Medicare Simplified

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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. Well, welcome to Finishing Well with certified financial planner, Hans Scheil. And today is, I know what you've been waiting for, Medicare simplified. It's always like an oxymoron, Hans. I mean, Medicare simplified.

What? That's one of the most complicated things I've ever really tried to understand, but yet we're going to try to help. And, you know, if you think about it, if you read many of the Gospels, you can see what he did a lot was opening the eyes of people, or sometimes he opened their ears, in very unique ways, by the way, he would open their eyes and open their ears. Because if you think about it, if I was to put you into a dark room with a bunch of furniture in it, and you weren't allowed to turn on the lights, you'd be bumping and stumbling and all sorts of things, and that room would seem fairly complicated to you. But if I flipped on the lights, oh my goodness, oh, that was easy. That chair's right there.

This is, it would just be a whole new world. Well, interestingly, there's a story in the Old Testament about the prophet Elisha, and, you know, I think it was Sena cherub sent about 600,000 soldiers to get him, right? And they had surrounded a city, and, you know, his assistant got up that morning, and he was like, dude, this looks horrible, man. We're outnumbered, 600,000 to what? You know, like, this is not going good. And so Elisha, you know, just prayed, Lord, open his eyes so that he can see that, you know, those that are for us are way more than those that are against us. And, of course, when the assistant, you know, or his understudy opened it, you know, his eyes, when the Lord opened his eyes, he's like, oh, man, look, it's the chariots in the fire.

Like, yeah, those 600,000 ain't nothing, right? And so it's, to me, you know, having, you know, done a lot of these shows in Medicare, you know, some of it seems redundant, but it's not because as you begin to just get one piece of this puzzle illuminated for you that you did not understand, and, you know, it's just as we were talking about, you know, your good friend, Hans, that made this decision on Medicare a few years ago, and how it's paid off that he got some advice and opened up his eyes and the light on some things. You know, it's so important that what may seem even simple for the simplest is still really can have huge decisions, because the ultimate idea of it is that when you get bad sick, we talk about it all the time, what happens when you get bad sick? Not— Well, what happened to him is he headed straight for the Mayo Clinic at the recommendation of his doctor, because he lives up in Minnesota. And so now he's got two sets of doctors working on.

He's getting his chemotherapy and his immunotherapy at the Mayo Clinic. What do you think that's costing him? Yeah, because they don't even take Medicare advantage.

They don't. And they take Medicare, original Medicare, and they take his supplement. Well, it's costing him nothing. I mean, he paid earlier in the year when this was diagnosed stage four lung cancer, which is just terrible. And just on a side note, this man is very devout, much of a believer. And he just said, listen, he said, our belief is not in chemotherapy, and it's not in doctors. It's in him. Right.

And the fruit of that, right? If you watch this man walk through that, I mean, it does so much for our faith, right? Oh, it's just, you know, I'm reading every day on his Caring Bridge site, just I'm growing as a Christian, just watching him go through what for many of us would be devastating. And I just don't get the feeling that this is devastating to him.

I mean, he just, and I think it has everything to do with his faith. And I think how this is paid for is really kind of inconsequential to him at this point. So I'm not looking for attaboys from him of getting him into the right Medicare insurance and all that kind of stuff. I'm just bringing it up because of his faith and how he's just, if this means that he's going to die, then he's mostly concerned about his family. And I'm his financial planner too, and I'm involved in a lot of that, but he's not really concerned about anything.

And he's not even that worried that the cancer treatment is successful, but he is on Medicare Supplement. And this show is really about me and us trying to simplify our Medicare presentation. And it's really to draw people in because there's a whole lot of people out there that are just, they're perplexed. And usually, the smarter they are, the more perplexed they are. You'd think that high intelligence would make people more able to grasp complicated subjects, but it seems like in reverse is that the very intelligent people are, they're asking why. They're asking why does this have to be so complicated?

Whereas people that aren't maybe so intelligent and researching just, they kind of say, well, whatever it is, they get a little A, a little part B, they kind of end up with whatever they end up with and not worry about it. So I've tried to make a video in the YouTube video, and then this show, I just tried to simplify it. And our board, which we have on the YouTube thing, couldn't be more simple of all our Medicare videos. And it just, it goes over part A and part B. Part A is your hospital, part B is your doctor and outpatient. And that's original Medicare. And you have to sign up for that before you get any other insurance. And if you've been on Medicare, you're already on it, you got part A and you got part B. And you pay 164.90 a month for part B unless you have a high income.

