suggest you meet with your state SHIP rep first.
Brokers sell what brokers sell (i.e., makes them a commission). They can be limited in their recommendations.
SHIP seems like a good tip.
My husbandâs broker had various plans to offer. In his case (based on preferences, med lists etc), they selected the AARP plan that many of our self-researching friends picked⊠same price. There is a commission, but the retiree does not pay it.
Better words from quick google search - " These commissions are paid by the insurance company offering the plan, though companies are not required to pay the CMS -regulated maximum. This allows the agent to help you find a Medicare plan without charging you a fee for their services. At the same time, there isnât any added cost you must pay for using an agent"
yes, the feds pay the commission, but thatâs not the point.
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What does SHIP stand for?
State Health Insurance Assistance Program. They are free and unbiased.
https://www.seniorsresourceguide.com/directories/National/SHIP/
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I have spoken with the SHIP people many times. They are very nice and present information clearly and factually with no pressure or sales pitch. Many are well-trained volunteers in our state. I like how they know all the extra assistance programs for low income and low asset folks in the states too. They donât get any commissionâjust share info.
SHIP has presented to our support group and has charts and papers to help explain things, especially as they apply to whatâs available where you live.
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I think Kaiser is probably the biggest in Hawaii. I know my former sister in law and her husband are both Drâs in Hawaii. Sheâs a geriatrician there and theyâre knocking down her doors to see her and she was working like crazy during the pandemic even though she is supposed to be part-time.
Huh? Kaiser only insures 20% of our state. The rest of our HI state are insured by BCBS. Itâs been that way for decades.
Getting in to see an MD in HI is definitely a challenge. My allergist tried to get me to see a lung doc in Marchâcouldnât see him until July, after I saw lung docs in CA and CO who were able to see me much sooner.
For those approaching age 65: whether you use SHIP (great info above), free-to-you Medicare broker or self-research ⊠the important thing is to PLAN EARLY. We heard to start planning 3+ months ahead of your 65th birthday month, but my husband started even earlier based on advise from his over-65 friends.
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Why is so much pre-planning required??
Because it takes time for all of this to be processed.
DH started Medicare May 1. He applied February 1. Got his Medicare card, and dealt with his additional coverage (in our case, a Medicare Advantage Plan PPO).
Applications needed to be sent to all.
There was a mistake made also along the way that needed to be corrected.
In his case, it actually processed way more quickly than we thought it wouldâŠall was in place by the beginning of April with a start date of May 1.
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Didnât know about SHIP when I was shifting to Medicare. I just tried to compare Part D plans from the good insurers in our state: BCBS, Harvard Pilgrim and Tufts. We switch to a concierge MD a few years before the Medicare switch. Our primary care doctors either retired or went to concierge practices and we were not satisfied with the folks we had found, in part because they were supposed to be spending no more than 15 minutes per patient.
I consider the concierge to be like insurance â we can get immediate feedback in case of a problem. Two of my colleagues got a particular kind of ear infection when traveling (not the same trip but the same infection). The one with regular insurance has permanent loss of hearing in one ear. The other called his concierge doc from Kuala Lumpur and was told to head to the hospital immediately and get a certain treatment (drug I think). His hearing recovered. The treatment had to be done with 24 hours to avoid hearing loss.
There are places that are what I think of as concierge-lite like One Medical. There is a much more modest annual fee but you choose a PC provider (MD, NP or PA), get seen same/next day on time (they claim), and get 24/7 coverage because they have a telemedicine group that built is electronic medical records system and video conferencing when they were founded as a venture-backed firm so they are designed to be much more useful than Zoom calls. They take Medicare so this might be an option for someone seeking a primary care provider upon retirement.
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I thought Iâd been on top of this, consulted with online SHIP resources and his large employer only now Iâm worrying. Am I missing something?
My husband is a university professor and has no intention of retiring anytime soon â he will work at least 5 more years and likely longer. We have excellent health care, including prescription drugs, through his university. Our plan was he would sign up before he turns 65 for Medicare A â hospital coverage â and stay on our current health insurance until he retires. We understand there is no penalty for not signing up for Medicare B at 65 because he is fully insured through his employer. Am I misunderstanding something?
