Money Talks News: The PodcastOn January 1, 2021, I became one of the millions of Americans enrolled in Medicare.
The process of joining the 44 million Americans now enrolled in our national health insurance system for seniors wasn't the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was no walk in the park, either. The Medicare system, including options like Medicare Advantage plans and Medigap policies, have lots of moving parts.
First, you have to sign up with the Social Security Administration if you have yet to start claiming Social Security benefits. You apply, then have a (virtual) meeting with a government employee. Along the way, you have to consider what's covered by Medicare, what's not covered and what's partially covered.
And if you're considering a Medicare Advantage plan or Medigap -- which are offered by private insurance companies approved by the federal Medicare program -- you have to compare features within those as well and deal with the agents selling them.
In short, there's a lot to know. Which makes this topic perfect for a podcast.
For this week's "Money!" podcast, we were lucky to secure a couple of genuine experts. The first is Rebecca Kinney, director for the Administration for Community Living's Office of Healthcare Information and Counseling. Also joining us is Maggie Flowers, the program manager for the State Health Insurance Assistance Programs.
These ladies not only provided the facts, they did it in simple terms and even made it interesting.
Want more information? Check out these resources:
- "Most Seniors Are Making This Medicare Mistake"
- "14 Things That Are ‘Free' With Medicare"
- "How to Pick the Best Medicare Supplement Plan in 4 Steps"
- "4 Pitfalls for First-Time Medicare Enrollees"
- "8 Extra Benefits in Most Medicare Advantage Plans for 2021"
- SHIP Technical Assistance Center: www.SHIPTACenter.org
- ACL’s page: www.acl.gov
- Medicare.gov
- More Medicare articles from Money Talks News
- The Money Talks News newsletter
- Our The Only Retirement Guide You'll Ever Need course
- Our Money Made Simple course
Hosts:
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fire. Hey guys and welcome to Money, a podcast devoted to all things money, how to get it, how to grow it and how to keep it. I'm your host, Casey johnson in this podcast is brought to you by money talks news dot com, serving up the best and personal finance news and advice since 1991.
My co host is money expert Miranda marquis from Miranda market dot com. Hello Miranda.
Hello Stacy. And we've also got producer Aaron Freeman onboard. Hey there erin,
hello guys, how you doing?
I am fine, fine, fine. And Miranda, can you tell us what's on our agenda for today and introduce our guests?
Oh yeah, so who is ready to talk Medicare? If there is Medicare and your future you're going to love today's podcast. We have two experts to talk to. Not one but two. So first off is Rebecca kidney, she is the director for the administration for Community Living Office of Health care information and counselling in Washington, D. C.
They help manage a number of Medicare programs. She's worked in Medicare benefits for her entire professional life and she is a strong advocate for Medicare beneficiaries. On top of that we have Maggie Flowers. She is the program manager for the state health insurance agency assistance program, another mouthful
and is responsible for oversight and administration of different programs. On top of that. She used to be with the National Council on aging specializing in Economic Security.
So it is awesome to have experienced knowledgeable folks today because this is a complex subject. Yeah, I am ready. Yeah I am ready to step back and let these two ladies take it over and drop some knowledge on us. Hello ladies, how are you doing today? Hey thank you for having us. You betcha Rebecca did I read correctly I was reading some notes about you. Do you have master's in social work?
I do.
That tells me two things about you without even knowing you won.
You're really good at studying at two. You hate money. Well did you also know that my Bachelor is in fine arts? So you're like delivered? You're going, what can I do to work my ass off in college and never make a darn exactly good for you. You've succeeded? Well at least
no actually social work is going to be making a lot more money than art.
True. So anyway,
I'm sure you guys know your topic and it's just perfect because I was just saying to you before we went on the air, I'm 65 years old. I literally signed up for Medicare
one hour ago
And it took me 19. No, not 19. It took me 12 minutes. 12 minutes to do
wasn't hard. All I do is put in my name and address. So what we're gonna do today, what I'd like to do if you guys will help me,
I'm still trying to figure out how Medicare works,
what should happen. And I want maybe to help the people who are listening at home
help them understand exactly. The process is going to be like when they get Medicare, what they can expect, what, what might be some of the drawbacks, how Medicare advantage might be a better idea or whatever, things like that. But we can tell to the eyes of someone who's actually living at and that person is me. That's not like a good plan. That sounds great.
Okay, cool. So the first thing that I should say is I'm covered right now through my wife's insurance.
Um so I don't necessarily have to get get on Medicaid as soon as I turned 65. Is that true?
That's correct. As long as your wife is working for an employer that is larger than 20 employees. The law requires that active employees continue to be uh covered primary over Medicare as long as they are currently working and then their spouse as well. Um smaller companies have more flexibility on them.
