WEBVTT 00:00:00.059 --> 00:00:26.553 Hi, I'm Stacey Hyde and I'm back for another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes or Less, and today's topic is going to be geared toward those of our listeners who are a little bit older either early retirees or soon-to-be retirees that are looking toward Medicare, and the reason they are is they're like my medical insurance will finally be free. 00:00:26.553 --> 00:00:33.252 I've been paying into Medicare all these years and now I won't have to pay for it. 00:00:33.252 --> 00:00:40.232 Well, that's not exactly true, and also people get confused because there's so many different parts of Medicare. 00:00:40.232 --> 00:00:55.093 Medicare Part A is free for most people because you've paid into it over time and that covers hospital stays and bills, but there is a deductible of $1,600 per hospital stay. 00:00:55.093 --> 00:00:57.220 And then you have Part B. 00:00:57.220 --> 00:01:01.585 This is your doctors, your medical tests, things of that nature. 00:01:01.585 --> 00:01:10.275 It has a premium of just under $175 a month, so definitely not free. 00:01:10.275 --> 00:01:20.787 And then there's also all sorts of co-pays and out-of-pockets depending on what you're doing that are set by Medicare Too many to go into. 00:01:20.787 --> 00:01:23.513 Medicaregov is a great site. 00:01:23.513 --> 00:01:32.075 I would encourage you, if you're looking for information on Medicare, to actually type that into your browser Medicaregov. 00:01:32.075 --> 00:01:38.509 That way you know you're not on some other site, because a lot of sites try to spoof that. 00:01:38.509 --> 00:01:50.909 So I think you're safer, rather than doing a Google search, just type that into your browser's address bar and get the real thing and it'll show you exactly what your responsibilities are. 00:01:51.751 --> 00:01:54.180 And then part D is drugs. 00:01:54.180 --> 00:01:57.087 Well, you might say, stacy, you skipped C. 00:01:57.087 --> 00:01:57.927 What is C? 00:01:57.927 --> 00:02:00.774 Part C is Medicare Advantage. 00:02:00.774 --> 00:02:12.133 Those are the all-in-one plans where you still have to pay your Part B premiums, but it groups together your A, b and your D. 00:02:12.133 --> 00:02:27.562 The difference between that and traditional Medicare is the insurance company creates a network of doctors that may or may not include your doctor, so it's more similar to what you're used to when you're employed. 00:02:27.562 --> 00:02:33.057 As far as being limited to you know one hospital system versus another. 00:02:33.057 --> 00:02:35.864 Certain doctors groups are included, certain ones are not. 00:02:35.864 --> 00:02:43.866 They also tend to be very location specific and have limited benefits outside of your particular area. 00:02:43.866 --> 00:02:54.772 They got real popular for a while because the insurance companies were making a lot of money on them, and so they started offering vision benefits and some dental benefits and things of that nature. 00:02:54.772 --> 00:02:59.292 As I've said here on the podcast before, not really a fan of them. 00:03:00.060 --> 00:03:06.169 And then there's also, if you have traditional Medicare and you have A, b and D, you're. 00:03:06.169 --> 00:03:31.621 We also recommend that you have a supplement plan, and what the supplement does is it steps in and pays those out-of-pocket co-pays the $1,600 that we talked about for hospital stay, the other testing co-pays, that sort of thing and those run about $150 a month, depending on your age and whether you got it during your initial enrollment period. 00:03:31.621 --> 00:03:36.001 So then you have obviously your premiums that we talked about. 00:03:36.001 --> 00:03:41.475 You'll have your Part B deductible, which is rents in the low 200s. 00:03:41.475 --> 00:03:45.890 But if you have a Plan G supplement, most everything will be covered after that. 00:03:45.890 --> 00:04:00.361 So, adding that up, you're looking at about $400 a month per person for just the premiums and then you have the Part B deductible and then you have any drug cost. 00:04:00.361 --> 00:04:26.944 But what a lot of people miss are if your income is over as a married couple, over about $213,000, over as a married couple of over about $213,000, not your taxable income but the big adjusted gross income on your tax return you have to pay higher Medicare premiums and they can be substantially higher, you know, four times the base premium, which can really add up for a couple. 