This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Finishing Well, brought to you by CardinalGuide.com. With certified financial planner, Hans Scheil, best-selling author and financial planner helping families finish well for over 40 years. On Finishing Well, we'll examine both biblical and practical knowledge to assist families in finishing well, including discussions on managing Social Security, Medicare, IRAs, long-term care, life insurance, investments, and taxes. Now let's get started with Finishing Well. Welcome to Finishing Well, certified financial planner Hans Scheil, and today's show is Medicare Supplement for over 65 folks who already have a Medicare Supplement. Essentially, how can we save you money?
And that's what we're talking about today on Finishing Well. I always want to save money because we don't want to pay too much, you know. And as I was thinking about that idea of paying more than I wanted to pay, I couldn't help but think of that old saying, I hope you've heard it, but it's certainly very true, I've experienced it myself, I bet you have too, that sin itself will take you further than you want to go.
It will keep you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you actually way more than you want to pay. And all you have to do is take that simple illustration of that donut that's been sitting in the break room, right? You know, if there are three more, you'll have taken it further than you wanted to go.
You're definitely sitting at the table longer than you planned on it, and oh my goodness, you know, when you check your blood sugar the next time, you'll see that all these are very, very true. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, that God gives us this obvious situation he explains in the Scriptures in James 1.14, he says, I, our one who's conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death. Like, oh my goodness, we don't want anybody to pay that price, and so that's why we hear it finishing well, always want to tell you that Jesus died, that that wouldn't have to happen for any of your sin, but Hans, today's show is just simply a really great idea for people that are on Medicare supplements, right? Here's the rub on this, is that you, if you've had your Medicare supplement for three years or longer, I'm not saying run out and replace it, I'm just saying you ought to take a look, you could go to our website, yeah, cardinalguide.com, and you can go onto the Medicare tab, and there's a rate calculator, and you could just go in there, you need to know if you've got a plan G, or a plan N, you could just go on there, put in plan G, if that's what you have, put in your age, put in your zip code, and hit go, and see what it would cost you to get a new one. Again, not telling you to run out and get another one, you can just call us, we'll do that for you.
We'll run the proposal and look at your options. But when you go to a new insurance company, they're going to want to ask you health questions, so to save this money. And it could be that some of you have had your Medicare supplement for a long time, but you've used it a lot, you've maybe had cancer, and if that cancer has been within the last two years, or the last three years, perhaps we need to wait a while before we change it, because they're going to ask you if you had cancer in the last three years.
Or two years. All the different companies, they're different about what they ask. So I'm hesitant to say you're in great health, that's the only time you change, because you can have some pretty serious stuff, but if you got it under management, this new Medicare supplement company is going to take you. And you're not going to find that in a book anywhere, that you need to call us. We represent most of the insurance companies selling this stuff. But I'm just telling you, when we contact our own clients, and inform them of this, most of them are not aware what they're paying every month. And I'm wondering, even with you, Robbie, I know you're a client. Do you know what you're paying every month for your Medicare supplement? I think I do. I think it's $135 a month.
I'm pretty certain that's about it. But I think we should take a minute, probably to explain a couple things. I feel like we should say that, with Medicare supplement, either same word for both things, that they have those letters that are not like Medicare Part A, Part B, Part C, these are letters that are the plan that you may have. And so when he's saying plan G, then all insurance companies that carry plan Gs are required by the government so that every plan G has to have exactly these coverages. So if you've got UnitedHealthcare plan G, it's exactly the same thing as AARP's plan G, or whoever other Medicare supplement, a plan G is a plan G is a plan G. And so when you're shopping price on these, you're not shopping your coverage at all. You're just simply getting the advantage of a better price for exactly the same thing.
Right, Hans? They are standardized, is what the word is. And they've been standardized for years. So you're exactly right. A plan G is a plan G is a plan G. And that's true in 47 states and D.C.
The three exceptions are Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. They have standardized plans, but they don't call them A, B, C, D. They call them something else. So I'm going to try to simplify. There's ten standardized plans. And all we talk about in the video and we're talking about today is the plan G, the plan N, and then the high deductible plan G. Because there's reasons for that is the plan G offers the highest level of benefits. So when you start shopping for these things, once you're going to go individual Medicare supplement, most of the time it makes sense to just go with the one with the best benefits or the most benefits, which is the plan G. Now, there's an exception to that for people that are 71 and over. You know, in other words, you went on Medicare before 2020, you could actually have a plan F. Like plan F, like Frank. And the Fs are not available now to people who are just coming on to Medicare, have come on since 2020.