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You are likely correct (but read his policy). As long as the employee is still fully employed and getting his medical insurance from his policy is supposed to ge primary (but as I said, read his policy). Some policies can make Medicare primary once employ turns 65.
For H, he was working until he turned 69. He got Medicare A when he was going to turn 65 (no charge). We held off getting B until he was going to retire. We filed but didnât get a card.
The insurer kept jamming up his claims because theyâd reject them, saying they were secondary when they were actually primary since he didnât have Medicare B.
We had to finally go to SS office to see why H didnât face a card for Medicare B. One of the clerks handed him back his paperwork and told him it was done incorrectly. The next day, H went back and saw a nicer clerk who processed it on the spot, just before H would have been penalized for applying to Medicare late! The paperwork was all correctâ1st clerk was just bad and wrong!
Thatâs why itâs good to be sure you give yourself enough time. You can double check with HR that your H still gets benefits and his policy is still primary.
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Thank you! Yes, weâve talked with his employer who has said nothing changes, just apply for Medicare A and it will be secondary to employer coverage. His university is a dominant employer in our town so many residents have health care through it, so hopefully local doctors are fairly used to processing university coverage as primary. One more thing to keep an eye on, yikes.
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I began looking earlier than 3 months before DH turned 65 and then applied for Medicare A for DH 3 months before he turned 65; verified he is covered primary under my insurance and his Medicare A (free) is 2ndary. In July I can sign up for my Medicare and all our supplemental insurance (Medicare B, D) to begin Oct 1. It is peace of mind to have it all worked out so when I retire and my insurance coverage through work ends the end of Sept all is in place.
Medicare has the âwindowâ open up to 3 months after one turns 65. Peace of mind to have it completed and in place.
If you believe things are one way and they are another on a particular plan. It gives you time to process things in your head. When you do sign up, you have it âworked outâ and can move forward with confidence.
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@shawbridge I hate that your colleague had permanent hearing loss.
Having the information to navigate medical care at the right time.
DD had a deep strep infection that is uncommon for someone young - she was away at college; she had a sore throat for a few days, but that morning she was having a lot more pain, swelling and difficulty swallowing â this was a Sunday morning and there were 3 walk in clinics close and one was open at that time (9 am). The MD there wrote orders for her to get immediate attention at ER with a steroid shot and a CT scan. A ENT that was seeing a patient at the hospital was called to see her while he was at the hospital. The exam he was not terribly concerned - until he saw the CT scan result. The deep strep infection was âcaught earlyâ. If it had gone on another 24 - 48 hours, it would have spread to her brain, her chest, or both â and been life threatening at that point. She immediately was admitted to the hospital, and after 4 days of IV antibiotics, had a surgical procedure to drain the 30 cc of pus that encapsulated with the antibiotics and her immune system containing the infection (incision near her tonsil area).
Some people are reluctant to seek care right away for some things that end up being signs of a stroke - and they lose the window for the medical care to head off worsening damage.
We had a neighbor who had prostate cancer - and his doctor treated it like it was slow growing. Oops, it was fast growing and wasnât treated with the caution needed - it spread and unfortunately caused neighbor to die from it. I was misdiagnosed from cancer and went from stage 1 to stage IIIa due to test delay (10 weeks). I went from just about 100% success to over come to 50/50 chance. MD didnât know what he was looking at. I argued with him in the office but should have called my PCP to move up the test instead of âtrustingâ the specialist. Thankfully I survived, but it was a long fight.
There is a book âBrain on Fire - My Month of Madnessâ - about autoimmune encephalitis that if not diagnosed and treated in a timely manner would have the person with permanent brain injury. Could have been misdiagnosed as some other cases had been.
Most of us just need to be concerned with heart disease and strokes.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a good calculator to help you determine present value of pension, or have any suggestions/pros/cons to different methods/assumptions?
Thanks in advance
The way we used the pension in our calculations was to offset the amount we would need to spend on our expenses in retirement. Calculating a value for it didnât make sense as we didnât and donât plan to ever sell it. Because we can live on the pension, we donât have to withdraw our other assets, making those last a lot longer.
Oh also, itâs calculated as part of the fixed income or bond allocation as well, so more of the other funds/assets can be out in stocks or similar investments.