Now, my wife's company isn't big, but it is more than 20, but so let me ask you this question now, since
since it is more than 20 I don't even have to tell them. I'm 65. Right? I mean, I can just keep going, I have to do anything. Is that true? That's correct. You are automatically eligible for Medicare when you turn 65 no matter what, and this is true for everyone, and it's a real key point because those who are maybe not covered by an employer like you are do need to seriously consider enrolling in Medicare if they're paying for their own insurance, for example, because Medicare becomes primary in those smaller organizations are folks that are maybe self employed in covering themselves,
So they do want to enroll Medicare right away at 65. But if you're covered by an employer like you are, and you can wait, you can wait until you decide that you want to switch to Medicare or until your wife retires.
But now, if if my wife's employer had 15 employees.
What I have to tell and I was covered by your policy, what I have to tell them when I turned 65 and they would make me apply for Medicare. Is that how that works? Yes, because Medicare is primary.
Okay, so what's gonna happen if, if it's a smaller employer, 100 with 20 or fewer than 20 employees, they're going to use Medicare for me before they use their insurance? Is that the reason? Okay. Okay. So so one thing we've learned is you don't have to you don't have to apply for Medicare when you turn 65 providing
that you're being covered under a policy of your own or or your spouse's.
But if you're if that if that employer has less than 50, fewer than 15, I'm sorry, fewer than 20 employees, you do have to tell them and you do have and they'll make you apply. Yes, exactly. And in the key there is active employment. A lot of times people get confused between retiree coverage from a former employer and active employment coverage. And if you are covered by a retiree plan,
Medicare is primary as soon as you turn 65. And same thing as with those smaller companies, you have to enroll Medicare as soon as you're eligible for that retiree coverage to continue to work and it would pay secondary after Medicare pace.
How long did it take you to learn all this stuff detailed awhile
and you know what you know it's cool.
Yeah I'm just gonna say this is what's cool about this topic for the first time we don't know how many podcasts we've done but dozens and dozens. This is a topic that I'm fascinated by and my producer, Aaron and my co host Miranda have no interest in this whatsoever. They're in their forties
so they have to sit here and try to think about how to inject something in this conversation about what they know or care. Nothing. I actually went to uh Medicare dot gov and just pour through the information about what's going on in here.
I
mean I mean,
To a certain degree, I mean I I have it sort of on my radar as something in the future and something to make sure I am aware of in the future, especially since I'm an independent contractor and pay for my own um insurance. Like being able to get into Medicare when I turned 65 is definitely something that I'll be looking forward to at some point,
you know,
decades down the road. Well, hopefully you'll be able to get Medicare because you probably don't have Social Security by the time you retire, right? But you will be working long enough ever to support mine.
Right. Yes, Yes. I'm here for you Stacy. I'm here for you. Thank you Miranda. I appreciate it. Now, do you? Eighties. Do you also deal with Social Security is strictly Medicare is your thing. Yeah, we focus on Medicare and I think that's a good distinction to make because there is a lot of confusion on that too. So
in order to get Medicare, you have to enroll in Medicare through Social Security because your Medicare eligibility is determined by your work history or your spouse's work history. And so, so Security is the agency that processes the original application to get on Medicare. But once you're on Medicare, then you have to switch and start working with Medicare directly.
Uh you know, benefits questions and enrolling in things like Medicare advantage or the prescription drug plans and whatnot.
Okay, now, and, and in fact, I'm glad you mentioned that because this confused me. And I'm not really, I mean, I know something about these things because lots of articles about them. Um and this confused me because I had to go to Social Security website. S A dot gov. Right, I had to go there in order to get on Medicare, even though Medicare is not the same as Social Security.
So I had to go there to apply for Medicare today. So just remember that when you do that,
here's something else that can confuse me a little bit. I'm pretty sure I didn't I didn't throw this in the mix, I'll throw it in now. My wife is not only does she support me with her health insurance, he's also a nurse practitioner and she says she works as a primary care physician
in an office and has they represent Humana Medicare advantage.
So I'm almost certainly going to enroll in Humana Medicare advantage is my point
When I, but I have to enroll for Medicare 1st. Right, Okay.
Yes, because the Medicare advantage plans are they are your Medicare coverage. So, original Medicare is what we call part A and part B. And that is your hospital insurance in your medical insurance. When you enroll Medicare and the two main basic parts of Medicare.
In order to enroll in a Medicare advantage plan, you have to already be enrolled in both A. And B.
Because the Medicare advantage could wraps up everything that you would get from Original Medicare A. And B along with some supplemental benefits and probably prescription drug coverage into one plan from an insurance company.
And so you have to have that enrollment into A. And B before you can even start the process to get enrolled in a Medicare advantage plan.
