Is it silly to be excited to go on Medicare?

[sheilafri]

So DH is on Medicare as of today. Just a few more months for me. We’re excited as we anticipate substantial savings over our $2300/month insurance premiums. Thoughts?

 

[lsutigers03]

It's not silly to be excited about substantial savings. My wife is considering changing jobs. If she's able to find one that provides health insurance we will save a good amount each month by going from family to employee + children.

 

[loves to dive]

I was just the opposite. I went from 0$ in premium to the Medicare premium. That wouldn't have been too bad had I not still had to get a supplemental plan because Medicare doesn't cover much.

 

[midwestdee]

If you haven’t already, request the official Medicare booklet. The website also has many focused publications on a variety of topics. You’ll need to choose a Medi-gap policy & prescription drug coverage unless you’re keeping a previous employers plan as that coverage once you’re on Medicare Parts A & B. If perchance you were born on the first day of the month, you coverage will begin on the first day of the month previous. Example, people born on June1, their Medicare begins May 1.

 

[robinb]

So DH is on Medicare as of today. Just a few more months for me. We’re excited as we anticipate substantial savings over our $2300/month insurance premiums. Thoughts?

I believe in Medicare for all, so yeah ... I will be pretty darn excited when we're finally eligible for it.

 

[Miffy]

OP, I hope your DH got some kind of Medicare supplement plan or Advantage (although in many areas, Advantage doesn't work too well, to say the least). If not, please look into it, since the longer one waits, the more supplemental plans cost. There's some kind of grace period when switching over, but I don't remember what it is.

 

[rangerxenos]

Not at all. I'll be very excited when I hit that milestone, as the only reason I'm still currently working is because I need my health insurance, and don't want to spend $$$$ to self fund my health insurance until I turn 65.

 

[midwestdee]

FYI Medicare Advantage plans are PRIVATE insurance companies. They never should have been able to tag themselves as “Medicare”. If you go with “Medicare Advantage Part C”, you may be stuck when you find out you have limited providers & limited access to necessary treatments. Consider it Medicare HMO.

 

[Miffy]

FYI Medicare Advantage plans are PRIVATE insurance companies. They never should have been able to tag themselves as “Medicare”. If you go with “Medicare Advantage Part C”, you may be stuck when you find out you have limited providers & limited access to necessary treatments. Consider it Medicare HMO.

All true. I didn't want to go into the details since there are probably many DISboarders who have Advantage.

One more note on all this: Whatever supplemental plan (or Advantage) one picks when switching over to Medicare, the only requirement is proving continuous coverage. However, after that, if one wants to switch to a different supplement or from Advantage to a supplement, it can be quite difficult and often requires a medical exam and the rate would be higher than it would have been if one had chosen that plan to begin with.

Just something to contemplate when choosing a supplement or Advantage plan. Without being asked, my advice is to purchase the most comprehensive supplement plan you can afford. In New York State, this isn't cheap, but it's well worth the price.

And, yes, they make this as difficult, confusing, and convoluted as possible.

 

[sheilafri]

We met with a local agent who has a good reputation in the community for getting people well-set-up on Medicare plans. DH has a supplemental plan and a drug plan in addition to Parts A and B. As will I when I’m eligible. We did a lot of research in the last year getting ready so we are pretty confident in our decisions We are staying far away from Advantage plans. They might work for some people but we feel we can afford the peace of mind from having the most comprehensive supplemental policy. I saw my sisters spend hundreds of hours overseeing coverage for my dads advantage plan when he had cancer. Sis had cancer under a Medicare Supplemental policy and said they took care of forwarding all the billing so she only had to worry about getting better.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

And, yes, they make this as difficult, confusing, and convoluted as possible.

This!!
At a time in one’s life that it really needs to be very simple, they do just the opposite. There shouldn’t be any “parts” at all. It should cover hospitalizations, office visits, and medications. One plan. Keep it simple and easy.

Instead, everything our government takes control of becomes as complicated as it can be. The IRS is a perfect example.

 

[Miffy]

We met with a local agent who has a good reputation in the community for getting people well-set-up on Medicare plans. DH has a supplemental plan and a drug plan in addition to Parts A and B. As will I when I’m eligible. We did a lot of research in the last year getting ready so we are pretty confident in our decisions We are staying far away from Advantage plans. They might work for some people but we feel we can afford the peace of mind from having the most comprehensive supplemental policy. I saw my sisters spend hundreds of hours overseeing coverage for my dads advantage plan when he had cancer. Sis had cancer under a Medicare Supplemental policy and said they took care of forwarding all the billing so she only had to worry about getting better.

I'm glad to hear this.

We opted for the most comprehensive supplement (Plan G) and even though it's a bit pricey, we felt it was worth it. We did ours through AARP (which uses United Healthcare), which, in our zip code, is the best deal.

 

[focusondisney]

So DH is on Medicare as of today. Just a few more months for me. We’re excited as we anticipate substantial savings over our $2300/month insurance premiums. Thoughts?

