Welcome back everyone! Today's episode we’re going to touch on a topic I’ve mentioned in a number of different shows! That’s right! Today we’re shining the educational spotlight on American Retirement Advisors own Stay or Go analysis!
One VERY common situation we run into as Certified Medicare Planners is that most people aren’t finished working when they hit 65! So if you’re not ready to hang up your work uniform and pick up a fishing pole, what are you going to do about your insurance!?
There’s a lot of misinformation around this subject. Friends, family, neighbors, even your Human Resources representative are going to have a lot to say about this. You may hear things like “penalty” and “enrollment period” and all kinds of scary terms when it comes to keeping employee group insurance or not signing up for Medicare’s Part A and Part B.
If you listened to ANY of our interviews with Advisors, you’ll know that in a lot of cases if you’re on creditable coverage through work you may not have to switch. So I’ll make this part very clear:
If your employer’s group insurance is creditable to medicare, you don’t have to do anything! That means that if there’s at least 20 employees on the plan, the coverage is AT LEAST as comprehensive as Medicare, and it has prescription drug coverage then you don’t have to get your A, your B, or your D, or anything else in the alphabet soup! When you’re ready to retire or leave your employee group insurance, you get a special enrollment period and you can enroll without penalty! If you’re contributing to an HSA and plan on continuing to do that, you probably don’t want to sign up for your Medicare just yet, and a Certified Medicare Planner can tell you why.
But how do you know if your coverage is creditable to medicare and most importantly, how do you know if you should STAY on the employee group plan or GO on to Medicare!?
That’s where we come in! We’ll help you determine if your coverage is creditable. After that, we’ve developed an analysis to determine whether your insurance with work or Medicare will be more appropriate for you!
American Retirement Advisors developed a simple, three-column approach to whether or not you should stay or go! At the end of the day, it’s a numbers game. We want to know what the best and worst-case scenarios look like under each option. Let’s break it down:
We want to know what your employee or retiree plan looks like. We take a look at your annual deductible, annual maximum out of pocket, and monthly prescription costs. Then we compare it to what Medicare with a Medicare Supplement looks like, and what a Medicare Advantage plan looks like. We add up all the numbers in each column and create an annual estimate of best and worst-case scenarios in addition to an estimated realistic annual cost to you.
Here’s the best part: We won't have to tell you what to do. The numbers at the bottom of the columns are going to provide you with a clear and accurate picture of what to do!
It’ll either look like staying on your employee or retiree group insurance is the right choice, or changing to medicare is the right choice! As fiduciaries, either answer is good news for us! If the numbers say to STAY then that’s what we’ll recommend you do. Like I said earlier, you can stay on your employee group without penalty if it’s creditable to medicare and when you’re ready, you just give us a call and we’ll move you to medicare! No harm, no foul!
Now that is relieving news! So when you reach age 65 and you’re not quite ready to start sleeping in and traveling, fear not! Get with a Certified Medicare Planner to take a look at your options. We’re happy to help.
Everyone, I hope you enjoyed this week's episode and can rest easy knowing your options aren’t limited. Don’t forget to like the video, follow our page, share with all your friends, and most importantly, have a great week!