For those of you listening then or anywhere near Medicare age notice note these two things that were a little confusing to me today. One, I had to go to Social Security to apply for Medicare to. Even though I'm going to get Medicare advantage,
I still had to act as if I was just getting Medicare because you can't apply for Medicare advantage on the Social Security website. Just Medicare.
So you got to do that first.
Okay. So now
Why do I turned 65 in August,
I'm just applying now.
If my wife didn't have, it didn't have me covered.
That would be bad, wouldn't it? It would, you would be outside your enrollment period. So the initial enrollment period to enroll in Medicare is a seven month window around the month you turn 65, it's the three months prior to 65th birthday month, the month of, and then the three months after. And during that seven month window, you can enroll in all of the different pieces of Medicare to get your coverage started.
Uh, if you enroll in the three months before your birthday, the Medicare can be set to start the first of the month that you turn 65. If you enroll anytime after that, uh during your open enrollment period, your coverage will start the first of the next month. So
yeah, that's the initial enrollment period. There are other enrollment periods throughout the year. But if you don't enroll when you're first eligible for Medicare and you enroll late and you are not covered
by an employer plan, that's the key. You are not covered by an employer plan during that period, when you're eligible, but not enrolled in Medicare, you could face a late enrollment penalty for enrolling in Medicare lake.
How big is that penalty? Does it depend on how late you are?
Exactly? The penalty is 10% on the part b monthly premium for every 12 month period you are late and it does have to be a full 12 month period. So if you enroll 10 months late, you don't have any late enrollment penalty. But if you enroll 18 months late, it would be 1 10% late enrollment penalty. It's 10% for every full 12 month period you are late and enrolling. And um it's the people, we count the period from the date you are eligible to, the date that the Medicare part B starts.
Okay, so to simplify, that's like, like you missed the year 2019 to enroll and you missed the year 2020 to enroll
And then you enroll in 2021, you're gonna have a 20% penalty. Yes,
There's a 24. Yes, it's 20% on the monthly premium for forever.
As long as the Medicare part B. Now, when I first, when I first read all this stuff, the penalty stuff is what stuck out to me the most was like, oh my God. So it's the penalty you pay for the amount of time that you are covered.
Yes, correct. So it seemed to me like this seems like there's four enrollment periods that initial general special and open. Is there a huge difference between any of those? And it seemed really important to make sure you do these, so you don't pay these penalties? Yes, it is. Well and the penalties are there because this is its health insurance. So there's, the penalties are meant to be an incentive to get covered
right away so that you have the insurance there. And so everybody as a group is paying into this coverage so that it can cover everyone one needed. And so these different enrollment periods throughout the year are based on different guess circumstances. And we went over the initial enrollment period. So that's when you first become eligible for Medicare. And
Um, it's at seven month window around when you first turned 65, um, you also could have a special enrollment period. Like Stacy was saying, uh, he just enrolled in his Medicare and he has a special enrollment period because he's covered by an employer coverage and making the decision to to switch.
So when that employer coverage ends, you get a special enrollment period,
essentially an eight month window where you can enroll in your Medicare choices one that employer coverage ends. So there's um, those that are still employed can delay. They don't need to worry about it until they're looking on, either retiring or separating from whatever that coverage is that they have been covered on.
In addition to that, we have two periods in the year that are come around every every year, open enrollment periods. We have the fall open enrollment period, which runs from October 15 to December seven every year.
And that is the period where folks who are enrolled in the Medicare advantage plans or the part D. Plans for the prescription drug coverage
need to make a decision for the next calendar year because those enrollment decisions are only really applicable for the year in which you made the decision. So this open enrollment period that just ended, uh, everybody that made decisions here at the end of 2020 we're making decisions that will start january 1st 2021
When we get to next fall, that October 15 to December seven period. All of those folks will need to take a look at their coverage again
And determine what package do they want for 2022.
In addition to that, we have an open enrollment period, which is the first three months of the year for Original Medicare. So if you are self employed
Are not covered by an employer plan and you turn 65 and you do not enroll in your initial enrollment period, you have to wait until January, February or March to enroll in original Medicare. And when you enroll during that open enrollment period coverage doesn't start until
july 1st.
This is so you know what you guys, I'm a C P A and I find my eyes glazing over. I mean, and I mean, in other words, my profession is looking at boring things and, and this, this is really complicated and it's really hard to understand.
But you know, I have some good news for those of you listening. If your eyes are glazing over and you think you're finding this difficult to follow, I've got some great news because on the other side of this break that's coming up, I'm going to tell you how you can get help with all this stuff
from either Rebecca Maggie or somebody that they know. So hold on, I'm gonna tell you a dad joke. Can we get back? We'll take a quick break, we'll be right back.