I get the excitement, I was excited when I started it last May. I carried the health insurance for my DH & myself. He is a year older than I am, so he started part A when he turned 65. I worked until I qualified for Medicare so starting Medicare also meant retirement! Yea!! I was paying about $1500/ month for the health insurance for the 2 of us when I was working. So spending $350 for both of us now is a great savings. I’m shocked when I read the negative comments about Medicare Advantage plans. In our area they’re great. I have very similar coverage to what I had when working thru our plan. Office & pharmacy copays are the same or better. Yes, the hospitalization copay is more for the first 6 days of a hospital stay. But the $1200 a month I’m saving over what I paid when working makes up for that. We stayed with the same insurance company so our doctors, preferred hospital & pharmacy are all in network. Sad all areas aren’t the same.

 

[barkley]

So DH is on Medicare as of today. Just a few more months for me. We’re excited as we anticipate substantial savings over our $2300/month insurance premiums. Thoughts?

we were thrilled with the savings over what we paid for retiree coverage (we ultimately also dumped our retiree medicare supplemental as well b/c it got up to nearly 4 figures a month ).

seems some on here are not fond of the advantage plans but i suspect like most insurance plans they vary from company to company/region to region-in our case, despite both myself/dh/ds (he is the RARE disabled young adult that qualifies for mediCARE vs. mediCAID) each with a variety of rather complex medical issues we've received prompt and efficient care at low to no cost.

i found that with the advantage plans much of what makes one successful is the provider/provider's office-i researched with my provider before selecting a plan and got their input on which plan was the best to work with based on each of our individual medical situations.

btw-always important to make sure your existing provider is accepting new medicare patients, some will retain existing patients while others are in practices that won't permit it b/c of multi-year wait lists.

 

[robinb]

Not at all. I'll be very excited when I hit that milestone, as the only reason I'm still currently working is because I need my health insurance, and don't want to spend $$$$ to self fund my health insurance until I turn 65.

You may want to look into how much Obamacare will cost for you. I didn't think that my DH could retire early because of health care too, but then a friend told me about the great deals she was seeing on the Healthcare Marketplace. I was surprised at how much we would receive in subsidies because we are both over 60 but not yet 65. It's based on age and income and we can control our income by choosing which investments to draw down from if he decided to retire early.

 

[tvguy]

Yes, it is a lot of work to decide what was the best option.
My mom had a Medicare Advantage Plan and it was wonderful.
I figured a Medicare Advantage plan would be my first choice, but discovered that, while there were 30 plans available in my area, only 3 covered my primary care doctor.
So, while a Medicare Advantage Plan would have been free, it would not have covered my Doctors and health issues.

In ended up with traditional Part A and Part B, at a cost of $164.90 that is the same premium for everyone. I got a Medigap part G plan for $98 more, a prescription drug plan for $9, and a Dental/Vision/Hearing plan for $40. $311.90 total.

I had been paying $700 a month under COBRA.

And the quote I got from the Marketplace was $1,500 !!!! We did not qualify for subsidies.

So yes, 8 months later, I am overjoyed with Medicare. My out of pocket has been $233. No pre-authorizations needed and trust me I have had a lot of medical appointments and procedures in the past 8 months.

 

[LiDa]

So DH is on Medicare as of today. Just a few more months for me. We’re excited as we anticipate substantial savings over our $2300/month insurance premiums. Thoughts?

My mother was super-excited when she got her 1st senior discount. She was not a senior & hadn't asked for it, so.... I'd say "no"! lol

 

[sheilafri]

I'm glad to hear this.

We opted for the most comprehensive supplement (Plan G) and even though it's a bit pricey, we felt it was worth it. We did ours through AARP (which uses United Healthcare), which, in our zip code, is the best deal.

My oldest sister went through enrollment two years ago and shared her insights. She used to work in insurance so I trust her judgment. One tip she said to look at the number of years the company has been providing Medicare policies so show they have experience in determining premiums to hopefully avoid huge increases. Out of three sisters and three BILs, 4 are with the same company and I’ll be the fifth. One sister doesn’t like to be told what to do so she chose a cheaper alternative. We’ll see if it works out for $100 a year initial savings.

 

[DCLMP]

So DH is on Medicare as of today. Just a few more months for me. We’re excited as we anticipate substantial savings over our $2300/month insurance premiums. Thoughts?

2300 a month?

 

[barkley]

2300 a month?

sad to say this doesn't surprise me. like i posted above-we dropped the medicare supplement insurance my former civil service employer offered retirees b/c for just the two of us it had gotten close to $1000 per month. i was curious as to what current ACTIVE employees pay for insurance so i just checked their website-for the same non medicare, traditional ppo coverage i had for years-

$2607 for employee share
$5215.54 for employee with one dependent share


if these plans are still administered the same way they were when i was an active employee this would have been the only plan i could have signed on to b/c the other 3 offered required the covered person live within a certain geographical radius of the contracted hospitals covered by the other companies.