This is the Truth Network. Um 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, IRAID, long-term care, life insurance, investments, and taxes.
Now, let's get started with Finishing Well. Welcome to Finishing Well with Certified Financial Planner Hans Scheil. And today show how fun seven Medicare mistakes. And You know, for those of us who have entered into this time of Medicare. You know, I can't help but relate to Moses and Joshua, as there was a big transition when the Israelites had spent their 40 years in the wilderness, and now they're heading into the promised land, and it's just a whole new world.
with whole new rules. And the transition. You know, unfortunately, Moses didn't quite get there. uh but joshua leaned into god a lot obviously and and listened for the instructions As they Needed to fight all sorts of battles just coming out of the shoot. They had to fight in Jericho, et cetera.
Their shoes were wearing out. The mana was no longer there. And so Medicare is kind of like that. You get a whole new world. And so I love this seven mistakes, but it's also seven kinds of areas of Medicare that we're going to talk about today, Hans.
to really help people not make those mistakes. Because some of these mistakes, when it comes to Medicare, not unlike Hans, once you go there, you can't come back.
Well, it's exactly right. Personally, I don't really like Framing Medicare or anything else, a subject from the negative. I mean, it's just like, so. Let's go with it. Seven Medicare mistakes, but maybe another way we could say is: let's take things.
One by one, and let's these are these are seven things you need to learn about Medicare or seven areas. and subjects so we don't get into titling the first one Is the most important thing is you need to learn the difference between original Medicare. and Medicare Advantage.
Okay. These are two different things. They just you you you're gonna you've reached a fork in the road Which maybe you're eligible for Medicare and you're going to get it. And now You're going to go one way. or the other way.
There's no middle ground here.
Okay. And in order to get to Medicare Advantage, unfortunately, you got to go into original Medicare.
So you got to. You gotta make the turn down the original Medicare road. Just to get Part A and Part B, I mean, you got to sign up directly with Medicare. And then If you want Medicare advantage, Or you want to consider it and you want to get it. What you're doing is you're taking your original Medicare.
and you're turning it into a Medicare Advantage point.
So now I got you confused. it really just what i want you to understand is you're at a fork in the road Original Medicare is one way. Medicare Advantage is the other way, and you got to know the difference between the two in order to make a good decision. And that's what I'm going to give you in the next couple minutes here.
Okay. Um the difference between the two. And so Original Medicare is part A and Part B. Part of his hospital. Part B is doctor.
Yeah. you know, it has big deductibles and co-payments.
So if you only had original Medicare. which is the way the government looks at it. That's all people have is Medicare. is you're going to have big deductibles so you're going to have a 20% Co-payment. which is too big.
for anybody to stand.
Okay. Um And you're going to have a 20% co-payment, and you're going to have no overall cap. On the 20%.
So, like your group insurance that you had leading up to Medicare. That had a 20% co-payment. Probably two. But it had a cap that said when you spend, you know, like $2,000 or $5,000 out of pocket, now it goes to 100% or a 0% copayment. Medicare doesn't have something.
Original Medicare does not have that.
Okay, so Right off the bat, when people are looking at original Medicare, they're saying, well, I don't like that. I don't like those big deductibles and copayments. But what you're going to do if you stay on this side. with original Medicare is you're going to purchase a Medicare supplement. Like a plan G or a plan D or a plan F.
I mean, we'll get into that later. But So now if you go on Original Medicare, you're going to buy a supplement. And the two things together are are going to be some of the best insurance you've ever had. Could go in? Yeah, I would I would say Hans that Everybody I ever talked to about Medicare.
Does not understand this fundamental. I mean, you can say, Do you have original Medicare with a supplement? Do you have Medicare Advantage? And they look at you like they have a deer, like a deer in the headlights. And what a shame, because there's such a huge difference.
From my experience, having dealt with both. In the process. And so, this is a great place for education. Of course, we've got lots of videos. It's in your book, you know, the complete cardinal guide to planning for and living in retirement.
But just understanding fundamentally what the difference is between Medicare, original Medicare with a supplement, and Medicare Advantage is absolutely gigantic. understanding.
Well, it is, and what I'm going to tell you is, people blow by it. Very intelligent people blow by it. They They just, because I'm trying to stop you and slow you down here. And I'm just saying, I haven't even talked about the Medicare Advantage side yet. I've only talked about original Medicare and a supplement.
So I want to slow it down. And I just want you to consider the possibility that you might have been blown by this.
So Let's back up if you're on Medicare now and let's say. You got two ways you can go. Original Medicare. in which you're going to buy a supplement on top of that. Or you can go Medicare Advantage.