00:04:27.971 --> 00:04:33.565 Also, dental and vision and hearing are generally not covered. 00:04:33.565 --> 00:04:37.877 Some Medicare supplements will have limited dental. 00:04:37.877 --> 00:04:43.992 They may cover cleanings and they may offer some discounts for vision. 00:04:43.992 --> 00:04:58.023 I will say for the plans that I've looked at the dental and vision plans they don't make a lot of sense because you're paying in premium essentially almost what the maximum that the policy would cover anyway. 00:04:58.023 --> 00:05:06.422 You're better off talking to your dentist, particularly if you've been going to that dentist for a long time and saying, hey, I don't have dental insurance anymore. 00:05:06.422 --> 00:05:17.281 If I agree to pay you, you know, at the time of service you don't have to chase me for a bill Will you give me the same discounts that you were giving my insurance company? 00:05:17.281 --> 00:05:21.261 And most of the time they will, because they're happy to not have to deal with the insurance company. 00:05:21.261 --> 00:05:29.329 And then for vision, you know you can go to the Costco or the Walmart. 00:05:29.329 --> 00:05:34.452 I've had great personal experience with Costco Vision Center, great pricing there. 00:05:34.452 --> 00:05:40.524 But I still go to my long-time optometrist for my exams and that sort of thing. 00:05:41.189 --> 00:05:49.752 And then you've got inflation and these premiums do go up every year, both for Medicare, part B and your insurance. 00:05:49.752 --> 00:05:59.079 So you need to plan for about $6,000 to $10,000 per year per person, even in retirement on Medicare. 00:05:59.079 --> 00:06:05.903 If you were fortunate enough to have a HSA during your working years, guess what. 00:06:05.903 --> 00:06:22.524 You can still pull money out of that and use it to offset these costs, which is a big reason that we oftentimes tell people, if they can afford it, let their HSA grow during their working years and use it for these premiums in retirement. 00:06:22.524 --> 00:06:39.363 And in many cases it makes sense to coordinate your Social Security start date with your Medicare start date so that you can have your Medicare premiums deducted from your Social Security benefits. 00:06:39.363 --> 00:06:43.776 So that would be starting at 65 versus 67. 00:06:44.437 --> 00:06:55.535 If you don't want to start it then pulled out to get the maximum benefit, then you will actually have to mail in your Medicare Part B premiums on a quarterly basis. 00:06:55.535 --> 00:06:57.177 They don't allow you to pay monthly. 00:06:57.177 --> 00:06:58.456 You have to pay them quarterly. 00:06:58.456 --> 00:07:11.413 So Medicare is not a free ride but it can be a pretty predictable and you definitely don't have the assuming you have traditional Medicare and a supplement. 00:07:11.413 --> 00:07:16.471 You don't have the risk of huge out-of-pocket costs like you used to have, especially now. 00:07:16.471 --> 00:07:22.646 Some people would have large prescription drug costs, but now those are capped at $2,000 a year currently. 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:40.521 So review your Medicare cost open enrollment for if you're using Medicare Advantage open enrollment and if you have a prescription drug plan which I hope you do both of those open for enrollment in October and goes through. 00:07:40.521 --> 00:07:41.884 I believe it's December 7th. 00:07:41.884 --> 00:08:01.288 So it's important to go and look and make sure that, even if you like your plan, to make sure that there's no changes coming for this year, that the doctors haven't changed, the networks haven't changed and some of the benefits haven't changed, because what I'm reading is that some of the insurance have dialed back some of the benefits. 00:08:01.288 --> 00:08:03.742 So you really want to make sure you pay attention this year. 00:08:03.742 --> 00:08:07.346 You don't just assume that everything's going to be okay. 00:08:07.346 --> 00:08:10.110 So happy shopping for Medicare. 00:08:10.110 --> 00:08:14.694 It is a great program, but you definitely need to pay attention to the details. 00:08:14.694 --> 00:08:16.317 Thanks for tuning in. 00:08:16.317 --> 00:08:20.341 This has been another episode of Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes or Less.