This is what I was looking for: People who have employer group health insurance can sign up under Special Circumstances without paying late enrollment penalty after 65.
So if you are not working but have retiree insurance from a private health insurance, you have 3 months after you turn 65 to sign up for Medicare, is that correct assumption? Honestly I don’t care to pay more than when I absolutely have to.
My husband has Medicare and United Health Care medigap through his employer but we pay for it. Because I’m 10 years younger, I am not eligible for Medicare so only have UHC. Medicare coverage is far, far better than UHC. All doctors that we have ever been referred to take it and the payment is prompt and efficient. As is collecting the premium from us. UHC has given us nothing but problems. They don’t even tell you until sometime in February what your premium is for the year although you have to send in the first payment by January 1. Reimbursement to us, or payment to physicians takes forever and there are always problems. We still have some outstanding claims from 2013.
Avoid UHC at all costs. I am the accountant for my sons company. We will go with Blue Cross over UHC even though the premiums are just slightly higher. I will not deal with UHC if I don’t have to.
Totally agree about UHC. We have had UHC, Cigna, Aetna, Anthem and UHC wins the horrible company award by miles. Just awful.
Yet the AARP plan people rave about is with UHC. Go figure.
You can’t trust AARP, very political organization.
Dang! I find it incomprehensible that they make older adults have to figure out this incomprehensible mess of information! (It makes my middle-aged brain swim… I can only imagine what it will do to my elder-aged brain!) I wish we had single provider coverage for all…
Next year for a special group, Medicare cost might go up, so if you qualify this year for Medicare, it’s best to take it.
I will be watching this thread when I get closer to that age.But I did just file for next year’s school tax exemption for seniors, which is about 70% of our county tax!
@jym626, there’s no maximum income requirement for that exemption?
Nope!! @VeryHappy Just age!! I felt guilty for about a millisecond, but seeing as how we’ve paid those school taxes for decades while our kids attended private school and did not use the public school system or services, my guilt was quickly assuaged.
Still 3 years away from MCR, so I haven’t done much research. What do most people do for vision and dental?
Self pay for vision. I will drop it if I can, only dental but the low cost version. We are trying to get the bulk of the works done before retiring. One kid is already sans dental and vision.
My medicare card came along with a postcard this week in the mail. I have three phone calls to make to my spouse’s insurance provider, then to her benefits person at work, and then to medicare so I know what I need to do.
It’s looking like I check the box saying I do not want medical insurance on the post card and send it back to their regional office in New York. They will then send me a new medicare card for only Part A. Medicare will be my secondary (tertiary?) coverage as long as my spouse has health insurance.
We are looking at sizable prescription drug expenses for her so our choice might be either a Part F Plan at $400 per month after she retires, or stick with her Empire Plan through NY State and get a medicare plan called Silverscript.
Even with Part F, you will want a separate Rx plan, and beware the donut hole, some time mid year I pick a $1500 prescription for my mother, it’s under $100 the rest of the time!
We should form the Senior Citizen Unrest Against Medicare Harassment. 
Hi , OP again, with a belated thanks for everyone’s input. I’ve done some research and have one more question. I see that there are numerous Part D drug plans that H can select from and which can be used at his pharmacy with all his meds. Apart from calculating the one that seems to be the cheapest, are there any other criteria to use? On the Medicare website, they all seem to have similar satisfaction ratings. I thought it was only the supplemental plans that required some choosing, but not so. I guess I’m at the point in my life where I don’t want to have to make any more decisions and just want some smart, thoughtful, energetic person to tell me what to do–except I’ll keep control over restaurant menus.
HR told me that my wife’s health plan continues after she retires at the same premiums and co-pays. Medicare will be our primary insurance. They will also apply unused sick time to reduce monthly premiums if we want. There is also some benefit through NY State we can get too.
It seems like some of us would want to sit down with someone and have all of our questions answered. Some options are to contact a local Office of the Aging, see your HR person, call a reputable insurance agent who is licensed to sell health insurance, or see a rep from Medicare or an insurance company that offers Supplemental Plans. I have taken three calls already from insurance agents and they are all trying to make appointments to come and see me. Be careful if this is the choice you make. I know that Mutual of Omaha has experienced health insurance agents, but can’t verify what their Medicare Supplemental Plans are like.
TonyK, I posted about this organization before:
Call them and a knowledgeable person will call you back. I didn’t find their website to be any more helpful than the Medicare one but the person who called me back was a retired insurance executive volunteering for them.
I used an agent. She typed in my meds to see which plan covered what. I’m only on one prescription med, and it is not covered. The Walmart plan was the cheapest, but I went with silver scripts because I can have prescriptions filled anywhere. My recent prescription cost $1.25.