Medicare

[Michael Weber]

Bordering on 65 and have been inundated with offers (three just today) from all kinds of organizations offering to enroll me for MedicarePlan B coverage. I have good health insurance with my employer and will continue to have it after I retire (hopefully). Am I correct in assuming that means I have no need for Plan B coverage with Medicare? Never thought getting older would be so confusing

[Mike Henderson]

Probably. Check with your employer.

Mike

P.S. Medicare is very good health insurance.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike,

If your employer is like mine, you can buy Medicare supplemental insurance through them. The rate is cheaper than buying it on the open market due to group buying power.

[Rod Sheridan]

Mike,

If your employer is like mine, you can buy Medicare supplemental insurance through them. The rate is cheaper than buying it on the open market due to group buying power.

I presume it's used to supplement the coverage provided by your employer once you're retired?

Regards, Rod.

[Al Wasser]

My wife died from cancer last fall. We originally did not take Medicare B. Something made me rethink that decision and we enrolled in B and well as the old insurance. Medicare B became effective on the day she was diagnosed. With the 2 of them I did not pay a single bill. I did not add up the bills but there is no doubt in my mind the cost was over $200,000. If I had just stayed with my insurance the deductible would have ben significant and the same if you only had Medicare B. A major illness will drain you unless you have both insurances.

[Dave Lehnert]

I have a friend who is retired from a well know company. They have very good health insurance through the company. But Medicare is their primary, Their company insurance then pays what Medicare don't. (the company reimburses them Medicare monthly fee))
In your shoes I would ask your company HR department how theirs work. It may be different. But would find it funny the company would pay for a primary insurance when Medicare is offered.

[David Weaver]

You're still actively employed and eligible for health care at your current employer, right?

Check with the HR department, but my understanding is that if you're on active coverage, you'll stay on the active plan. When you retire, you'll want part B coverage unless your employer offers some kind of coverage that has that type of coverage built in. You'll only know by going to your company HR group, though.

[Mike Henderson]

You're still actively employed and eligible for health care at your current employer, right?

Check with the HR department, but my understanding is that if you're on active coverage, you'll stay on the active plan. When you retire, you'll want part B coverage unless your employer offers some kind of coverage that has that type of coverage built in. You'll only know by going to your company HR group, though.

If you're still working and covered by your employer's health plan, that plan must be primary and medicare will be secondary. If you've retired, medicare will be primary and your employer's health plan will be secondary. But check with your company's HR department. This is one place you don't want to make a mistake.

Mike

[Kevin Gregoire]

just remember the old adage, you can never have to much money or insurance!

[Frank Drew]

just remember the old adage, you can never have to much money or insurance!

The company I work for disagrees with you and makes certain that we don't have too much of either.

[Michael Weber]

The company I work for disagrees with you and makes certain that we don't have too much of either.

Exactly what I was trying to avoid. Why pay for duplicate coverage? I did ask and they won't tell me if I need it or not, only what would be considered primary or secondary under different employment/retirement circumstances which I already knew. I guess I'll just have to find out more about the retiree's insurance plan and what it covers.

[Joe Pelonio]

Exactly what I was trying to avoid. Why pay for duplicate coverage? I did ask and they won't tell me if I need it or not, only what would be considered primary or secondary under different employment/retirement circumstances which I already knew. I guess I'll just have to find out more about the retiree's insurance plan and what it covers.

Liability for bad adice is something employers do not want. You have to do the math or hire someone knowledgeable to figure it out for you. With the high cost of medical care and the experience of my parents on medicare, I'd be careful tio make the right decisions.

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Michael.
You have nothing to be concerned about. When you go in at age 65 to sign up for Social Security, you will also sign up for Medicare Part One and Medicare part Two. It is not a problem.

What you need to find out is if your company offers Supplemental insurance to cover most things that Medicare does not. If they do offer supp. insurance, do find out if they offer Prescription overage. If they do then sign up for it and you will NOT need the Medicare prescription plan. Some employers that offer the supplemental Medicare plan and the prrescription plan will drop all your coverage if you elect to use the the medicare prescription plan, so be careful.

[Jeff Nicol]

Michael, I believe that when you retire and sign up for SS payments you are required to sign up for Medicare part B. This is part of the deal I believe, just like your retirement payments from your pension if you have one from your work, the intermingle those to come up with an amount of each to pay you for retirement. Then if you have mutual funds, IRA's, 401k's I think they are not included if you are not drawing off of them yet and some not at all.

Anyway the Medicare part B is like $96 a month that will come directly out of your SS check, and if like you said you will have great medical from you employer after you retire they may pay you back that amount or like the others have said the employer insurance will become the secondary and Medicare the primary. Just get it all signed up for and it will all shake out in the end. My wife and I went through it when she became phyically unable to work any more, it was a nightmare in the beginning, as her medical costs per month were between $6500 and $8000, which is impossible for just about anyone to pay for so she is in the catastrophic range and then the state and Medicaid start to take up the slack for us, if we loose any bit of the coverage we will have to live on the streets or hope someone will have room for us.

Sorry for rambling, but it is just a trying thing in our life, hope it all goes well for you in your future retirement,

Jeff

[Jeffrey Makiel]

As others have said, going on Medicare (parts A and B) as primary and using your company's insurance as secondary has great value in my experience with my Mom for the last 30 years. Coverage is probably 98%+ with no issues of abuse from blatant denial. Also, all the providers seem to accept Medicare for payment and know the rules on what is covered (which, by the way, is pretty comprehensive). And, if Medicare pays, then the secondary insurer pays. No questions asked. I cannot say that about my experience with individual commercial plans which are abusive and spiraling out of control at 15% to 18% cost increases per year for the last 12 years.

There is also Medicare part D for prescription drugs which also works nicely. But your retirement income determines your elligibility for this part.

-Jeff