The government prohibits them, but anybody that had one or came on before 2020, you can buy an F, and it's a little bit better than a G, but it's not significant. And just for the purposes of simplifying, let's just look at the rates for the plan G, because they're very similar. And that has the best benefits. Now, the plan N is enough less than the plan G that you give up some benefits.
They're not real significant, but they have some significance. So if you really want to save a little money, you can go to a plan N, N like Nancy, and that plan is still going to give you comprehensive coverage, and it's pretty much going to be 30 bucks a month less. So that might be something you want to look at, too. But that tends to confuse the discussion when people call us to shop price. We'd rather quote you the price for exactly the same policy that you have now. Okay. And you could do this on the Web.
You can go into our calculator on our website at cardinalguide.com, or you can just call us. I'm just going to tell you that if you've had your plan for three or four years, you can buy exactly the same thing from a different company and probably save you 30, 40 bucks a month, which is significant. Yeah, because apparently, you know, what I've seen over the years already is that different insurance companies come into the market and they go, oh, well, we're going to offer this and they're still, I guess, mitigating the numbers or whatever that insurance companies do to create a premium. And their premium is better from a competitor standpoint because they're trying to build a book of business.
Right. And so and along about the third year, they have to start raising that premium because they made it too low in the first place. And just about all of them do it. And we recommend it and sell it to clients.
Well, why wouldn't you? I mean, they're just they're a big name company offering this stuff for the deal, but they got to start making up for that. And just about when it becomes significant, about the third or the fourth year, that's when you need to think about making a change.
And then you're going to reset it back to what it was or close to what it was when you first started. And you say, well, why should I go through all that for 30, 40 bucks a month? And I'm going to tell you, here's the answer. If you left this thing alone and we get 6, 8, 10 years down the road, we have clients who haven't done this with us. We called them up. We said, hey, you ought to move. And they said, I'm happy with where I am.
Just leave it alone. And then we call them again. And now it's 8, 10 years later. And they're paying 300 bucks a month for their Medicare supplement. And they could buy a new one for 150. They're 80 years old at this point. And then perhaps they no longer have the health. Their health is such that they can't answer the question. So they're stuck on this expensive premium in their 80s.
Yeah. And actually that happened with my dad, as I recall. That very thing when we checked out his Medicare supplement, which actually ended up being the deal of a lifetime. Because as I've told many people many times, you know, I think my father may have been paying $400 a month by the end of his life for that Medicare supplement. But oh, my goodness, all the trips to the hospital, all the ambulance, all the things that he went through at the end of his life.
And he didn't end up owing a penny. It made it so obvious that this was such a value. And he had a plan F. But the only difference was it pays your deductible right at the very beginning of the year. Right. But the point is these things in terms of benefits are exactly the same.
Now, there's something in there for company service. You know, if the company, you like the company and we like the company and they've got a good financial rating and all that kind of stuff. I mean, I'm not suggesting you always buy the least expensive one. I'm just saying that you're going to pick from the ones that are the least expensive on the list. There's going to be 40 companies on that list for 40 plans when we quote you the rate.
I'm going to say you take the top five or eight of them and then you pick the one that you like the company the best and you go for it. Well, that's a good time to remind you that the show is brought to you by Cardinal Guide, cardinalguide.com. And there at Cardinal Guide, they'll have the seven worries tabs and like their menu items. And if you click on the tab for Medicare, obviously, that's what we're talking about today. You're going to find a wonderful video with the exact same title and that will give you show notes and all sorts of exact numbers on Plan G's, et cetera, et cetera.
And you can see the website where that looks like it's just wonderful stuff. It's all there at cardinalguide.com again under the Medicare tab, as well as Hans' book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement and my all time favorite, the Contact Hans or Tom page there at cardinalguide.com. We'll be back in just a moment with a whole lot more on the idea of Medicare supplement Medigap coverage for people over 65.
We'll be right back. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, abbreviated BCM, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Cardinal Advisors are independent of each other.
Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Cardinal Advisors is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. Welcome back to Finishing Well with certified financial planner Hans Scheil and today's show is Medicare supplement or Medigap coverage for people over 65 who already have been on Medicare supplement like this in a way to save some money, right Hans?
