Well, good evening everybody. Thank you so much for joining me for the uh healthc care and retirement uh Medicare that we’re going to be talking about tonight. Hopefully this will give you a little bit of a taste of if you have not explored this yet, hopefully you’ll learn a little bit about uh how Medicare works, what’s involved, how much does this cost, what am I expected to pay in healthcare uh coverage in retirement. So, we’ll dig into that. Uh but uh before I do get going, I do have to uh say that we are not able or allowed uh we cannot record these presentations um as for compliance purposes. So and we cannot have them recorded either. So we’ve had some listeners attempt to record some of ours and put them out there and we are we cannot do that for compliance purposes. So uh thank you so much uh for that. But uh um if you do have questions after this and you wanted to kind of go back and revisit it, I would be happy to do uh have a one-on-one conversation with you. Uh with that, I will be putting up a survey at the end of this presentation to see if you would like to have a one-on-one conversation. Just select yes on the survey. Basically, would you like to have an appointment with Joe? And uh we’ll get together. Well, whether that’s phone, Zoom, or possibly even in person if you’re local to uh uh the Chicago area here, uh my office over on Tui Avenue over by O’Hare airport uh not too far from there, and we can uh have a one-on-one conversation about whatever in retirement is important to you. Uh so, before I get going, I do want to let you know I do have Social Security presentation coming up. That’ll be at two uh two in the afternoon central time on August 26th. And then September 8th, I cannot believe I’m talking about September already here um with summer winding down, but that’ll be a 6 p.m. Central time on tax planning. uh looking at different types of uh taxable accounts or tax deferred accounts, tax-free accounts when we talk about Roth IAS and things like that and what this all means to the strategy of where are you going to be drawing from in retirement uh to supplement income like social security, maybe a pension, but to do things in the most taxefficient way for you. All right. And then uh you do have access to some some educational resources to see what other webinars are going to be uh presented. I am one of about 10 uh or 11 people that do these presentations around the country. We have people in LA, Denver, San Francisco, Houston, Utah, uh that we’re based out of that we have people there at different time zones doing uh a lot of uh similar topics and I do probably about eight different topics throughout the year. Uh again, I personally do these every 2 weeks and uh with sometimes maybe in 2:00 in the afternoon, maybe sometimes a 4:00, maybe a noon, uh 6:00 uh central time, just like we’re doing right now. Uh so you do have access to see what webinars are going on, our Invest Savvy podcast, and Aerys, meaning Alliant Retirement and Investment Services, the Aerys website and blog. you can check that out too to see what products and services that we do offer. So, three key points that we’re going to cover. Actually, before I get going, I’m so sorry, but I want to let you know that if you do have any questions throughout the presentation, I will be taking those at the end. So, if you think of a question, you have access to the chat box or the Q&A question and answer box. And if you think of a question, go ahead and type it in at any time throughout the presentation. Those will stick to the end. I will take those questions at the end of the presentation and hopefully uh answer whatever is on your mind here. So, and again, if you do have questions further after that, please say yes on the survey after that and you and I can have a one-on-one conversation. Um, I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Joe Gaspari. I am one of the financial consultants here with the Alliant Retirement and Investment Services team. I am an Alliant employee. I do investments, I do stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities, and all sorts of different things. One of the biggest things that I do is that retirement plan. Uh that plan is basically if someone says, “Joe, here’s what I have. Here’s what I want. Am I on the right path to do what I need to do to get where I want to be to have the retirement that I desire?” Uh or maybe even saving for education. Whatever that saving goal is that you have, are you on the right path? And am I are you invested correctly according to your risk tolerance in the time period that you’re going to be investing? And am I too aggressive or even too conservative in some of the investments that you might have? Um interest rates uh who knows what’s going to happen. They keep talking about are rates going to start going down. They the Federal Reserve did lower a couple of times and now they’re on a pause. uh with you know with uh world events going on right now, who knows where things are going, but whether things are good, whether things are bad in the markets, whether interest rates are higher or lower or staying the same, are you going to be okay? That’s what that retirement plan will hopefully solidify for you. So again, please say yes at the end of that presentation or this presentation and we will hopefully very soon have that one-on-one conversation. So, three key points that we’re going to discuss. Number one, if you do not enroll in Medicare on time, you will pay a monthly penalty. If you do not get the right private insurance to go with Medicare and some we might call that supplemental coverage or the metag gap uh policy, a couple of different terms, but basically the same thing. Basically, you can have an insurance to cover the things that uh that Medicare does not cover. You may too much in pre uh in premiums or out-ofpocket costs. And number three, if you do not plan for higher health care costs in retirement, you could run out of money. So, or not be able to get the care that you need. So, the agenda, we’re going to talk about uh Medicare enrollment. When do you need to? What is Medicare? Who needs to enroll in Medicare and when? And how do you enroll in Medicare? How much does Medicare cost? What does Medicare cover? What does Medicare not cover? That’s a very important one. And I could tell you right up front, long-term care is one of those. We will be touching on long-term care uh you know, a little bit here tonight. So, we’ll talk about that, not digging into how uh