the dental plan required that we had been covered prior to getting the new plan, i think this is pretty common practice. They don't want to issue a policy to someone with a mouthful of exisiting problems.

Once you're signed up for Medicare, don't forget to specify (with each provider) that your previously existing primary insurance (if you keep it) is now your secondary. I didn't do that right away and got rejected a couple times. Fixed it with those billing parties and then it went through just fine. Medicare needs to be billed first, and then (if you have it) your secondary.

I should add my wife is not planning on retirement for at least 6 years. My health insurance is with her company currently. Not sure if that helps me in any way?

Mike, you are required to enroll in Medicare Part A at age 65. The current cost is $0. You can stay on your wife's plan and not purchase for Part B and all the other extra plans. If your wife leaves her job (and coverage) then you will be required to purchase Part B or face long-term financial penalties.

The Part B premiums can vary significantly based upon your household income.

Fantastic . TY

When it came time for me to apply for Medicare about 3 years ago, my financial advisor put me in touch with an independent insurance broker who only deals with medical insurance.

She was great - explained all the options, presented alternatives from a number of different companies, and guided me to a choice which has worked out very well for me. She did the same when it came time for my wife to apply.

If you can find someone like that, I’d highly recommend it.

As DIY and understand it all as I like to be, and with a good note on this stuff already started, this topic is one where a works in my own interest consultant would be nice.

What sticks in my mind is my mother in law and mother taking different choices for being quite healthy. All of a sudden towards age 90 my mother had a heart attack recovering from simple surgery. She didn't get the better drugs at reasonable prices as my mother in law did.

I have this in my note. Some others follow.

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=657115

https://www.hhs.gov/answers/medicare...aid/index.html
https://client.schwab.com/secured/re...ing-retirement

For Wall St Journal or Apple News+ subscribers, WSJ has some recent articles on what retirement is like with $ few million and $ less than million some in this age bracket might like to read.

In that case you only need Part A

I've been on Medicare for almost six years, and researched it thoroughly, both when I got on in 2017 and recently as I helped a friend get on it.

I strongly agree to be very careful of the "Advantage" plans. The coverage, requirement for staying in "network", restrictions on coverage outside your state, etc. are allowed to vary greatly within these plans. As they are sold by private ins companies both large and small. There are LOTS of questionable sales tactics involved, as the Medicare demographic is perceived as vulnerable to that sort of thing. Medigap policies by contrast are also through private companies, but their coverages are mandated by Medicare rules, and can't vary. They are also good in every county of every state. They alos offer coverage overseas, which isn't available with Part A and B alone.

Also, there are programs, I think in every state, designed to help with unbiased information. I used the one in Florida, called SHINE, and my friend in Colorado the program as well. There it was called SHIP, and I think it's called that in most places. It is a non-profit or state government based (through the department for services to seniors) staffed (in my experience in FL) by retired insurance industry people. Since they are not selling anything they are free to give unbiased options. If you have trouble finding this in GA, google SHINE and call a FL number. I did that to find a similar agency in CO, and they easily found the phone # for Colorado.

I too was covered by my wife's employer, so I waited several months to sign up for the parts beyond A. You must sign up for Part A within six months of your birthday (before or after, I think). There is no downside to signing up for A as soon as you can. It is free, and does not interfere with your private insurance. There is no reason not to stay on your wife's plan, assuming it is better and/or cheaper than your options on MC. The SHIP people can help you figure that out.

Once her ins. stops, you have six months to add whatever additional Parts (B, C (also called Advantage), a Medigap plan (G, for instance). You also need to sign up for a drug plan, Part D, even if you aren't taking any covered drugs. When I signed up I was misinformed BY SEVERAL INS PROFESSIONALS that I had six months to sign up for part D as well as the other parts. The truth is you only have three months to add Part D. As a result, I pay a penalty of about $24 a year for life for being three months late in adding Part D.

Last point, beware of the mistake I made. In July of '17 I was 66 and totally healthy, as was my wife. So, we chose Part B only, to save about $90-130 (current amts) per month over the cost of Part B and a Medigap plan. Plan B's benefits are not nearly as good as those with B plus a Medigap policy. With B alone you pay a small yearly deductible (currently just under $300, plus a 20% copay of whatever costs after the MC "discount" and claim payment). There are about six Medigap plans to choose from, but two of them are the most popular by far. Based on my friend's info last week, the G plan was $143, and the other popular plan was $90. I would have chosen the $90 plan, she chose the exp one because she goes to the doctor quite often.

Three months later I was diagnosed with Stage III Melanoma, and over the last six years I have been out thousands of dollars by not having taken a Medigap plan. And I could have afforded the better coverage, I just chose not to take it. And don't think you can add it later. When you are first eligible you cannot be denied whatever coverage you want, even if you have many expensive pre existing conditions. Later you are subject to underwriting for the Medigap policies, but I'm not sure if that is the case if you are just adding Part B. I'm pretty sure that if you do not take Plan B when first eligible you will incur a life long penalty based on how many months you delay.

My friend found an insurance broker who seems excellent. She passed my rigorous examination, LOL, and I'll be glad to pass her name and number to you in a PM if you'd like it. She's based in FL, but I think they are licensed in most states.

Good luck, and welcome to one of the many inconveniences of getting old! There are lots of good things about the retirement part of that, however!

Medicare already likely sent you a helpful book that you can use to get some good information. In addition, your state has an office of insurance that provides additional information in the form of websites, remote seminars and 'live' in person seminars. As others have noted, start now and good luck.