Okay, we're back. I've got a couple of dad jokes. We're gonna get back into this topic. I'm going to show you how you can get some help to help to get these decisions made for Medicare. But first
a dad joke. What is forrest gump's password Guys? Forrest gump's password?
one Forest Run one Forest 1.
No. Okay. You know Miranda? Are you a newspaper? Because it seems like you've got a new issue every day.
Yeah,
I don't even like that. Oh my gosh. Do you know any flat earthers?
You can cure him? Just tell him to walk to the end of the earth. Don't come around. Come around.
Okay.
Oh my God, by the way. Just so I guess no, this podcast has nothing really to do about money. It's a it's a venue, it's a vehicle for me to tell dad jokes. That's all it really all it does.
Okay, so now, back to our topic at hand, we've learned a lot of detailed stuff about Medicare. We're going to talk about how you can get help so you don't have to memorize all this stuff. And God forbid you should read an article or two on it. Like I've had to do.
Um But before we do that though, I think I really got ahead of myself. We started this podcast. Let's talk, let's do a real quick recap of what Medicare does for you and how much it costs. Just Medicare.
Sure, tell me. Yeah. So Medicare is the health insurance that we have as Americans available to us when we turn 65. It's also available to those who are under 65 who have disabilities, who are receiving social security disability benefits. They can get Medicare earlier
if they are receiving Social Security disability benefits.
And there are different parts of Medicare as we've been talking about the part A which is also known as the hospital insurance is covered actually through our FICA taxes. We pay into that during our working life so that when you become eligible, you get part a premium free. Now if we have someone who hasn't been able to work the required quarters to be able to get Medicare part a premium free, they can pay the premium to get that. But we have, that's a rare occurrence most people have the quarter is necessary to be able to get part a premium free. In addition to that we have our part beat.
And that's the medical insurance. It covers you know your regular doctor's visits and really anything out patient that you have going on
and that has a monthly premium that everybody on Medicare is responsible for to pay. And in 2021 that part B premium is going to be 1 48 50. So $148.50 a month for that Part B. Coverage. And then in addition to that
you can add prescription drug coverage which covers they're known as part D. Plans, stand alone part D. Plans in those average around $32 a month and they cover your outpatient prescriptions. Or you could get the Medicare advantage option which wraps up those three things that are just covered A. B. And D. Into one
Company, one plan offered through an insurance company and those typically also have a monthly premium.
Okay now a couple of things when you have regular part B. Medicare
and you and forgive me if you said this but I didn't hear you say it,
it only pays 80% of the cost of that doctor's visit. Right? Yes. You are responsible for 20% copay and big deal. It is unless you purchase a supplement. So there are plans called meta get plants that will pick up after both A. And B. So part A. The hospital. There's a hospital deductible too far apart. A. If you don't have a supplement
plan to cover your responsible for cost share on all the different parts of Medicare. But you can purchase things like Medigap policies which pick up after part A and part B. Or you could get a Medicare advantage plan, which as I said earlier, sort of wraps all those things together into a plan from one company.
Medicare advantage plans also have copays.
Now I will also suggest something else that you didn't mention. I don't think Rebecca and that is that the cost of your Medicare can change depending on how much money you make.
Yeah, Ken. Yeah, Ken. So there is uh an income-related adjustment for those who have higher incomes and that what we're talking about in 2021, that would be individuals when filing taxes who make over 88,000 a year. Or couples filing jointly that make over 176,000
a year. We'll have to pay higher
uh part B premiums on a sliding scale based on which uh income bracket you've fallen. And that can go up to like 500 bucks. Yes, it can.
You've got everything. Not everyone out there. Got their undergrad in art and their masters in social work. Okay, understood, understood. But the other piece of that is often times people will have that that income related adjustment for the first couple of years. They're on Medicare, but then after retirement income may drop down
to a point where it's below the threshold or at a lower threshold within that range. And then the premiums would also drop down because it's based off of your income from
Like two years ago.
Okay. So if you have if you have Medicare advantage which is the private insurance versus Medicare, that's also gonna be the same price whether your Medicare or Medicare advantage plan. Right, correct. You have to pay that part B premium no matter what.
Okay, cool. Now
Medicare advantage has advantages over Medicare for some people.
Can you give me a, I know I know they're all different because they all come from different insurance companies.
But what kind of benefits would be expect to get from an advantage plan that we wouldn't get from regular straight Medicare. Sure. Yeah. Making the decision between original Medicare or Medicare advantage plan is it can be a tough decision for folks to make. But the way I usually represent it is
you need to assess your your current situation and comfort level with accessing your your doctors and hospitals and
really frankly, how much care do you need? Um Medicare advantage plans because they wrap everything into one package from an insurance company. A lot of times it can be easier to manage because you only have one card. Your everything is going through one company
and it can simplify things a lot in that sense.