what types of policies, but again, that’s still an important part of uh as people are living longer and maybe needing care down the road. How is that going to be paid for? How does private insurance work with Medicare? How does that supplemental or metagap work? Uh two reasons. Your health care expenses will be higher in the future. Number one, inflation. Health care costs just rising over time. Uh generally health care uh costs do exceed traditional inflation. So as costs go up with inflation, medical costs usually exceed that and go up faster. increased need for services as you age. Uh Medicare does not cover long-term care. So Medicare enrollment uh before the age of 65, who pays for health care? So your employer, maybe your group coverage, maybe you have a retiree health care uh health insurance before you turn uh turn on Medicare. Uh COBRA if you left a job and maybe for 18 months or so is what you get coverage for. you can basically continue the same work policy that you had, but it’s all on your dime now. So, the your company is not uh either paying for a portion or all of that health coverage. Individual health insurance, you can just go out there and shop in the market uh to see what how much uh uh your health care coverage will cost and what level of care that you might be uh covering. after age 65, Medicare pays first, except for if you are working still and you are in a I’ll call this a qualified plan because this will come up quite a uh quite a few times in here. Uh except employer group plans that cover 20 or more employees um or if your spouse is still working and you’re covered by a plan through a spouse. So if typically if it’s a a a company 20 or more employees that you have this coverage, you can still keep your coverage and then Medicare um part B you can defer if you are still working. So, you don’t have to pay for that because and we’ll talk about who pays for Medicare A, who pays for Medicare B, who pays for D, your prescription drug coverage, who pays for the advantage plan, and how does all that work in uh retirement. And your other insurance pays second after the age of 65. So, what this means for you, unless you are covered by an employer group plan, a qualifying plan, you must enroll in Medicare when you turn 65. What if you don’t enroll in Medicare on time? Very important to do it because you will pay late enrollment penalties. Uh, your health care expenses may not be covered by insurance or your private insurance options may be limited. So before it’s typically 3 months before you turn 65 to 3 months after you turn 65 is that uh general initial enrollment period that you have to sign up when you are age 65. If you are unsure of what type of work plan that you have and should you be signing up for something, check with your employer on those and hopefully you have a a person that would know that basically here’s how our coverage works. Yes, you should, you know, start applying for Medicare or no, you don’t need to based on your plan that you have. What is Medicare? National Health Insurance Program for people 65 plus. uh administered by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services and you enroll through the Social Security website. Uh and I believe it’ll come up in a a few slides, but ssa.gov is the website for that. This is where you can go if you want to sign up to see how much you’re expected to receive in Social Security. Uh through the Social Security site, you can kind of navigate through there and get your numbers. Basically, what if you want social security as early as 62 or your full retirement age between 66 and 67 or even defer till age 70 to get the maximum amount monthly income. Um, this is the same site that you would apply for your Medicare. Who is eligible? Basically, everyone over the age of 65 who is a US citizen. legal residents who have lived in the US continuously for at least 5 years. So legal residents, not non-resident. So some people under 65 who are eligible for disability. So if you are on permanent disability, you may be eligible for Medicare earlier as well. There are four parts of Medicare. You can either have A and B. A is your hospital coverage. B is your doctor visits and things like that. Your doctor, your medical coverage. So A, you do not have to pay for. It’s already you and when you’ve been paying into Social Security and Medicare, all of your working years, and 6.2% of your paycheck goes into Social Security, 1.45 of it goes into Medicare. Your A your hospital is uh insurance is covered already. You do not have to pay for A. B is what you pay for. It’ll come up, but that current price is $20.90. $22.90 per month is what an individual pay will pay for Medicare Part B. And that does come out of your Social Security check. Medicare Part C is what you would get if you do not want traditional A and B. It’s uh the advantage plan. I will use this similar to it’s not exactly an HMO but it is similarish to an uh like an HMO where uh doctors are they have to be in network and things like that if you are on the advantage plan and then Medicare part D is your prescription drug coverage. So when you sign up for Medicare, you are signing up for A and B or C. And then D, the prescription can go with both of those uh options. And you could see at the bottom right where on Medicare part C and D is you would shop for those. So if you want the advantage plan, you do not sign up through that through the social security site. you have to go out and shop at through United Healthcare or Blue Cross Blue Shield or Etna, one of the big carriers and use a big name brand carrier for something like this. Um, but uh so Medicare C and for your prescription drug coverage, you are going to be shopping for that. So here’s another list there. So option one is you do A and B together and then you would add your prescription drug coverage on and then you would also get a supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare does not cover. Uh very important. I’ll use my uh my parents as an example. My father was uh in and out of the hospital. He had a lot of heart issues in his younger years too. 49. He had his first heart attack. He had a bypass at 51 and heart attack, heart attack, heart attack, another bypass at 64. When he passed away at the age of 75, he was in the hospital for probably about 10, 12 days. And we’re thinking, so Medicare and all the procedures that they do did and everything like that and pacemaker, defiill, all those things. So he was in the hospital, he passes