And what a Medicare Advantage is, is the government has just outsourced you. By your own election.
So you've just said, you've said to the government, I'm on original Medicare. But I don't want that. I want to get my Medicare. from a private insurance company.
Okay. And then, what Medicare is going to do is they're going to send your private insurance company that you've selected. A big check every month. A big, big check. And so they're done with you.
I mean, they're just they're sending them the money. And now Robbie is the Medicare Advantage insurance companies problem. Not our problem anymore, but we're sending them the money. Buy Robbie's election because they're going to say, well, Robbie said that's what he wanted.
Okay, so now you're over at Medicare Advantage. Why would anybody do this?
Well, there's some good reasons. It's not awful. There's some good reasons. Is that number one, you're going to have much lower deductibles and co-payments.
So Because we're just comparing it to original Medicare. Just get the supplement out of the equation. Just forget I even talked about that. and you're taking your original Medicare and you're turning it into Uh okay. A Medicare Advantage plan, and it's with a private insurance company, and it has.
Lower deductibles and co-payments, like 50 bucks every time you see the doctor, 20 bucks, or Um four hundred bucks if you go to the emergency room or $300 a day if you check in the hospital. With a maximum of six days.
So it's just overall. Much lower deductibles and out of pocket.
So that you would view that as a plus.
Now It also many of these have zero premium.
So they advertise You know, like You you pay us nothing. And you know, so that sounds pretty attractive. Yeah. but they're not being completely straightforward because they're getting their money. Not from you in premium dollars.
They're getting the money from the government because the government is done with you and they've just. Moved uh Money, it's a lot of money. Every month, they're getting their premium money or the financing from the government.
Okay. And so the zero premium looks attractive. And some people say if you compare that. to the original Medicare side and pay in a supplement. I mean, I know that I personally am paying like $165 a month for my supplement.
And if I had a zero premium Medicare advantage, but that'd be $165 I don't have to pay.
Okay, so we're gonna we're gonna put that down as an advantage to Medicare Advantage plans. And then you say, well, like, why don't I have? I can tell you two reasons. One is I don't Want anybody, I don't want my insurance telling me what doctor and hospital I got to go to.
Okay, I mean I um with these Medicare Advantage plans. Typically, they have a network. And you've got to decide in advance what hospital or doctors you're going to go to because you've got to stay in their network. What? to me a big disadvantage.
And then once I'm in there, And I go into this network doctor. You have this thing called managed care.
So the doctor is going to have to refer to the plan. to decide how they're going to treat you or care for you. The end. Um both of those things are really the two biggest disadvantages to Medicare Advantage plans, and they're enough to run a lot of people away from. Once they understand this, And the people that run away from there are the people that have the money and the resources.
Two. Stay on original Medicare and buy a supplement.
Okay. And the combination of that You're not You're going to pay more. But you're going to have a choice of doctors. You can go to any doctor in the United States that takes Medicare. And then, secondly, once you're at that doctor, They're not, Medicare or the insurance company is not going to be mucking around in your care.
You're going to be I can give you a prime example of this whole thing. I mean, just like, man, in a very short period of time. A year and a half ago, I had kidney stones. They were horrible. I was in unbelievable pain.
And I had Fortunately, Medicare with a supplement. I needed immediate help and the doctor was recommending I do this, wait on that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? And I stayed with that and what the doctor was recommending, I would have been in pain for maybe a week and a half. My daughter happened to be a nurse boom she made a phone call to another doctor happens to be a nurse she made on that phone He had me blasting those kidney stones within hours of that phone call. And based on the fact that I had America Medicare supplement, I was out of pain within hours rather than weeks.
And there you go. Yeah. I it it it is just My wife's going through some really difficult stuff right now. And we were just, I was living this. this week where we're We're over at Duke.
Was the best in the country But that's not good enough for me necessarily when my wife's got a serious illness. And so we're Listening to those people, but I'm going on Claude and Chat GPT, and I'm saying, who is the Where are the best people in the country with this disease that she has? Then I know about the treatment they're recommending. Where do you go? to get the best.
Immunotherapy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm looking at, and I was ready. After our appointment on Wednesday, Just uh getting on a plane. and flying to like MD Anderson or Uh, mayo clinic, or whatever, and it's just I can do that with a Medicare supplement and original Medicare. And this would be a great time actually to mention this show is brought to you by Cardinal Guide, CardinalGuide.com.
