Can You Navigate the Medicare Maze at 65 and Beyond?

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.

So can you navigate the Medicare maze at 65 Myon? Today's finishing well. Was certified financial planner Hans Scheil. And so if you can imagine. A huge maze with dozens of entrances, right?

Every sign promises it's the best route. And some paths look easier, some have more perks, others cost less up front, but only one path is the best fit. for where you're trying to go. That's what turning 565 feels like when Medicare just isn't about choosing insurance. It's about making decisions that could affect your doctors, your finances, and your peace of mind for years to come.

You know, Proverbs tells us: trust in the Lord with all your heart, and He'll direct your paths.

Well, Today we're going to help you navigate, we hope that The Medicare maze with some wisdom, you know, rather than confusion. And you might remember in. Matthew chapter 7, Jesus finishes. Uh, this wonderful Sermon on the Mount with the idea of choosing the narrow gate, you know. And when I think about, you know, when I turn 65, there are so many roads, there are many roads.

But there's only one that really gets you where God wants you to go, right? And so like Medicare has hundreds of plans, countless advertisements, believe me, lots of loud voices that are wanting to talk to you. But the question isn't which is the most popular. The question is, which plan fits? What God has for me and will best take care of my needs, my family's needs moving forward.

And so, Hans, it's time to navigate. It is.

Well, you know, nice opening. Um So if you're turning 65. in the near future or maybe even the distant future. You got this in front of you. If you've already turned 65.

and you're on Medicare. And perhaps You didn't Really learn all this. You just went into the maze and you started making lefts and rights and. Followed whoever sounded good. Yeah.

You just ended up in. in a place And a lot of times people say, oh, I'm very satisfied with what I have. And you know, the question I have is: have you been sick yet? you know, seriously sick. Yeah, for most people, that's no.

Well then it's kind of like how are you satisfied with your health insurance?

So if you know haven't really used it. And that's the experience that you really read about in the news lately. Wow. people specifically on Medicare Advantage plans. that are using it and they're seriously sick.

Um I have a Family member.

Well She's got this pain in her abdomen and It is They think they know what they think it is. And they're treating that, and she's not doing well with the treatment, but they want to do a. A CAT scan. Her doctor wants to do a CAT scan. And what I just learned, she called my wife and Talking to him about the whole situation, and she's having to get approval from Medicare.

to get the scat scan.

So and she's still uncertain of whether Medicare Is going to approve her getting a CAT scan, and you know what they're looking for with a CAT scan, is they're looking for cancer. I mean, and they're just ruling out cancer is what they're really doing. Yeah. I just know she's on a Medicare Advantage plan. I know that personally.

Yeah. That's why she has to go to the in the She thinks she's going to Medicare, but she's going, her doctor's going to the plan. And the plan is saying whether she can get this CAT scan or not. And if she was on original Medicare, Just stayed on Medicare Part A and Part B. And then she purchased a supplement from a private insurance company.

If she had done that. There would be no prior approval. She would have just, the doctor would have just scheduled the CAT scan and she'd be on her way to go do it.

So I tell you that, there's hundreds of horror stories out there. lately, even more so than in the past, around managed care. Really doing its thing.

So, I'm going to just go into this whole session today. with a little bit of a beware. that I didn't put on there in the past.

Okay.

So if you're approaching 65. You're gonna have three sets of decisions that you're gonna have to make. One is: am I gonna sign up for Medicare at 65? Or am I going to delay? And then, once you've made that decision and you've decided to sign up at 65.

Then you're going to say okay Am I going to stay on original Medicare? and purchase a supplement. Yeah. Am I going to take my original Medicare and turn it into a Medicare advantage point?

So, and that's a clear fork in the road. It's not a It's not, I want a little bit of both. And that's where a lot of people end up. Yes. They're kind of looking at the whole picture and they hear a little bit about supplements.

and original Medicare and then they hear a little bit about Medicare Advantage plan and like my relative that she Sheep. She thinks it's Medicare. And it is. but it's really the plan because she's on a Medicare Advantage plan. Clear fork in the road, you gotta make that decision.

And then unfortunately, I would point out that the voice is so loud and that for Medicare Advantage plans. that you will hear. Probably a hundred thousand ads for Medicare Advantage before you hear one ad. For original Medicare with a supplement. And in real life.

And when you really think about it, you know, in the terms that I think of things. is that how many ads do you see for the lottery. Right? There's billions of them. Why are there so many ads for the lottery?