away, and then it was like, oh my gosh, what are the doctor bills going to be after all this? everything goes to Medicare and they cover what they cover and typically 80% is what Medicare will cover especially on you know for part B uh part A typically and sometimes they will even cover up to 100% of that but whatever they don’t cover it goes to his supplemental which was Blue Cross Blue Shield at the time and every then they pay what they will cover and they pay everything basically we had zero out of pocket for that. Now, I can’t guarantee that will always happen, but basically when you have that metagap or that supplemental coverage paying for what Medicare doesn’t cover, some people might say, “I don’t want to pay for that medic, you know, that couple hundred bucks for a metagap policy or a supplemental policy.” Um, that’s just money. I don’t go to the doctor a lot. I’m pretty healthy. But you never know what’s going to happen. So, some people might take a chance and not have a supplemental. But if you think that there’s certainly that need and I would usually if someone said should I get it should I not get it I would say get it a supplemental. So in the or option two on here is your Medicare advantage Medicare C which covers basically A and B and your prescription drug coverage all in one policy that you would go shop for. Again, you have to go to United Healthcare, Etna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, one of the big carriers, and you shop for your advantage plan, Medicare Part C, and your your fees or your charges. Uh your premiums might vary depending on any pre-existing conditions potentially, if there’s what state you live in, what county you live in. Uh so, yeah, prices can vary depending where you are. How do you enroll in medic in Medicare through the social security site? If you are receiving social security, Medicare A and B are automatic. You can decline B if you have other work coverage. Uh so if you have that qualifying coverage, again, 20 employees or more, uh you do not have to sign up for B because your work will cover that and then uh your A is free anyway. So, some people will definitely sign up for A if they can uh or if they should and then uh because they don’t have to pay for it and then they they can decline B until you retire or stop working. And before you stop working, that’s when you’re going to start shopping and getting that Medicare Part B going. Um so, it turns on immediately when your work one turns off. So, very important to start that ahead of time. Your coverage starts the first of the month um you turn 65. Uh so Medicare C and D are not automatic. You must choose a private insurance company to do that. So um A and B. So you go on the site and you can activate them. And but if it’s C and D, nothing happens until you go on and you shop for uh for that coverage in a um in the advantage plan and then adding your prescription drug coverage. And if you do sign up for A and B, your prescription drug coverage is still through a private insurance company. So you do have to many people will shop for their supplemental policy and then add prescription part D on that, you know, with that same provider or carrier. If you are not receiving Social Security, you must sign up through the Social Security uh website um for Medicare enrollment. And there’s three times that you can do this. The initial enrollment period, if you’re not covered by a group plan, when you turn 65, there is a special enrollment period. That is if you are working still at the age of 65, even if you’re on social security, uh if you work till 66 or 67 or even later, uh you don’t do not have to uh sign up for um for B until that time. So, you might be signing up for your Medicare during the special enrollment period when your group or work plan ends. And then if you don’t do either of the first two, then there is a general enrollment period, which we will cover. Uh, if you sign up before the month you turn 65, it starts the month you turn 65. So, there is a one month delay of when you sign up and then it will start the next month. So you could see that uh the month you turn 60 or the month before the month of 1 month after or two to 3 months after and then if you miss the 3 months after then you’re you could be penalized. So uh you’re going to have 3 months before to 3 months after to sign up for your Medicare.
Who signs up uh in the initial enrollment period? So pretty almost everyone if you are not working and if you don’t have that qualified work plan uh then you will be signing up for Medicare. Um this is for part A. So you may be advised to enroll in Medicare part A to enhance hospitalization. How the big however is if you have a high deductible plan. Uh so for example, my health coverage here at Alliant is a high deductible plan where I can contribute to a health savings account, an HSA, because I’m contributing to the HSA account. If I sign up for a while, while I have that work plan, which some people can do, but I cannot contribute to my health savings plan anymore, the HSA account. So, uh, for me it would be advised because I’m on a on a high deductible plan to not sign up for part A when I turn 65. So, um, so in that case, but if you do not have a high deductible plan, you might be advised to sign up for A and then sign up for B when you stop working.
Who signs up for part B? people who are not covered by a group plan, you will definitely stop uh uh start your part B. If you are not working, if you’re self-employed, employed by a company with less than 20 employees if you’re on COBRA, that 18-month coverage if you leave a job. So, let’s say you left a job at age of 64 and you were on COBRA. When you’re if you’re on COBRA, you turn 65, then you would turn that on. You would stop COBRA and turn on Medicare Part B. Uh if you’re receiving retiree health benefits uh employed by a company whose health plan is less comprehensive than Medicare, you will be signing up for part B. So who signs up for part D? This is the prescription drug coverage. People who have signed up for A and B and want prescription drug coverage either now or in the future. Even if you are not on any meds right at this point, if you are turning 65, it’s still recommended to sign up for Part D. talk to your that healthc care provider if you are signing up for any details on that. But you must sign up when first eligible or fa uh face late enrollment uh penalties. So even if you’re not on meds, you still might be have to sign up for it. Two options