The catch with the Medicare advantage plans is that they're managed care. So what that means is you're going to have things like networks. So their HMOs or P POS where they have provider networks where in order to get the cost savings you need to use their network providers and doctors
and for those who are in more urban areas where there are lots of choices and a good strong networks. Medicare advantage plans can work extremely well. Um The flip side of that is
for those who live in more remote areas who maybe don't have as easy access to network providers or those who maybe have several multiple chronic conditions where
they're going to doctor several times a month and what not. They may find that original Medicare is a better option for them
interesting.
Okay. And when you have when you're on a Medicare advantage plan, typically there's not gonna be that 20%
copay.
Well it depends so. Oftentimes the Medicare advantage plans there's going to be co pays with it. But what it is is based off the package that the plan is offering. So it may not be 20%, it may be $25. It maybe $35. It's more likely to be a set. Right? But there is going to be a cost share when you use it.
Okay. Cool. And I also noted too that they'll they'll sometimes again these are all different plants done by private companies so none they're not all exactly like but some of them might give you they might pay for your teeth cleaning or
give you money towards your glasses or your hearing aids or something like that. Yes exactly. Thank you for reminding me of that. Yes. The Medicare advantage plans do often offer additional coverage beyond what Medicare can cover.
Unfortunately dental and hearing like hearing aids and regular dental cleanings. Even eyeglasses are not covered under Medicare. Original Medicare is not part of the original law when Medicare was created. So in order to get coverage for that you have to look for supplemental policies that can cover it or look for Medicare advantage plan that may have that as part of the package and you do need to compare plans because they aren't all the same.
They offer different sets of coverage, different sets of benefits. And then typically when a Medicare advantage is offering things like regular cleanings or glasses or hearing aids, things like that, there is going to be a higher monthly premium for that coverage. You're paying in the premium to have that coverage.
Okay. And I noticed in the one that I'm looking at because my wife, you know, basically works in a doctor's office, it uses them um
Is that they don't they don't pay a lot either. I mean like the one when I was looking at was it was like $400 toward hearing AIDS or something like that, you know? So in other words, it was just like by 3002 hearing AIDS for you. Right, right. You have to look at it to really understand what it is that you're getting, make sure you
um read the fine print and understand what the packages that you're enrolling in school and you should compare packages. Perhaps. Absolutely. We strongly encourage people to compare their options every year and inclusive prescriptions, particularly for folks who take
uh several prescriptions or possibly one very expensive prescription. You want to make sure that you're using the Medicare plan finder. It's located at Medicare dot gov.
Or seeking assistance to sort through the options to see what plans will cover your medications and how much it will cost because that can really impact your costs throughout the year. If you end up in a plan that doesn't cover medications that you need to take a great segue into how you can help people
make these determinations
because that's exactly what you guys are in the business of doing. Before we get into that.
I wanted to bring up something that I thought I read, I want to make sure that was true.
I read that meta gap basically offsets copayments, coinsurance and deductibles,
but it does not cover prescriptions, long term care vision, dental hearing aids, glasses, private nursing and stuff like that,
correct? Yeah. So the Medicaid plans essentially with those, they're also so through private insurance companies and they have been around, they were standardized back in 19 nineties. So they've been around for quite a while, uh and they were built to pick up after original Medicare. So folks that are looking at staying an original Medicare and producing a medigap when they go to the doctor at the hospital, typically, again, it depends on the Medicaid plan they choose, but their standardized across the country, um
they are going to have possibly higher premium for the Medigap from the get go, but their copays when they go to the doctor. Typically those deductibles under Medicare A and B. And then the 20% coinsurance is covered by that Medigap plan. So their out of pocket as they're using, it ends up being lower, but they do pay a higher monthly premium than you would for a Medicare advantage plan.
And then they also need to add the part D. Coverage to that package to get the prescriptions covered.
And I think this would I was just going to say I think this is a good point, a good point to once again hype my very favorite product, the health savings account. So since since you're not going to get coverage for some of those items, having a solid health savings account um investing in that
before you get to the point of needing Medicare or Medi gap or all the things
can help you later on get pay for those, pay for, pay for those needs with tax free dollars.
And you you do interject that often Miranda and always appropriately because you're absolutely right. You know as a matter of fact, let me say um to our experts into the folks at home to what I've done because we have a H. S. A. My my wife and I. So typically she puts in half
And then I put in you know in other words we can put what is it 7500 bucks into the HS every year
I put in half into mind if she puts half into hers. But she's way younger than me since I'm about to go on Medicare the last couple of years I've been taking that whole deduction putting to put that whole 7500 bucks into mine
and then because I will no longer be able to use that H. S. A. I will contribute to it. That is after I'm in Medicare. Whereas she'll still be able to do it because she's still gonna have this high deductible health plan at work.