Because somebody's making a lot of money in the lottery. I'm just saying. You know, you have to wonder when these people are screaming at me so loud about, man, I can get this grocery coverage and I can get this gym plan and all these different things that they talk about with Medicare Advantage. I would just. put that in the light of Okay.

why is it that this voice is so loud for this and it it and for me it's a critical understanding in that second decision but you're Your first decision is a big, huge one too. Are you going to delay and you got to know what you're doing there? Sure, so let's talk about that for a minute. Really, the only thing reason that you would delay signing up for Medicare. is because You're working.

At sixty-five, past sixty-five. then you have group insurance. Or your spouse is working. and has group insurance that covers you.

So if one of those situations exists, You can Not get Medicare at 65 and you can delay. And then if you this properly. and you get to be 66 or 67. Yeah, or 68, and your spouse retires, you retire. You lose the group insurance, all the same benefits that you would have had at 65 are just delayed, and you're going to have those now at 68.

Now, don't listen to what I just said and go delay in Medicare because there's a whole bunch of footnotes on there. Number one, is this group insurance that you're relying on past 65 needs to be what the government calls creditable. and creditable means That There are more than 20 employees or 20 or more employees covered under the group.

So I don't want to get into too much of the details, but. If you have creditable group insurance. You have the option to not get Medicare.

Now, this doesn't include COBRA.

So if you If you retired or got laid off. and you're covered under cobra. And then you turn 65. You've got to dump the Cobra and get Medicare. And if you don't get this right.

There's lifelong penalties, and you're going to have problems getting back signed up on the Medicare.

So this is just extremely important. to understand is before you get into any of the insurance the benefits the costs Because you're at this first point in the maze. Are you going to be a person that delays sign up? Yeah. Are you going to be somebody that signs up for Medicaid?

Have I gotcha? It's critical. I agree. You got me.

Okay.

So now we're going to assume that you're not going to delay and you're going to start Medicare.

So, what you're going to do is you're going to go to ssa.gov.

Socialsecurity administration.gov, SSA.gov. and you're going to open up a My Social Security account. And while you're there, you might as well pull off a Uh Illustration of your social security statement. We're going to need that in another area. You're going to need to study that.

Perhaps bring it to me. Um But this is where you sign up for Medicare. This is where you can go in and do it online now. and you go in there and you say, hey, I'm 65, they already know that. And you know, I would show you whether you qualified by all the Social Security you paid in.

And now you sign up for Part A and Part B.

Okay.

And the part A is not going to cost you anything. The part B is is gonna be a minimum of $202 a month. That's if you don't do Irma.

So you're going to have to start paying for Part B, $202 a month if you're everybody. And if you have a high income. You're going to pay more than 200 to them. That's as far as I'm going to go with that today. The more is called Irma.

and we can provide some consulting, and we can show you how to manage that a little bit. But just understand, you're going to sign up for Part A. And part B Part A doesn't have a cost, Part B does, $202 a month or more.

Okay.

So This might be a good time. To take a break. Is that yeah, absolutely. It's a good time to remind you that this show is brought to you by Cardinal Guide, CardinalGuide.com. And if you go to CardinalGuide.com, they have a beautiful.

Like menu tabs, it's called the seven worries, and today's is Medicare. And if you click on that tab, you're going to find a video exactly along these same lines of managing the maze. And here, they have a board to actually show you the maze, as well as show notes that include the actual guide from Medicare themselves and some help from Tom along those lines. It's all there at cardinalguide.com, of course, as well as Hans's book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement, and the workbook that goes along with that. And I will say that is extremely helpful if you're just now.

Um Getting into Medicare, you've never studied it before, that book is amazing on this particular subject, in my opinion. Definitely worth the read if you're turning 65, I'm telling you. And then, of course, the Contact Hans and Tom page, which when it comes to navigating this mage, so there's the. It is going to be really, really, really helpful to you. to have them look at your situation as an individual.

I can't imagine having navigated it originally without Hans's help, without Tan's help. which actually Tom's been more helpful. Recently, and all that stuff for me is still stuff that we need.

So, it's all there at cardinalguide.com. And of course, we'll be right back with a whole lot more. Can you navigate the Medicare maze at 65 and beyond? 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.

Well, welcome back to Finishing Well with Certified Financial Planner Hans Scheil. And today's show, can you navigate the Medicare maze at 65? and beyond. And so we got past. the first part of the maze and now we're into the second part, Hans.