for part B. Part D is the standalone drug coverage or if you sign up for the Medicare Advantage Part C, then you can include the drug coverage in there. It’s kind of an option on there, but it’s still it’s all in the same policy if you have the advantage plan. But if you are on A and B, then you have to go shop for part D. The special enrollment period is for people who did not sign up for part B and D because they had a work plan and they were still working. So they had this work plan and so they don’t sign up for B and D, but now they’re 67 and they’re now retiring. Now they have to sign up for in the special enrollment period. Basically, it’s a qualifying event that basically said, I did not have to do it in the initial enrollment period. I can do it in the special because of this leaving job uh qualifying event. So special enrollment period for part B uh part B anytime before your coverage ends. You’re going to want to sign up before your last day of working. And the 8-month period starting this month uh of group coverage ends. So there could be up to an 8-month gap. I don’t recommend having an 8-month gap, but uh um but it can happen. Part D is anytime before your coverage ends up to within 63 days after your coverage ends. Why 63 days? No idea. Why 8 months for part B, but only 63 days uh for part D. But basically, if you are leaving your job, start shopping and getting that uh part B and part D going as soon as possible or to start immediately after. you can sign up for it before and activate it based on when your um when your group plan ends. Best time to enroll in Medicare to avoid late enrollment penalties. Sign up during the initial or the special enrollment periods to avoid any gaps. Uh sign up before your coverage ends. Now, if you do not sign up in the initial or the special enrollment periods, you have the opportunity every year to sign up from January 1st to March 31st in the general enrollment period. Coverage starts the month after. So, if you sign up in January, it starts in February. Start sign up in February, it starts in March. Sign up in March, it starts at April 1st. So, um these are the general. Now again, caution, caution, caution. If you are going to be signing up uh not when you should have, if it’s going to be late in one of these, you could have penalties. So, um always do it. You know, the the uh the initial and the special enrollment periods are the two that you should be doing. Hopefully, people are not signing up in too much for in the general enrollment period. So, the review, the initial, this is for everyone. If you are 65 and if you do not have a work plan, you are signing up up to three months before your 65th birthday and your coverage starts the first day of the month you turn 65. special enrollment period is if you do have a work plan and you don’t want to sign up for especially part B and start paying for it, then you can wait until you’re done working at 66 or 67 or whatever age you stop working. Then you would sign up for part B in the special enrollment period and the general enrollment period. If you did not do the first two, then you only have January, February or March to sign up for it. If it’s April, May, June, you will not have coverage April through December if you do not sign up in those three months. How to sign up for Medicare A and B. SSA.gov. Here’s that website that we said. If you uh I’ve heard hold times can be pretty long if people do call. Uh again, the website is probably more recommended. I’ll leave this up for a second. Someone doesn’t want to take a picture of the screen just for that phone number or that website. Uh, I’ll I’ll leave this up for just a moment here. I know we do have some questions right now, but if you do have a question, again, go ahead and type it in the chat box or the Q&A and I will get to those at the end of the presentation. Hi, how to sign up for Medicare Part D. If you decide you want A and B, Trai, I’ll call that traditional uh Medicare. uh part A, your hospital coverage, part B, your doctor uh coverage, and then you sign up for D, the prescription drug cover drug coverage. Uh then you’re going to start shopping for it through private insurers, like I said, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Etna, one of those big carriers. If you sign up in the Medicare Advantage plan, then you can add the prescription drug coverage on that same plan. And both of those C and D are through that private insurer as well.
Medicare and private insurance. So premiums are generally are nearly half of the um Medicare benefits out-of- pocket health uh spending. So uh when we look at some of the what you’re paying in premiums and it’s going to come up again, but $22.90 is what that premium is for Medicare Part B. So you do not have to pay for a you’re paying the $22.90 and then your Medicare Part D, call it aboutish $40 a month for the premium and then any potential out-of- pocket costs you might have depending on what drugs you may be on. Uh so but this is looking at what you’re paying in premiums that 22.94 and then services may and things that are not covered by Medicare. For example, you see on the right side things that are not covered, long-term care is not covered by Medicare. Uh things that are uh not covered like dental, eye coverage, you do have to shop for that separately. So, if you’re going to be shopping for Part D, if you want a standalone eye coverage or dental coverage, you can certainly shop for those, but those are not covered by Medicare. home health or outpatient medical, inpatient hospital, uh things like that. Uh so you could have some out-ofpocket costs, but again premiums are about 42% is just what you’re paying in premiums in your healthcare and then any services after that. So, your premiums uh paid to Medicare and again that if you are on social security that comes out of your social security check or payment direct deposit uh private insurance premiums for uh part D your prescription drug coverage or the uh your metagap policy, the supplemental um are premiums that you’ll be paying or the advantage plan that you’ll be paying that premium. other out- of- pockets uh like there’s could be some deductibles uh portion of uh doctor bills not paid by Medicare traditional things are sent to uh approval to Medicare as many hospitals will do that or doctors and you know they will check to see is this procedure covered can we do this and Medicare still pay for it sometimes Medicare will say that’s not a covered thing maybe it’s an elective type of surgery or cosmetic something like that that’s not covered and there could be more out-ofpocket costs.