So I'm like gloating mine up right now and I can use that to pay my Medicare premiums and that's correct, isn't it? Rebecca or Maggie?
Honestly, I would have to look that up. I trust you on that. The HHS she knows everything about bringing in H H S H S H S is not an area that I can speak to off the cuff,
right? But I mean, I just, I just think it's a really good thing to consider is your moving forward, especially if you are like young, like Aaron and I are, it's something that you can do to kind of help as part of that overall planning. I mean, one of the things we forget about, yeah, we may not be ready for Medicare right now, but we can look ahead and do some of that holistic planning now.
Yeah, and it is good to plan because as we've been saying, not everything is covered under Medicare, particularly long term care, things are not covered under Medicare. So there are lots of the potential expenses that older adults are facing that
I believe most people don't realize aren't covered under Medicare and therefore aren't properly planning
Four
awesome. Now, you know the last, the last segment I said, we're going to start talking about how people can get help. Now I've got to cut in for another quick break and then I swear we're going to tell you guys out there listening, how do you can get help for this stuff? We'll be right back after this and there's gonna be another dad joke coming to so stand by.
Okay guys, we are back. We're going to tell you a quick dad joke and we're gonna talk about how we can get help with all these Medicare questions. This is a man walks into library says, do you get any books on poor eyesight?
No, we don't see the bartender.
Okay, Okay. A man man walks in the library says,
do you have any books on paranoia?
The librarian says they're right behind you.
See this is the one I like.
This is the best one of today. No, no, this is the best one of today so far. Let's see what you see what you got for the final dow joke. Oh, should I do one more? Oh yeah, give us one more, but maybe not. Maybe we just end on this high note. I was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger, bigger and then it hit me.
We
should have ended on a high note. That's one of my favorite jokes. I told that joke six. Delete that post. You won't. It's my favorite. Okay, Okay, now we're back to real life and now finally it's time for Rebecca and Maggie to tell us how they help people
and how people who are listening to this can find help for themselves.
Please explain.
Yes. Absolutely. This is Maggie and I want to share first of all about a program called the state health insurance assistance Program and that's a mouthful. So we call it ship for short
and it is
available in all 54 states and Territories. Beneficiaries can get assistance, uh, comparing their plans, Learning more about Medicare broadly. Learning more about long term care insurance, um, and probably getting some of those questions answered about how
you could use an
H. S. A. In relation to Medicare. So it's really a great resource for anyone who is either new to Medicare or looking to compare plans because
we do encourage everyone during the open enrollment period, which ended just this week to reassess whether or not they're in the right plant based on their current health needs. So that is an important process and something that ship counselors around the country can definitely help folks with. So in order to find the local ship
agency near you, you can go to our
grantee, the Ship Technical Assistance Center. Their website is Ship T. A center dot org and that is a ship T is in tom a center dot org. And so you go there, there's a locator, you pick your state and that will connect you to a phone number and website to find local assistance near you.
There is also a phone number you can call if you're more inclined to do that. And that is toll free 18778392675.
Cool. We'll put both the website and the phone number in our show notes so people can find it easily. Making I got a sorry Stacey and I got a question. Um
My wife is actually dealing with uh Medicare with her mom and dad and
her questions were all about, you know, how does she calculate the part D. And how did she calculate,
you know, all of the little percentages and how how is she going to know? Can can ship help with that?
Yeah. So ship can work with a caregiver or the beneficiary themselves or both uh folks together to really walk through what the best options are for you so they can talk about your current plan and help you understand the costs associated with that.
They can use the Medicare plan finder, which is at Medicare dot gov
to look through what the best plans, what the best options are out there for a beneficiary and help guide,
um
or give unbiased information to the beneficiary and caregiver to make that choice for themselves.
Cool. So we could have made this podcast one minute long by simply doing what you just said, Maggie and been done that questions about this just
well, I also wanted to add that you're talking about the costs, you know, since you brought that up. You know, I know some folks aren't able
to afford all of those co pays and premiums and co insurance and all of the different parts of Medicare that do uh have a cost associated with it. So there are also programs to help support that. Um they are the Medicare savings programs in every state
and the low income subsidy or extra help as well federally. And so those will help with premium assistance, drug costs, depending on someone's income and assets. So really great resources out there to help make health care more affordable if it's tough to cover all of these bills. And the ships can also help with that. They can screen for eligibility and help with applications.
Cool. And you know, I made a joke at the beginning of this podcast about how you 40 year olds are going to be supporting me from social security is Medicare having problems with funding. Uh, it's anything going to happen. There are, they're in danger of running out of money.