That's it. Yeah, you know, when we take on a client, a lot of them at 65 are at their start of their Medicare Part B and we look – we want to have this client, we want to serve this client for the rest of their life and the rest of their retirement. Now, probably I'm not going to be around to do the serving because I'm 66 myself and Tom is 33 and some of our other many Toms that are here, I mean, I've laid this business out and this is a real part of our strategy is let's get the people at 65 to do business with us. We're going to make a good recommendation and then every three to four years, we're going to be changing them if we can. And the if is if they've got health problems that prevent them from buying a new supplement, I guess they're stuck with what we sold them three years ago or four years ago because once your health turns, all these companies are going to ask you health questions.
And they're going to exclude people that have cancer currently and they're going to exclude people that have heart surgery nine months ago or they have congestive heart failure or that kind of thing. And so there are certain ailments that once you have these, they're not going to go away and you're just effectively stuck with who we sold, which isn't terrible but I'm just saying that if you start with one at 65, you leave it there and then when you're 75 or 80, you're going to be paying a lot of money for that supplement just because of the raises. So if you're the person that's three or four years in or five or six years in and you've had the same one all the time, you need to look at what you're paying.
You need to look on your bank statement and see how much are they taking out of my bank account every month, write it down and then you need to shop. And if you've been six years and you're 71 and you've never changed it, it's not going to hurt you to look, okay? And you're going to be real surprised.
Maybe even that same company has introduced one at a lower price. We can tell you that. We've got most of them under contracts with them. And I just want to emphasize this is a maintenance thing that we'll do for you if you're one of our clients. We're going to be contacting you, telling you when it's time to do it. All I'm telling you all that are listening is this is something you need to manage through your retirement.
And if you're somebody that's under 65 and you kind of manage this for your parents or maybe you don't but you think you probably should, look into your parents' deal. It's like Robbie referred to his dad earlier in the show and he had me do exactly that. I went and called on your dad. I was real fortunate to meet him before he passed away soon thereafter. But I mean before he had his whole incident, he could have changed his supplement and probably cut the premium in half because he was in good health.
Yeah, he really was. But also I think it's important to note that if you're under 65 and you've made a decision that you think you want to get a Medigap plan, you want to go with a Medicare supplement like what we've been talking about. And I highly personally recommend that. But there are no health questions if you do it when you first sign up. And so you can get right on a Medigap or a Medicare supplement without any questions when you're coming out of the chute at 65, right? Again, it's called open enrollment.
It's wonderful. And when we get people that have serious health conditions that are just turning 65, we make different recommendations to them because we know the history of a number of these companies. And there's some of them that charge more to begin with, but they've had a better history of stable rates. And so if we got somebody that's coming to us at 65, they can buy from any company they want, no health questions, but we can see they're not going to be able to answer health questions later. We're going to put them with a different company than we are somebody that's in really good health because the people in really good health are not willing to pay the extra just because we tell them that we think this company has rate stability. That make sense?
Yeah, it's a great idea. So I want to talk a little bit about the end policy because if you are frugal with this stuff and you want to, we tend to recommend Gs to just about everybody. That's what I have myself.
That's what you have, Ravi. And the G offers the highest level of benefits. And it's not that much more than the end. But just as an example, a 70-year-old female in North Carolina, we had this on the video, she can buy a G plan from Medeco for $124.32 a month. And this is a single female. If she was married, this premium would even be less than 120. And her spouse bought a policy from them, 124.32. And the plan N, like Nancy, is $91.26 a month. So it's $33 a month less. Now, would I recommend that everybody go buy Ns because it's $30 a month less?
The answer is no. And the reason I say that is I think that what you get extra for the G, which is really coverage for the excess charges, may not be worth a lot to you now, but conceivably they could cut back Medicare enough in the future that they put the doctor's balance billing or excess charging, they make the patient pay that money. And you're going to be real glad that you have the extra coverage of the G. So I think the G is the best buy. But if you're cost-conscious, I wouldn't be real objectionable that you buy N and N. And if people are listing in Florida, I've got a similar example where I'm going to show you the G with Medeco on this 70-year-old female in Florida is 272 bucks a month, SAC-SAME-G. You know, what's 124 bucks in North Carolina is 272 in Florida.