Monthly premiums. So, part A you do not have to pay for unless you have just like when you sign up for social security, do you have enough credits or enough quarters in? So, um you know, you’ve had to have greater than 40 quarters or 10 years of working. If you do not, then you may have to pay for part A. But traditionally, more than 10 years of working that you do not have to pay for a part B. Here’s that 20290 that I said in 2026. And pretty much every year this goes up and not every but uh most years that there is an increase in that premium uh plus any income related adjustments. So Medicare Part B, this is why I do the retirement planning to uh as well. If you make too much money, your Medicare part B, part B premiums can be increased significantly depending on what your total income is. So, it’s one of those cautions so you and I can have that one-on-one conversation if you think that you’re going to be a high income earnner or one of those limits and they call it Irma, IR MAA, income related monthly adjustments of your Medicare premiums. So, it’s certainly something to be aware of. Many people are under that limit in retirement, but many people can be above that. And part D is paid to private insurer. It varies with plan. So, it’s uh um it’s on an average we use about a $40 per month premium cost for that. So, here are those monthly adjustments for B and D if your income is high. So, looking at the top row here, so I’m going to look at 109,000 if you are a single filer. If you make more than 109,000, your premiums can go up. So if you’re at that or less, you’re going to pay the 20290. If you are married filing joint, it’s double that, 218,000 of MAGI, modified adjusted gross income. So this includes dividends, interest, IRA withdrawals. Uh anything that is taxable uh can be added to this. So if you make large IRA withdrawals in a given year, your premiums can go up two years later. It’s about it’s a 2-year gap. If someone takes uh has high income in 2026, 2028 is when their premiums would go up. If your income in 2027 goes back down below the that threshold, then in 2029 your premiums can go back down. So, it’s you earn the next year you file, IRS sees it, Medicare sees it, and then the following year the those go up or down based on that. And you can see based on varying income levels on how much higher for part B when I look at you could be paying as much as $487 a month for your Medicare if you have very high income. Same thing with your Part D premiums if you’re uh at the base. you’re paying uh about $40 a month, but then there’s increases on your Medicare Part D premiums if your income is too high as well. Deductibles. So, part A, there’s an initial uh per spell of illness, 7 1,736 deductible, $283 per year on Medicare Part B. And then prescription drug coverage uh part D, it’s a $615 deductible. So, are you going to pay these deductibles or will you have a supplemental policy that could pay for some or all of these deductibles? So, when you have your amount that you’re paying, so part A hospital is $434, uh for uh you know, for the first 60 days, it’s you are covered. If it’s uh over 60 days, 61 to 90 days, you could have $434. And days 91 to 150 are $868. And then skilled nursing is covered up for 20 days, but 21 through 100 days is $217. These are all per day costs. And if it’s over 100 days, it’s 100% out of pocket then for skilled nursing. So, this is what Medicare pays. This is why you would need either need long-term care and or at least a supplemental policy. Part B, you’re basically Medicare covers 80%. You could be on the hook for 20%. However, your supplemental policy can cover that 20%. And anything that’s not approved by Medicare could potentially be either out of pocket or through your uh supplemental plan. Part D co- insurance. So there’s a deductible $615 thou dollars. Uh the prescription. It’s such a confusing uh mess of when you’re covered, you’re covered, then you’re not covered, then you’re covered again. They call this donut hole, if you’ve ever heard that term before. Uh but 25% of drug costs after deductible have been paid. Um is what could be uh out of pocket. Uh no further costs if you know if you reach 21,00. So that’s the max out of pocket is 2100. And the drug plans vary. So if you even live in a certain state or area and you call United Healthcare or Etna or Blue Cross Blue Shield, you might get three different premiums uh from those. What Medicare uh covers hospital 100% for the first 60 days. Medicare medical services 80% basically for all your doctor visits and things like that doctor bills is 80% and then uh all the varying things from prescription drug coverage and then you can also get uh you know flu shots things like that uh I think shingles they will cover uh there’s many things like that some preventative services what Medicare does not cover first one long-term care uh so that when we saw that skill build nursing up to 20 days. Uh call that short-term care, but uh it is definitely not long-term care. Uh care delivered outside of the US. So many people will need some type of supplemental policy if you travel a lot. I’ve heard of instances where even you know when uh this person was on Medicare but it was in another country and became ill was in the hospital for about 10 days and there was other insurance that covered but Medicare did not cover outofcountry services. They do not cover dental vision, hearing aids, cosmetic surgery, acupuncture, alternative care uh amounts over Medicare approved amounts. So, if a doctor submits a a thing that says, “Here’s how much we’re going to charge for this.” Let’s say it’s a $10,000 thing, and Medicare says, “Oh, no. We’ll only cover $7,000 of that. Either lower it or the the patient might have 3,000 out-of- pocket costs.” So, amounts not covered by deductibles and that co insurance of that 20%. So those so there’s going to still be some out-of-pocket costs, but you can still get this supplemental policy to hopefully cover some of these others. So what private insurance co may cover in full or part. So your deductible. So if you have a supplemental policy, that could cover your deductibles for a uh for your part A deductible. Hospital costs after 60 days could be covered by your supplemental. the 20% out of pocket from your part B that is out of pocket costs could your supplemental could cover that and amounts that any doctors overcharge that