Medicare is, is in the same sort of situation as, as Social Security. I mean, they're funded from similar mechanisms, but you know, with the innovations that we have happening with Medicare, such as the Medicare advantage, expansion of those opportunities and other things costs are um,
you know, they're there,
health care is expensive. So it is, it is an ongoing issue, but it is something that we're, you know, we continue to work on.
Cool. And you know what we we've also uh we've also interviewed experts on social security and we've all come to the conclusion. I mean, these programs don't go away, they just probably a little more comes out of your paycheck or something or whether you get them when you get older in the case of social security, which has already happened. So it's not, people shouldn't, like our 40 year olds here should not be afraid that Medic Medicare is going to be gone by the time they reach my age.
No, definitely not. And in the other piece of all that we've been talking, we talked about the part B premium and what everybody pays monthly to support Part B. Well, the part B premium is actually calculated based on what uh it is expected to cost to cover everybody on Medicare part B for that upcoming year. So it's based off of the
the cost of health care to cover everybody on Medicare.
So if the cost of health care comes down
well hell will have frozen over I suppose. But it's theoretically possible that our premiums could go down. Exactly.
Cool, awesome.
Is it time for our we probably barely have time for questions erin is it time for us to do those?
Um Yeah, we got plenty of time for for questions. Also, I want to let everybody else know that I went straight to when I was researching this topic, I went straight to Medicare dot gov and
all your answers are in there. I was just growing around, I would use the command f, you know, to find things I'm looking for. And and that's a really good website, a website.
And and and thank you erin for telling people not to go too money talks news dot com Francis, but to go to Medicare. So we have no purpose whatsoever.
Well, you know, it was that we we actually have written articles on this too, at money talks news dot com. You can go there and search Medicare or Medicare advantage and you can find articles there, but you're right, erin, I've gotten a lot of information from Medicare dot com. It's not it's really well written
uh and and it's well organized and it's easy to find answers there.
So let's do some questions.
Let's let's see how smart these women really are. Okay, so this, this little segment here is viewer questions. We got three questions.
So Don Don asks if my wife draws Social Security based on my benefit, will she be able to get Medicare?
Yes.
She will be eligible for Medicare at 65.
Mm,
just like everyone else. But it's based off of Dawn's work history and not her own interesting. So you don't really have to, you could be ineligible for Medicare yourself and still be covered by Medicare
As long as you have been married to a spouse for over 10 years, who was paying into the system? Yes.
What if you got divorced?
It depends on how long you were married before you get divorced. And um, there's some other
caveats to that, But yes, you can still be covered by uh, prior spouse
as long as you haven't remarried and what not. And don't have work credits of your own to draw on.
What if your spouse dies?
In other words are covered under the same thing? Okay, Just like your Social Security, you're gonna continue to get that benefit.
Absolutely. So Security get a better benefit. Exactly, Exactly. And and and that is why Social Security is the one that processes the Medicare eligibility Medicare enrollment because they're using the same
data to determine eligibility.
Cool, Cool. Sounds like a new money talks news article. So you don't have to go to Medicaid or Medicare dot gov.
Don't try to backtrack here in this. Sorry, I was trying to get in there.
All right. 2nd question.
Uh, this is a weird name. Sigifredo asks, hello. I would like to find out if a widow can receive Medicare while receiving benefits from her husband's Social Security.
She is 64 right now and will be 65 soon.
Yeah. So, same answer. Yes. At 65. Yeah. Yeah. Very similar questions. So again, there's it's confusing because social security and Medicare
are not the same, but they're very tied together, and so folks may be eligible to draw on Social Security a little bit earlier or later, depending on how old you are and when you're aging into full retirement age, but Medicare eligibility is 65 no matter what, unless you are receiving Social Security, disability benefits,
And last this one's from L4, and he uh they ask
my Social security payments are suspended because I got a full time job after I started collecting Social Security at 62 I'm on my employer's health insurance, I didn't I didn't sign up for Medicare at 65. Can I properly sign up for Medicare? Part A or B. And avoid penalties?
Mhm.
Yeah, so it depends on the size of the employer. As we started with uh those that are with larger employers, the active employer coverage would be primary, no matter what your age is. However, for smaller employers, Medicare would be primary
uh instead of the employer coverage, and you would want to enroll in Medicare both part A and B
as quickly as possible if you're working for a small employer. Um The other piece of this that we didn't touch on is because we pay into Medicare through our work history uh once you're eligible and you turn 65 even if you're still working, you could add party, you're not paying a monthly premium for it,
It would be additional secondary coverage after your active employer coverage, and it they're kind of like a safety net,
so you already paid for it. Um but you could delay getting part B until you retire,
you know, I'm glad you brought that up, because I was going to mention that at the outset to Rebecca because a lot of people, if you do a lot of reading on this,
What you see almost invariably is. In fact, I think you even see this at Medicare.com. If your when you become 65 enroll in a.