Still trying to decide is we got you signed up for Medicare. You got part A and you got part B. And now you're at another crossroads. You can either Leave that alone. And just Accept your Medicare Part A and Part B.

And then That's the one path. The other path is You can Leave original Medicare. Your part A and your part B directly from the government. and you can transfer it to a Medicare Advantage company. like Humana, United Healthcare, Blue Cross.

All those And by the way, We represent most of those people. We sell Medicare Advantage plans.

So I don't want to totally trash them on here because they have their place. I'm just going to point out. Today really that you have to make this decision. I mean, it's either here. Medicare Advantage.

or here staying on original Medicare, you can't have both. And this is what's going to come at you, like you were saying earlier. is the Medicare Advantage plans are advertising. They're salespeople. They're Um you know when you call in a number about medicare or you respond to an advertisement.

pretty high likelihood you're going to get a Medicare Advantage company. on the other end and they're not really going to explain this difference to you they're just going to explain their medicare advantage point So I want to take you back here at a crossroads. I'm staying on original Medicare. Part A and part B. And that has big deductibles and cocaine.

So That's the disadvantage to the original Medicare is you're going to have a lot of out of pocket. If you don't supplement it. But it's just that's original Medicare. The Medicare Advantage is going to have smaller deductibles. Yeah, an out of pocket.

Um than original Medicare all by itself. Yeah. And it's going to throw in a bunch of freebies too, like. uh food plans and gym plans, vision insurance, dental insurance. A lot of stuff that is wonderful in and of itself.

But it creates a distraction. away from the insurance that you're really getting, which is managed care.

Okay, so let's just kind of discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both.

Now the advantages to a Medicare Advantage plan is you generally a lot of these have zero premium So you're not paying anything more out of pocket to the Medicare Advantage company. Or if they don't have a zero premium, a lot of them have a small premium, like 20, 30, 40 bucks a month. And that is small relative to Medicare supplement insurance. Um They Uh a lot of times they're going to have those added benefits like a gym membership. like a vision plan, like a dental plan.

Some of the people ones for lower income, people have food plans, have a whole list of extras. And they can look fairly attractive, especially to healthy people. And when you ask a lot of your friends, ah, oh, I have this one. Yeah. You know, and then the other friend says, I got the same one.

It's wonderful.

Well, it's wonderful because of all those extras. These people have never been sick. Go ask one of your friends who's been through. a serious illness with a lot of pills. You ask them what they have and whether they're satisfied or not.

That's a little piece of advice I give you.

So, those are the advantages to that, the disadvantages of a Medicare Advantage plan. Number one is they have a network.

So you typically have to go to their doctors and their hospital.

Now that could be mitigated by picking one. that your doctor's already in there, the specialists you might go to are already in there. But it could be a problem. That You would want to go somewhere else and that doctor is not a network or that hospital is not a network. They also a lot of times don't travel well.

So if you're a person that does a lot of traveling, if you got sick mid-distance, they have ways to deal with that, but it It could be problematic. Yet also if you want to go to a research hospital like MD Anderson. or the Mayo clinic or whatever, a Medicare Advantage, that would be. uh you you would possibly have more difficulty. And then the other piece, which I mentioned in the beginning of the show, is the managed care piece.

Yeah. they actually get involved. the plan does, the the Medicare and the insurance company. In the delivery of your care.

So your doctor has to. prove to them or ask them for approval. to do a cat scan or to do something or to do surgery. Yeah. You know, you're going to decide for yourself whether you want that or not.

Now Conversely, you could just stay on original Medicare, and if you do that, You're going to need to purchase a supplemental policy. Yeah, and for speeding things up. I mean, just most people buy the plan G. Medicare software. There's 10 plans, A, B, C, D, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

G. G has the highest benefits. Yeah, we you know now I'm talking about Medicare supplemental insurance. going on on top of original Medicare. We're going to say about $150 a month.

Maybe in some areas 200 a month. Maybe we can squeeze that down to 130. 124, you know, somewhere in that zone. Yeah. We're going to just call that premium a disadvantage.

of being over on this side, of having a regional Medicare plus a supplement. you're going to have to pay that extra money and you're going to have to be able to afford that. That's a couple thousand dollars a year. Whereas over on the Medicare Advantage side, You know, you could possibly have a zero premium.