Medicare did not approve. I can’t guarantee they will, but many uh your supplemental may cover that. And prescription drugs, um you know, so the deductible and most of the costs. So, you know, when you’re shopping for your part D and your supplemental, see if they will kind of work with each other to have as little out of pocket as you can potentially have. So, different types of policies for metagap policies or supplemental policies. Private health insurance for individuals sold by private insurance companies again Blue Cross Blue Shield, Etna, United Healthcare. Uh supplemental original Medicare coverage uh for A and B. So this is you do not get the supplemental if you are on the advantage plan. This is only if you are signing up for A and B. Uh they follow federal and state laws to that protect you. Uh there are different plans almost every state except for these three states that do not uh they have some different rules but medic um Medicare it’s or Medicaid even are you know their government but their state kind of state and federal government things working together. So each state might have different rules uh does not work with the uh Medicare advantage plan. Like I said, you pay a monthly premium. I would say on an average 200 220 a month is what you might be paying on a uh you know a supplemental policy and costs again vary by plan company and where you live. Here’s all the different plans that you can select from when you’re buying a supplemental policy. They are all standardized. Again, the premiums could c be different depending on the company and where you live. But when I look at F, plan F, you could see 100% 100% all the way down and foreign travel up to 80%. So this is the the what covers the most. You can look at A that covers the least. How much are the premiums on these? A is probably going to cost a lot less than F in this case. So, the more coverage you want. Now, when I talk about my when I talked about my dad, my dad’s situation, uh, he had plan a G, it was G at the time. Um, and it’s kind of one’s phasing out, one’s coming in. But F and G, the only difference between F and G is a, um, a deductible. It’s a couple hundred deductible um, for that. So when you have the full coverage, that’s why we had nothing out of pocket for my dad uh when he was in the hospital for all those days uh because pretty much whatever Medicare did not pay supplemental covered it. So pretty much there was nothing out of pocket. So again, when you’re shopping for your supplemental, they’re you’re going to get all these different options of plan A through N. you know, skipping a few letters in here, but uh um that’s, you know, so typically when I talk to people, well, what should I get? Should I, you know, I’m pretty healthy. I’m just going to get the cheapy one. Now, you can change these each year in in an enrollment period, but uh again, plan F, I figure that 200 to 220 a month. So, when I, you know, we’re going to add these up in a little bit to see how much an individual is actually going to be paying for health care coverage in retirement. So Medicare advantage plan again so advantage plan part C is the um it’s approved by Medicare also called the uh Medicare part C again advantage plan run by private companies you go shop for this uh Medicare pays amount for each member’s care you may have to use network doctors here’s that HMOish uh kind of uh coverage here so there might be some restrictions on who you can see uh plan may uh include clude prescription drug coverage if you add that or not uh may include extra benefits like vision or dental again you have to pay extra for those benefits and cost sharing may be different shop carefully for private insurance so these supplemental or metagap policies again you see choose a policy that of the coverage you need A through N uh choose a reputable company like I said earlier make sure your health care provider processes the billing for the company you choose. Uh drug plan coverage, your part D and your Medicare Advantage plan uh plans vary considerably. So um if you’re going to just get private insurance for your supplemental along with A and B or drug plan part D, advantage part C, those are private insurance carriers planning for higher health care costs in retirement. So as we look at what costs are going to be you know based on age groups and using you know for uh the dark blue is the services the top blue is what you’re paying in premiums uh for different age groups you can see for men for women and uh what kind of potential out-of-pocket costs that you could be based on varying ages obviously as we age it looks like these costs go up typical Medicare budget today. So, here’s that $22.990 that I said earlier. That premium for the supplemental or metagap policy around $200. Your prescription drug coverage I said earlier about $40 or so per month. And you’re looking at $442 per person. So, if you are a married couple, uh you’re still looking at almost $900 a month for health care coverage. And that’s just in the premiums for you. So again, does this cover pretty much everything, your doctor visits and everything, you know, but whatever Medicare doesn’t pay, your supplemental paying. So hopefully that’s the case, but there could be some other costs like dental, vision, uh, and things that um that are more elective that your insurance may not cover. So when we look at on an annual basis that 442 * 12 that’s 5,300 a month plus any out-of-pocket cost for prescription drugs and dental and vision maybe some alternative care and you’re looking at almost $7,000 a year in health care. What can cause your health care budget to change in the future? uh rising healthare health care costs higher insurance premium so if premiums keep going up which they do um health care uh a change in health status uh might mean you mean need more services and then same things that that are not covered by Medicare dental vision hearing alternative and long-term care those could be additional costs uh some scarier numbers here uh showing some just some surveys uh through a few different resources of how much lifetime someone could be paying for men, for women, for couples, uh for a couple, for fidelity, saying 345,000 over a lifetime. Uh that could be uh you know, for a long period. So, what are you going to be paying? Is this all going to change in the future anyway? Who knows what’s going to happen when they talk about Social Security fixing that problem, Medicare, Medicaid, and you know, and uh or is there going to be more uh kind of Medicare for all in the future? Who knows where any of this is going? Planning for long-term care. So, this is the thing. So, no coverage after 100 days uh for that skilled nursing. So, long-term care, we’ll touch on here. Let’s see what time uh I got a little bit of time to still go through that. Uh but when we look at 35% of people aed 65 have some type of activity limitations. Uh you can see some of those what percent on um independent living difficulty, self-care difficulty, ambulatory difficulty, cognitive declines that we see a lot of that. There’s a lot of memory care facilities that have been built over the last 15 years or so. um vision, difficulty hearing and any other any disability. 