Okay? So just to show you Florida people, you're saving money on income taxes, but you're paying it through the nose for Medicare supplement. And a plan N is $163.16 from the same company. So I don't think those extra benefits of a G are worth 110 bucks a month. So if you lived in Florida, you're talking to me, you might very well end up with an N. So it's something to consider if you're looking to cut some costs is going with an N. There's one other plan I want to talk about, which is the high deductible G. So they made a provision where the government did, where they said, okay, so you can sell the same plan G. And what we're going to do is we're going to put a $2,870 deductible on the whole scheme. So if you have claims, all you're going to get is where you're out of pocket is $2,800 or less in a year.
You're not going to get anything out of the Medicare supplement. You're just going to pay that $2,800 out of your pocket. And you say, well, that doesn't sound like a very good deal.
Well, I don't have it. But where people are working it out smart in this thing, the premium in North Carolina for a high deductible G with the same company, Medeco, is $42.89 a month where you would pay $124.32. So it's $80 a month less for the high deductible G. So in a year, you're saving about $1,000 in premium.
But if you have a big claim every three years, you're about breaking even. I mean, does that make sense? Yeah. And it always gets back to what we talk about from my perspective if you get bad sick, right? I mean, the plan G is high deductible deals.
Great. If you're in great health, yeah, you're going to pay for it. And you can be in great health for eight years.
You won on that deal. But the whole reason you have insurance, from my perspective, is in case you get bad sick, because that's when your family's not going to have the money. When you need the resources, you need the resources. And when you can afford the insurance, to me, it's the best time to buy the insurance. Because you don't want to be in that situation where you're 85 years old, your family's not in a position to help you, and oh my gosh, you've got a $2,800 deductible, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm an insurance person when it comes to that.
That's me. Sure. Well, and so we get to the more expensive states, like we're back in Florida, and we're talking about a G plan being $3,000 a year. And the high deductible G, you know, we could get it with like AARP or Cigna for around $60 a month or $720 a year.
Now, every year, you're saving almost as much in premium as paying the $2,800 deductible, so it's something to consider. And, you know, we'll have a discussion with you about all three of these things. We know them all backwards and forwards, and we have a whole bunch of companies. And, you know, as we talked last week, we're also fiduciaries, you know, anytime we're doing this stuff. So we have a duty to put you in the right plan for you.
Yeah, that's beautiful. And again, it's a good time to remind you this show is brought to you by Cardinal Guide. cardinalguide.com, and there at cardinalguide.com, you're going to find the seven worries tabs or sort of menu tabs that you can click on. And today's show is under Medicare. And so if you click on the Medicare button, you're going to find a video with the exact same title, essentially Medicare Supplement Medigap Plan G and High Deductible Plan G and Plan N. And if you click on that, you're going to see a lot more details. The show notes that include all the numbers that Hans talked about in today's video.
And again, just a lot more information, but another really, really wonderful resource, especially when it comes to Medicare, Social Security, those kind of things, is Hans's book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement. And so with that book, you kind of get a base course. And then he's got a study guide that goes along with it. And so both those are available, both the book and the study guide there at cardinalguide.com. And of course, my all time favorite is the contact Hans or Tom page because, you know, you tell them your situation, your wife's situation, you know, what you're on, what you're doing. And it's so wonderful to have somebody that really knows what they're talking about to do something customized for your situation because it's not a cookie cutter deal at all.
And so that's at the contact Hans or Tom page at cardinalguide.com. And so once again, great show Hans. We appreciate everybody listening.
Thank you and God bless you. The opinions expressed by Hans Scheil and guests on this show are their own and do not reflect the opinions of this radio station. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable, although it should not be relied upon as such.
Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results. Any strategies mentioned may not be suitable for everyone. Information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for you. Before acting on any information mentioned, please consult with a qualified tax or investment advisor to determine if it's suitable for your specific situation.
Finishing Whale is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject covered. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, abbreviated BCM, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Cardinal advisors are independent of each other.
Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Cardinal Advisors is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency. We hope you enjoyed Finishing Whale brought to you by CardinalGuide.com. Visit CardinalGuide.com for free downloads of this show or previous shows on topics such as Social Security, Medicare, IRAs, long-term care, life insurance, investments and taxes, as well as Hans' best-selling book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement, and The Workbook. Once again, for dozens of free resources, past shows, or to get Hans' book, go to CardinalGuide.com. If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for future shows, click on the Finishing Whale radio show on the website and send us a word. Once again, that's CardinalGuide.com. CardinalGuide.com. This is the Truth Network.