Uh and it makes it seem like you really need to,
but if you are covered by your employer or your spouse's employer, you have their health insurance, you really don't have to do A. But what I'm hearing you say is it caused nothing? Why not enroll anyway? Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Enroll, have it, have it there. Um It's secondary coverage, you may not use it, but there's no harm in having it and then you're already connected to the system so that when you are ready to retire and ready to enroll in part B. You already have all those other steps done and you just need to activate the part B.
Can you have so okay if I'm covered by my employer I'm working I'm eligible for a I get a,
now I go in the hospital, I have a giant hospital bill for surgery.
Who's paying
Medicare or my employer's health insurance. The employer health insurance is primary and Medicare would be secondary. So it is possible that Medicare could cover some of that.
What if my employer's health insurance is horrible and you know didn't pay for some stuff like my anesthesiologist for example
you know Medicare would be yep secondary to come in and help cover that. So that's a good reason to do it anyway. Even if you do have health insurance.
Yeah you apply for a.
Exactly.
And then I read like if you don't sign up for part A for like a period of two years and you have to pay a higher you're paying higher premiums for four years. We don't pay anything for a vote to begin with, right? But why I've read that somewhere for some reason. Yeah. And that would be that would apply for folks that don't have the work credits to draw on for premium free part A where they have to pay for part A
and um party can get really expensive if you're paying for it out of pocket.
So what do you think or do we have a couple more minutes? I just want to see if I can summarize here. Do we? Yeah. We always have minutes. Okay, cool. So
what are the most important things Rebecca you've done this for a long time and maggie to you guys have done this for a long time. What do people most confused about? What can we, if I said to you, what's the most important thing to know about Medicare, what would you guys say?
That's a tough question. I think what I would say is that you need to look at
the whole picture of your current situation but your possible future state what your plans are and make a decision kind of based on overall, I mean you say that with financial planning to write, don't just make a decision for right now necessarily, but make a decision based off of broadly what your expectations are
and also really important for couples. You do not have to be in the same plan.
I've talked to countless people who feel like they have because they've always shared health insurance that they think they have to be enrolled with the same company in the same coverage when they become medical eligible and it is not always the best financial decision. So
make a decision based off of your individual situation, not
necessarily as a couple because once you become better care eligible your individuals as far as that. Health coverage, goats
awesome.
And and also of course the most important thing coming out of all of this is how people can get help and that they can get help. You know, not just by going to Medicare dot gov, but there's actual human beings like the two of you that will help walk people through things. Absolutely. Absolutely. Anyone who has questions on the Medicare can contact our state health insurance
assistance program. The ships
as Maggie was saying they're available in every state D. C. Puerto, rico Guam and the U. S. Virgin Islands. And there
local folks who are there in your communities that are providing assistance and can talk to you about the nuances of Medicare. Medicare is a national program. But there are nuances at the local level with the different health insurance companies that are offering coverage networks and whatnot.
And the ships have folks there at that local level that can help you navigate all those things. Yeah. When I was putting the story together, ship was the first website I found. I was like, wow, this is perfect, we gotta get him on here. So, Ship ta center dot org, everybody.
Yeah, that is really cool. And it's really good. And you know, and you guys will never ever be out of work.
You take a program and apply to 300 million people and then make it complicated as hell. What kind of job security is that? Right? Yes. Great.
Okay. So is it time for us to wrap it up? Let's wrap this time at this time. Wait, though, I had a dream that I was a muffler last night. I woke up exhausted. Wait, what?
I had a dream that I was a muffler last night. I woke up exhausted. Oh my gosh! What, what do cats eat for their birthday? I thought we were done, man. I thought we were done
my ice cream cake. Oh my gosh! Okay, let's, let's move it on. Come on. Eric, get that music going! Play him off. Play him off.
Okay, guys, that is all we have for today. If you wanna dive deeper, we've got links to more info on our show notes. And remember if your goal is to make more to spend less to retire Rich, your online home is right here at money talks news dot com. And don't forget to check out Miranda's online home as well. That's Miranda.
Mark quit market dot com. Random market dot com.
If you've got a question, comment or topic, you'd like to suggest we'd love to hear from you, email us at hello at money talks news dot com. That is hello at money talks news dot com. One last thing subscribe to this podcast. It takes you two seconds. It makes Miranda and me smile. That makes our mothers proud. Thank you so much to our guests. I'm Stacey johnson
and I'm Miranda. Mark quit and I'm Aaron Freeman. Thanks for hanging out with These guys. Are going to see you right here next time.
Mhm.
Yeah.