35% of people have some type of uh you know disability there. Causes of um of activity limitations whether it’s heart disease, uh high blood pressure, hypertension, stroke, asthma, look at all the way to the right higher is arthritis. All of these things that could lead to some activity limitations. Uh don’t need help now, just wait. So, these are basically this is the six things that determine if someone would qualify if they have like a long-term care policy and if they would qualify for earning receiving benefits. If a doctor says you can’t do two of the six daily living things, this is the six uh so bathing, showering, dressing, uh eating, uh transferring, they would call a bed to a chair, chair to a bed, uh walking and bathroom. So, these are the six things to say if someone’s going to qualify for long-term care. A doctor writes an a letter saying that they cannot do two of these six, then you could qualify for benefits from that. So, if you do have a long-term care policy and you would like to discuss that, please say yes at the end of the presentation when I put up that survey and we’ll have that conversation of what type of long-term care policy do you have, what does it cover? I’ve seen many times if you are making a monthly premium. I’ve seen where premiums go up, benefits go down, or a combination of both of those. Uh so, you know, if you have one of those policies and you have concerns about that, I would love to have that conversation with you. So, levels of care. Um maybe you just need help uh just, you know, shopping, preparing food, you know, meals, things like that. uh traveling, you know, using the phone, even uh just in general help is what some, you know, the lowest level of care. Uh custodial care, this is again assisting with those six uh daily living things. Uh so do you need any assistance with those or do you need more skilled nursing care maybe around the clock of uh someone assisting in giving medications, shots, you know, IVs, things like that that you need nursing care. What are the costs of long-term care today? You can see if you’re just going to have um someone helping around the house or private nursing home and how much that could cost. When you look at 350 a day or even like say $300 a day, 30 days in a month, you’re talking $9,000 a month for potential some of this care. Uh but do you need assistance around the house? Maybe you only need assistance 3, four, five days a week. Um you know, certain things. Maybe family members can help other days. Uh so there are certainly how do we cut some of these costs and how do we cover this? Uh long-term care is one of the things that I do um when I shop for different types of policies uh that has changed drastically over the last 10 to 15 years uh based on 20 25 years ago uh John Hancock and GE or Genworth were the big carriers back then. Um but uh you know it’s changed a lot. So, why plan for long-term care? Sparing family members of the burden. Excuse me. Avoid uh having to spend down your assets. Um that’s could be a big asset depleter paying for long-term care, especially if it’s a need of that $9,000 a month. That’s $18,000 a year. And if someone has $500,000 saved, that’s not a long time that that money could be gone. So, it’s certainly something to to plan for. So, three reminders. Enroll in Medicare on time, shop carefully for private insurance, and uh to go with your Medicare and PL uh plan for higher health care costs in retirement. Here’s a list of services and products and things that that I do before I go through the questions here in just a moment. uh just you know so if you are looking for I need I need help planning and again the complimentary I’ll use that complimentary plan that I do uh will very comprehensive of here’s what you have here’s what you want we’re going to take inflation into account we look at different types of accounts that you have is everything going to be taxable that you take out like a 401k um I use the term that many of us are what is called 401k rich, meaning not that necessarily that we’re rich, but most of our savings has been in a 401k uh comes out of your paycheck. It’s one of the easy ways to save that you don’t see it. Um, and but maybe you have a lot of savings. Maybe you have a lot of Roth IRA and different things that are some of its taxable every year like your savings, you get a 1099 every year on the interest that you earn, you have to pay taxes on that. A Roth IRA is all tax-free coming out, but your traditional IAS and your 401k, regular 401k is all taxable when you take it out. So, what types of assets do you have and how are you going to be funding your retirement, your long-term care, your health care, everything that your travel, everything that you want to do in retirement. I hope you and I can have that one-on-one conversation and talk about all of this for you. So, I’m going to go through the questions now. Now, you can see right now my information is up on the screen here. If you want to take a picture of that or if you have your camera handy, you can put it on the QR code there. You can hover over that your camera and then tap on the little yellow thing that comes up and you’ll have access to my calendar. You can do that right the second if you so choose. Um, and then we can uh you can just schedule that time right now. Uh, with that, I’m going to go through the questions. As I do that, I’m going to launch the survey right now. would you like to set up an appointment? Please say yes on there and we can have a complimentary. We do not charge for any of these uh planning services. So, if you would like to have that conversation, click uh click yes or if you’re not ready to um but with that, I’m going to go through the questions here. So, first one, what if uh you turn 65 but are still covered