And if you go to cardinalguide.com, there are the seven worries tabs, and one of those obviously is Medicare, a huge one. And if you click on that, you're going to see a wonderful video. It shows all these seven with examples because I kind of don't. Know that we'll be able to cover the others in the detail that are in that video. You can see all that plus show notes, it's all there at cardinalguy.com, as well as Hans's book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement.
And all important, you want to bypass all the shenanigans, just contact Hans or Tom and just go to the again cardinalguy.com. We'll be right back with seven. Medicare mistake. 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. Seven Medicare mistakes.
We got six to cover. Yeah, we used up the whole first half of the show, and rightly so. of understanding the difference between original Medicare plus a supplement. in the Medicare Advantage.
So let's move on to number two, penalties. And where the mistakes are with penalties. Is Medicare They're sign-up penalties. is if you need to get your timing right. was signing up for Medicare.
So if you sign up for Part B, At the wrong time, or in other words, you don't sign up for Part B. At the right time. When you're turning 65, or if you're delaying because of group insurance, if you don't get this right, to sign up for Part B. They're going to penalize you. Medicare is, and the penalties last for the rest of your life.
I mean that sounds like a life sentence. I mean it's it's it's serious. And so I have other videos about these. If you want to call me for some of the details, we'll get into it. I'm just telling you that you need to get your timing right about your sign-up for Part B and for Part D.
like dog, like drugs, Part D.
So those are separate Items within Medicare, Part B and Part D, But the penalties happen around the timing of your sign up. And what it boils down to is if you were supposed to be signed up, But you didn't. And then there was a gap. Then you're going to have some problems actually getting signed up. Those are a horse of a different but then there's going to be a financial penalty.
that's going to last the rest of your life.
So Um It's an area that you need to research and understand. And we can help you do it. But A lot of mistakes happen in that. And I know that you, Robbie, personally, are having some sort of a little penalty on your Part B. or part D or one of them.
For the rest of your life. And it's very small because you were disenrolled for a couple of months and whose fault it was. And it's no longer irritating you, so I don't want to bring it up again. But it's just, it's there. Imagine what it would have been if you wouldn't have Part D for like a couple years or something.
It would be significant. Right.
Okay. Next one. Number three, Irma. The Medicare tax. And learning about it after the fact is the mistake.
Is people don't know what it is until they get the Irma letter that says your Medicare is not gonna be 200 bucks a month, it's gonna be 500 bucks a month. 700 bucks a month or something. Yeah. Boy, you talk about something that makes people angry. I mean, it's just.
Because and I think a lot of it is They didn't know about it. It just comes out of left field.
Now, there's more people talking about it now, but what it really amounts to is if you're a high-income person. is if you have a higher the normal income. I'll give you the details in a separate video or a separate show. Um Seven percent of the people in the country that are on Medicare pay IRM.
So it's smallest percentage. But they're gonna use your tax return, like if you're just going on Medicare right now. in 2026. You're just turning 65. They're going to use your 2024 tax return.
So they look back two years.
So now something you're just learning about, just going on Medicare, and they're telling you to pay this extra tax. but it's about your income two years ago of which you can do nothing about.
Okay, so this is the kind of thing you need to learn about it in advance. We can teach it to you. That's about all I'm going to tell you on this show. is the fact of not knowing about it and you can appeal it. If you're right around retirement, You can appeal Irma.
The end. have it greatly lowered because your income is going to go down after you retire.
Okay. Um Okay, next subject. Medicare does not pay for long-term care. That's pretty simple. The i people rely on that.
They just think, well, of course it pays for longer, too. And it doesn't. I mean it pays little bits for skilled care, so there's some little But when you When you need care. You've got something seriously wrong with you, and you've got to have people come into your home to help you. or for a long period of time.
or you need to go to an assisted living room to live and function, Medicare isn't going to pay.
Okay, and that's the mistake is just the false understanding that that's what Medicare is for.
Okay. Next one. The Medicare 10 standardized.
So now we're back on original Medicare and you're buying a supplement.
Okay. And now when we get into the buying a supplement, People don't understand, and there's a lot of people on them that don't understand, is those policies over 30 years ago were standardized.
So all the companies sell exactly the same thing. And there's ten of them.
So You know, you don't have to evaluate all 10 of them. I mean, you come into us, the plan G is. Generally, it has the highest benefits, so that's what most people buy that buy from us. They buy a plan G. But let's not get into the details of this.
I just want you to understand. Yeah. Mutual of Omaha, United Healthcare, Signa et nah. every other Medicare so they all sell exactly the same thing. But the prices are different.
So, if I cut all those companies I just named and several more, they all have different prices.