So, that a lot of times is the big motivator, is people. don't want to pay that premium so they're going to go Medicare Advantage and that's fine. I'm just showing you that You can stay on original Medicare. Supplement it. And then between those two things.

you're going to have very low out-of-pocket when you get sick. And then, secondly, you're not going to have to go to any. buddy for approval for your care. Your doctor's not going to. and you're not going to have a network.

to deal with, you're going to be able to go to any doctor in the United States that takes Medicare. Yeah. To me, that's... That's worth paying for. I mean, and so I'm giving a little more slanted.

Approach to this to the one side, and a lot of that, I've got 50 years' experience dealing with Medicare. And the Medicare Advantage plans, as we know them now, have really only been around since about 2006. 2007 is when they gotten into their full implementation.

So it's still Well 20 years. Yeah. And I'm looking at all that, if you can afford it. I'm liking the Medicare supplement along with original Medicare method. Yeah, it's definitely one of the decisions in the maze that you got to make.

Um But it's also a great time to get counsel because The world is Full of advertisements. And almost I can't believe the members of my church, the people that I know who never really. Tried to find out much about it. They all went to Medicare Advantage because, hey, it's why would I do this other? This is not going to cost me anything.

It comes with all these extra goodies. Like, why you know, and they're seeing ads for it all the time. They call an ad and away they go because there aren't a lot of people out there saying, hey, You know, wait a minute, think before you go on in Medicare Advantage. which is one of the things I love that you do, Hans, is You do have to worry about the network. There's also other costs, huge difference in cost from my experience.

You know, I watched my father go through the end of his life. He had a Medicare plan plus a Medicare supplement. And he was in the hospital numerous times in the last days of his life, numerous times. And um He came out without owing a penny. My mother-in-law, on the other hand, she spent you know, a similar amount of time in the hospital.

And it was it was tens of thousands of dollars that she owed the bills continued to come forever In the difference that that worked out. And that's not to mention. You know, when my dad needed something, needed. whatever it was, he never worried about network or whatever. And my mother-in-law was constantly having, again, when she got bad sick.

When she got really sick. You know, it was always well, we got to find a doctor that will do this. We got to get approval to get this kind of scan. And when you're, when you're dying, It's not a time to want to worry about that.

So I can't, I know in. My experience And again, I had a member come up to me, just a member of my church came up to me on Sunday. Robbie, I was just in the hospital for three days and look at this bill. It's unbelievable what I owe. Um And I thought I had insurance.

Right? Yes, they had a Medicare Advantage plan, but You know, there are copays and stuff like that with that. And again, it helps to have somebody that's going to walk you through. I mean, it's not going to be a million dollars or something, or if you didn't have the copayer, et cetera, but it is going to be substantial from somebody that's on a lower income. And so.

You know, it's a lot. There's a lot of thought that ought to go in. Prayer ought to go into this particular decision. Should I stay in original Medicare and get a supplement? Should I go on Medicare Advantage?

And at the point in time you're 65, it's a critical time to make that decision. because it's open enrollment. And if you have pre-existing conditions when you're 65, boom, you can get a Medicare supplement without any health questions.

Okay, so let's understand something. We represent about thirty. Medicare supplement insurance companies. We got 30 of them. And we've got them in all 50 states in DC.

Maybe some states don't have 30. All 30 aren't there, but We got the country covered. And then we have a wide amount of choice. When we get over to Medicare Advantage, We have eight to ten. of the Medicare Advantage companies, which is most of them.

And we have those across all 50 states in DC.

So when you call us, We're going to first of all Get to know you. and hear what you want and we're going to inform you of what you didn't know. Yeah. We're going to give consulting. Where to direct you to the right area first.

And then once you get to the right area, Then we're going to choose the, so if you decide you want to go Medicare Advantage. then we're going to point out the things you need to be concerned about. but then we're going to get you into the right one of those. And then if you have a bad experience, the next year we can just change it to the other one. We could do that once a year.

On the Medicare supplement side, You know, we've got 30 companies.

So the first thing we're going to do is make sure this side's right for you. And then we're going to pick which is probably going to be plan G, but there's some alternatives. a Medicare supplement and then we're going to decide which company is right for you. And then explain that company. We've got this area covered, and we would be glad to talk to you.

So, and we very much want your business.

So, if you If you need the consulting, you want the consulting. You can get in touch with us. Pretty easy to do. It's awesome. Again, that's all at cardinalguide.com, as well as Hans's book.

Very helpful on Medicare: The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement. And then, of course, the famous contact Hans and Tom Page. It's all there at cardinalguide.com. Great show, Hans. 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 Well is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject covered. 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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