by your spouse’s medical plan since they are still working? that as long as it’s a qualified plan. As if it’s a spouse plan, that is absolutely fine as well. So, it doesn’t have to be your own specific. So, if you are covered under a spouse, yes, that’s absolutely fine. You can defer your part B um with that. That’s still a qualified plan. Any suggestions on how to estimate medical costs when planning to retire at 55? Uh that’s that’s a tough one at 55 because you’re going to be shopping for your own medical coverage. Uh call it Obamacare or just the you know you’re going to be shopping for it on the open market and do you have pre-existing conditions? Are there is there anything that could make it cost more? So it’s one of those with the health care that we have. You’re going to get coverage but you’re going to pay for it as well. especially if there are pre-existing conditions. But it’s something that we can put a plan together. Hopefully, you’re one of the yeses on there that if we can talk about from 55 to 65 and kind of put that in the plan, whether that’s a,000 a month if you’re a single person or up to 2,000 a month for premiums um when you’re shopping and it can be that much. Um you so but uh but we can put that in the budget to see if it’s something that is doable for you. uh in that retirement plan and from 55 to 65 we could assume those higher costs and then those costs would be would be reduced some uh by um by turning on Medicare at that time. Can you switch from option to B to the advantage uh or to option A Medicare if you don’t like uh the arrangement some some people have during the open enrollment period uh that you can change from let’s say A and B to the advantage plan or if you’re on the advantage plan back to A and B you can do that. Yes. Uh if you get the part C plan do you still need to sign up for B separately? No. So, it’s either A and B together, and that’s could be signed up for separately depending on if you have a work uh plan still. A is free, B you pay for, or you get C. You don’t get B with C. So, C is the advantage plan, but you would still add prescription drug coverage in that same plan. So, if you have C, you do not sign up for A or B. So, C is going to be a separate plan there. Uh how does part B get paid if you have part C plan which is supposed to cover A B and D again? Uh so part if you have part C uh everything is it’s all one premium. You’re it’s so technically A and B are in that C uh in that advantage plan, but you’re not paying for B separate. It’s all in your your advantage plan part C premium. You’re going to have your hospital, your doctor coverage, and your prescription drug coverage all in one encompass the one premium in the advantage plan. You do not have to pay for B separate to confirm if uh if I plan to retire at 65, I could wait and do special enrollment plan um at no penalty. But if something happens and I retire before 65, is it a good idea to apply for Medicare before 65 just in case? Depends on how much before. You can only sign up for it up to 3 months before age 65. Um, so uh you’re going to be in the initial. So this whole thing on this one is do. So if you’re retiring at 65, you have to sign up for A and B at 65. If you retire before 65, you might have to get some type of other coverage. And I’m talking at like 64 or 63 or 62. If it’s just a month or two before, you can sign up for Medicare, but it is not going to start until you are 65. So you might need some type of coverage for those couple of months before you turn 65. So if you were retiring at 65, you have to sign up for A and B to start at 65. If you retire before 65, uh you have to get some other coverage until Medicare kicks in at 65. I’m having uh trouble understanding the difference between metagap supplemental and Medicare advantage. So metagap supplemental, so I’m going to call it traditional coverage is A and B. A is your hospital coverage. B is your doctor visits and your doctor coverage. That’s A and B. What is called traditional Medicare that only cover it doesn’t cover 100% of everything. So many people will have a supplemental policy to cover what A and B do not cover deductibles or the the 20% that uh that Medicare part B does not cover. So that’s you’re just going to have a supplemental with A and B. If you are signing up for the advantage part C, you do not sign up for a supplemental plan. A a part C is an all-encompassing one plan uh that you have that covers your doctor visits, your hospital coverage and your prescription drug coverage all in Medicare part C. So they are separate things. A supplemental only goes with A and B. It does not go with the advantage part C. So we got a few more here I’ll try to get to. Uh uh so uh the entire process is so convoluted. Uh is there a difference on the benefits between New York and Illinois state? uh the cost there’s no difference in benefits but the uh costs could be different um in in supplemental but in whether you live in Illinois or New York your part B premium is still going to be two $22.90 that will not change but your supplemental coverage could be priced different in each of those states so but the benefits will be the same if you have a supplemental plan like that plan F that covered everything that Medicare does not. It’s a standardized coverage, but the premiums could be different depending where you live. Uh, can I be on Medicare without collecting Social Security? Medicare 65, Social Security 67. Yes, you will just have to pay that $22.90 out of pocket directly to direct, you know, a withdrawal out of a checking account or mailing in a check, however they do that. But yes, you can be on Medicare without being on social security. Uh so assume you must uh shop for metagap uh like for part D. Yes, you have to shop for uh the metagap or supplemental policy. Uh Do let’s see I am working age 60 and have PO insurance. My spouse uh spouse is 74. It does not have social security when he turned 65. Uh we tried to enroll him in Medicare A and um the cost was 600 a month. So you know what? This one’s a long one. I have your information. I’m going to email you separately on that. That’s kind of a long question there. And we’re running out of time here. I think we’re at the end of the questions. That one long one, I will get back to you on that. I will email you separate. Thank you all so much for your time and attention tonight. I really appreciate that. This is an important topic. Hopefully you and I will speak soon. Have a great rest of the evening. Bye-bye.