So, you know, you come into us. We're not going to go over all those different companies, but we're going to look into a rate calculator. You could do this on our website. and you can find out who offers you the supplement at the best price. And who offers the one you want?
At the best price.
So I just, the mistake happens is that people just think, ah, that sounds good to me. I'll just take it. Yeah. They don't understand that all the companies sell the same thing.
Okay. Um Medicare has Original Medicare has no co-insurance limit. I mentioned this. earlier.
So on original Medicare, you're responsible for 20%. for the bill. That's a lot. You could have a $200,000 bill. 20% of that is 40 grand.
Okay. There's no annual cap. on your out of pocket.
So People don't know that.
Now, they don't really need to know it. Like, you don't need to know that, Robbie, because you have a Medicare supplement. and your Medicare supplement covers the there's no need for a co-insurance. Overall, yeah. There's no need for it, but it it it is um Just so you understand, it's not on original Medicare.
Yeah. The last one. is that we've already gone over this is that original Medicare has no networks and no managed care. I mean, it's just any doctor in the United States. that takes Medicare.
You're good. and your supplement. Don't get involved in the network business, I mean, in the managed care business.
So, in other words, when you go to this doctor, that accepts Medicare. And you're doctor shopping, or you're going to research hospitals because you have something serious, or you're just in your own town and you want to go here. and not here. And so you're in there where your plan is paying. Yeah.
In addition, you can go anywhere, you've got no managed care, so that the insurance company is not telling the doctor what to do. Uh Okay? And I've made it through all seven. And we still have some time left. We do, about five minutes.
You know, there you mentioned so many things, you know. That You know, just to highlight some things that I couldn't help but know, you talked about. this idea that Irma But it's based on two years ago. And that people don't, even when they're 63, 64, begin to understand, in my opinion, they ought to buy your book about them. Because that's the time to understand that, man.
You don't want to sell that extra house when you're 65 years old, 64 years old. Because all of a sudden, that's going to affect your Irma. In other words, to begin to understand these. Concepts you know is something the sooner you can learn them and all the things that we're talking about right now the better off you are. And there's nothing wrong with knowing them when you're 63, right?
Yeah. You need to start researching Medicare. Five years early.
Now, maybe you don't need to research it deeply, and some people in this age group. They had experiences with their parents.
So they They've been exposed to it, but unfortunately, they take whatever experiences they had with their parents helping them. And they apply it all as facts to Medicare, not realizing they've got choices about all this stuff.
So I just advise is once you hit the number of 6-0, you need to start becoming a student of Medicare. And one easy way to do that, you can go to my YouTube channel. Our YouTube, you can go to our website, cardinalguy.com, find the YouTube channel, and you can click on Medicare. And you could probably find 20, 30, 40 videos about Medicare, and you go to the most current ones, they're going to have all the numbers that match the 2026 Medicare, but even some of the older ones. And you go through those.
You're going to get educated.
So you don't have to get a study. If you just start listening to us, when you're 63 years old, by the time you get to 65 and you're doing Medicare, Y you'll know more than a lot of people about Medicare. Yeah, and uh the other thing I would mention about the penalties And because of the penalty that I've paid, since, you know, and again, yeah, you pay it for life, and it's not a whole lot of money. But you're exactly right. My Part D coverage lapsed for a period of a couple months.
because my bank failed to take it out and I didn't know it and nobody sent me an email. And next thing I know, they've canceled it and because of that. You know, just Here comes this penalty. If it doesn't pay and it laps. you know, at whatever point in life, whether it's part.
You know, whether whether you're paying for whatever part of Medicare that's that's your part D coverage or whatever, I mean, you're going to have a penalty for the rest of your life.
So those things, you can't take any of it for granted.
Now, obviously, again, as we run out of time to remind you, that man I mean it it it's really helpful Um From my standpoint, that the education process of sitting through these shows and reading the book, et cetera. Um Worth the time to go to cardinalguide.com. And, like you say, click on those seven worries tabs. Not only do they have all the YouTube videos you can watch, there's radio shows on top of radio shows for years and years of all the education you can want. Of course, Hans's book, The Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement, is an amazing resource.
And there's a workbook that goes through that with that as well to help you apply the things that you've learned. And again, you can make it real easy. And just contact Hans and Tom there at Cardinal. guide.com. Again, this stuff is really um The rules change.
And it's kind of neat that Hans is not only Kept up with them in the past, but every time something changes, he's right on top of that to help you. And so thank you, Hans, for all you do with this.
Well, 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.
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Investment advisory services offered through Brookstrone 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.
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