Maximize Your Medicare Newsletter 10 Dec 2014

Maximize Your Medicare Newsletter December 10, 2014

Connect and Share Maximize Your Medicare everywhere:

People don’t know how Medicare works. People you know may not discuss it with you for personal and private reasons.

This should NOT be mistaken as: “My friend doesn’t talk about it, so he/she get it.”

Help them: share this.

WELCOME TO THE NEW FORMAT Along with a new edition of Maximize Your Medicare, I thought a new format for the newsletter, might be a good idea.

Maximize Your Medicare (2015 Edition) The new edition is at the publisher. You can purchase it directly here, and use the coupon code: 2UE3ZCYW for $4.00 off (retail price: $14.99). This offer will expire on December 31, 2014.

There are new introductions at the beginning of every chapter, called “Truths and Myths.” The amount of misunderstanding is enormous, and can be potentially costly.

The bullet points at the beginning of every chapter point out some of these incorrect beliefs held by many.

There is some thought given to Long--Term Care and Medicare, as well as how important Medicare is to a person’s retirement plan.

It will take a few days to get on amazon.com.

SEND JAE YOUR PERSONAL QUESTIONS and REQUESTS Jae [at] maximizeyourmedicare [dot]com or CLICK THE ICON FREE ANDROID APP: You enter Date of Birth, and check some boxes. Depending on your answer, out comes a checklist of issues to consider.

A perfect place to start for those new to Medicare.

Maximize Your Medicare Newsletter December 10, 2014

Connect and Share Maximize Your Medicare everywhere:

People don’t know how Medicare works. People you know may not discuss it with you for personal and private reasons.

This should NOT be mistaken as: “My friend doesn’t talk about it, so he/she get it.”

Help them: share this.

MyMedicareAnswers.com I don’t think it could have gone any better. MyMedicareAnswers.com is an excellent website. Consumer questions are answered by experts. Those answers are, in one word, awesome, by people that have obviously dealt with reallife situations.

I will be very candid (as usual). There are limitations to the website, because the financial implications are not really addressed, and the full extent of consumer choices is not fully described.

For example: employer-sponsored plans are expensive for those that are Medicare-eligible. Period. In many cases, they can be cancelled, and a private market solution (Medicare Advantage / Medigap) are much cheaper. I would even say that there are certain aspects in which these private market solutions are superior at a lower cost, even after taking into consideration the Part D Coverage Gap. Why? The federal government is watching MA and Medigap, but the private carrier can deny coverage under a group plan (which is not a Medicare Advantage group plan). This stuff cannot be addressed on a website linked to an insurance carrier.

SEND JAE YOUR PERSONAL QUESTIONS and REQUESTS Jae [at] maximizeyourmedicare [dot]com or CLICK THE ICON FREE ANDROID APP: You enter Date of Birth, and check some boxes. Depending on your answer, out comes a checklist of issues to consider.

A perfect place to start for those new to Medicare.

Maximize Your Medicare Newsletter December 10, 2014

Connect and Share Maximize Your Medicare everywhere:

People don’t know how Medicare works. People you know may not discuss it with you for personal and private reasons.

This should NOT be mistaken as: “My friend doesn’t talk about it, so he/she get it.”

Help them: share this.

Wall of Shame: Delphi Salaried Retirees Association (DSRA) I wrote Maximize Your Medicare to attempt to describe Medicare, the choices, and the process that can be used to select a Medicare plan (MA / Medigap). I wrote the examples “This Happens” because I don’t have an axe against any single group, and we aren’t going to resolve the public policy debates that surround Medicare anytime soon.

BUT: That doesn’t mean that all groups are innocent victims and it doesn’t mean that all parties cannot find better solutions for Medicare-eligible people. For those of you, there is the Wall Of Shame, and you, Delphi Salaried Retirees Association (DSRA) are a prime example.

Note: Nothing here suggests an objection to the controversy regarding the PBGC and the cash pension benefits. This is isolated to health insurance and Medicare.

First, the most obvious was the misleading fact that DSRA continued to state that the Health Care Tax Credit (HCTC) would be extended. No chance, no way, and now the facts have become apparent. An amendment was passed in Congress. Not ratified. It NEVER made practical sense. There is healthcare.gov, state-specific exchanges, Medicaid expansion: these are avenues that the government pointed to as endpoints for those that can access health insurance. To overturn the HCTC would have been akin to saying, “different rules apply to Delphi Salaried Employees, compared to other retirees of bankrupt companies around the nation.” (More)

SEND JAE YOUR PERSONAL QUESTIONS and REQUESTS Jae [at] maximizeyourmedicare [dot]com or CLICK THE ICON FREE ANDROID APP: You enter Date of Birth, and check some boxes. Depending on your answer, out comes a checklist of issues to consider.

A perfect place to start for those new to Medicare.

And...It’s FREE.

Maximize Your Medicare Newsletter December 10, 2014 Edition

Connect and Share Maximize Your Medicare everywhere:

People don’t know how Medicare works. People you know may not discuss it with you for personal and private reasons.

This should NOT be mistaken as: “My friend doesn’t talk about it, so he/she get it.”

Help them: share this.

Wall of Shame (continued): DSRA Second, the DSRA group Medicare benefits are worse than the market. First, the price is too high, by a large degree. Group Rx is more expensive than the private market. Second, the supplement policy is also more expensive, although it does have age-brackets for older retirees.

Worst of all: I have personally volunteered (at no fee or obligation) to provide this information to the DSRA membership as a whole.

The answer was something along the lines of “We don’t want to be seen as endorsing a specific individual.” That makes no sense whatsoever. Attendees at information sessions can take the information provided, for free, and execute away from me.

Make all the statements you would like, DSRA, but please don’t make the statement that you are providing a complete set of available information for the benefit of your members. That is a blatant untruth, and it can (and has) cost DSRA members well over $1000 every year. Thus, the DSRA has earned its place on Maximize Your Medicare’s Wall of Shame.

By no means is this an isolated example (in case you wondered)….

Switching from Medicare Advantage to Medigap You can do this, but you must follow certain steps, in order to do this right. I detailed these steps, and important issues to consider, on www.mymedicareanswers.com.

You can read my comments on it here.

SEND JAE YOUR PERSONAL QUESTIONS and REQUESTS Jae [at] maximizeyourmedicare [dot]com or CLICK THE ICON FREE ANDROID APP: You enter Date of Birth, and check some boxes. Depending on your answer, out comes a checklist of issues to consider.

A perfect place to start for those new to Medicare.