I turned 65 and need to sign up for Medicare, but how?
Some research indicates that understanding Medicare and making a good informed decision isn’t an option for people who aren’t Medicare professionals.
I have a good job with good medical coverage, and some people in my same situation have told me just signing up for Part A is best for now. That’s what my spouse already did – she’s 69.
I don’t take Social Security yet, she does.
There’s no OOP cost for Part A, so it sounds like a no brainer. I’m not trying to get every little thing covered by insurance, and can handle typical deductibles and copays, I just want to have catastrophic costs covered. Let’s say “catastrophic” begins somewhere like $2000 or $5000.
Can I change my Medicare when I retire in, probably, less than 2 years? Am I making a disastrous decision here I can’t modify?
BTW I did save some excellent threads here about June 24 2021. I didn’t write down the poster, but there was a title: “America’s Elder Crisis, Medicare Edition”
We have part A only along with Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield Basic. It’s a great combination and we have to pay very little for surgeries, etc. I recently had my gall bladder removed. The $25,000 bill cost me $200 plus a couple of office visits at $30. No deductible in the Basic plan.
Part B pays for doctor’s costs and you have to pay for it. As I recall if you postpone signing up for Part B when you are first eligible there are substantial penalties when you do finally sign up. I don’t see why we would ever need it as the Anthem picks up those bills.
I think I understood that there’s no penalty if you had private coverage during the time you postponed Part B. To wit: Part B: You can delay Part B until you (or your spouse) stop working or lose that employer coverage. This allows you to save the cost of your Part B premium. It also allows you to postpone your one-time “Medigap open enrollment period” until a later time, when you may want to purchase this type of coverage. You will NOT pay a penalty for delaying Medicare, as long as you enroll within 8 months of losing your coverage or stopping work (whichever happens first).
This is from this document:
Well, maybe that’s not right. Now I’m reading that not paying the penalty for delaying Part B depends on the size of the employer, your age, and any disabilities. Moreover this can also leave you facing huge bills. It has to do with which insurance is primary and which is secondary. My reading indicates that I won’t pay the penalty because I’m 65 and my employer has thousands of employees. But I don’t like that this is in another document on another (commercial) web site.
The part about the employer size is interesting. I don’t remember that part back when I retired in 2005 or when I turned 65 in 2011. All the coordinating of benefits is done by my insurance carrier. It never comes up at all for anything I have had done and that is numerous occasions. The only time I have even been notified about Medicare was after my knee replacement, I think. Their letter stated they have paid like $19,500 of my $22,000 surgery bill and the remaining costs were up to me. Anthem paid them except for the co-pay of $200.
All of my surgeries have been outpatient and in those cases a lot of the bills are actually considered doctor’s bills instead of hospital. So Anthem picks them up
Read your employer-sponsored health plan carefully.
Some private insurance plans stop at age 65 and you are expected to sign up for Medicare. The employer-sponsored plan then offers you the Medicare “supplement-or-whatever-its-called” plan.
I came in to say the same thing. Your insurer (not the gummint) may expect you to sign up for Medicare and change your insurance to a Medicare Supplement. This is one of those times when HR is your friend, because they’re the only ones who actually know what’s in the contract.
My brother’s employer (a small mental health agency) finally mandated that all employees over a certain age (may have been 65, may have been older) had to go on Medicare versus job-related insurance - it was a cost-cutting thing, as their rates were a LOT higher for the older employees. I don’t think they included a Medigap option, but I’ll have to ask my brother.
To the best of my knowledge, neither my job nor my husband’s have a requirement like that. I don’t expect us to be working much beyond age 65 - I hope not, anyway… we’re just tired of working.