If you have a high income, you pay way more than that. But everybody's on that, that's on Medicare, is they got part A and they got part B, you got to pay for part B. And then this is where the confusion comes in, is you'll need to make a decision whether you're going to supplement original Medicare and you're going to buy a Medicare supplement to fill in the gaps or you're going to not buy a supplement. You're going to stay on original Medicare because everybody stays on it, but you're going to turn it into a Medicare advantage or a part C plan, which is you're now you're outsourcing your Medicare and you have to deal with a third party, which is typically an insurance company. And you're getting your Medicare from them.

Right. Then getting back to your friend, you know, just to make it clear that he was on regular original Medicare and a Medicare supplement. So good news is you can go to Mayo Clinic because they, no problem, because they took Medicare and obviously they're going to take a supplement. However, had he been on part C or had he been on Medicare advantage because certain places don't take Medicare advantage, then he would have been out of network and the bills would have been horrendous.

Well, yeah, and it actually, he wouldn't even have been, I guess they would have to take him. No, I don't think the Mayo Clinic would have even treated him, but so we're making a mountain out of a molehill here because the Mayo Clinic is unique that they don't take Medicare advantage. I just happen to know that because I've had some had some clients that have tried them in different parts of the country. But you know, if you have a Medicare advantage plan and you go to a doctor that's out of network, if you have a PPO, you can go out of network. You just have to pay more. If you have an HMO, you can't even go out of network, but that's not a huge problem for some people because you're on a Medicare advantage plan.

And you know, you did that fully aware because, and you're on there for a number of reasons. Number one is you don't have to pay a premium for the Medicare supplement. And then secondly, you get a part D drug plan thrown in there and you get some dental and vision coverage thrown in there. So I don't want to start dissing Medicare advantage in the show.

I'm just talking about, you know, why one would have, why you would pick one over the other. And I'm just trying to simplify this because I think that too many times people in our industry, when you come in touch with them, you know, you're going to them, help me explain this, guide me. And what they do is, yeah, they start selling and they just start selling their plan. And then it's up to you to piece all that in with Medicare and, you know, and then maybe you don't buy from them, you talk to somebody else and they're selling something entirely different, or you're trying to figure this out on your own.

It's confusing. And so I've just put four squares on the board, Medicare simplified. I got part A and part B up in the upper left. Part A is your hospital. Part B is your doctor and outpatient. You have big deductibles and co-payments. You don't want to go on Medicare alone.

We've done other videos and we've done other radio shows. You don't want to be on original Medicare and no supplemental because the deductibles are huge. And the 80-20 is 80% Medicare pays, 20% you pay. There's no cap on that. So Medicare, original Medicare all by itself is not a very good option.

Very few people are in that. So if you stay on original Medicare, you're going to want to buy a supplement. And then the supplement is going to run you 100 to 200 bucks a month. And you're only going to get coverage to supplement that part A and part B. And then you're also going to need to buy a separate part D drug plan, which is going to run you 10, 20 bucks a month. And you'll also need to buy separate dental and vision benefits if you want to do that, which that's maybe going to run you 30 to 50 bucks a month. So you start adding all this up. A lot of people say, well, why do I want to pay all this premium for all the supplemental stuff when I've got this insurance company over here that's offering me a Medicare Advantage plan?

And I'm saying, go for it. That's what you did. And when you go the Medicare Advantage, you're turning your original Medicare, that part A and part B, into you're outsourcing it to a private insurance company, or you're having the government outsource it. You get your Medicare from them. And you've got much smaller deductibles and copayments, very small. And there is an overall cap on your out-of-pocket. But then the downside is you've got to play by their rules.

You've got to go to their doctors. You've got to go through their approval systems. And if you're willing to do that, you can get that at a zero premium, typically. They're not all zero premium. But I also think it's only fair to mention that there's no free lunch. Because again, the idea of insurance is what's going to happen if I really get sick, right? And so I had an obvious opportunity over the last few years to watch both in action. And I was there as a caregiver of my father's. He passed away. And he was on regular Medicare part A, part B. And he had a Medicare supplement. And he had a nice Medicare supplement that pretty much covered everything. And so when my father passed away, after having been hospitalized, what I've now come to understand is not far from normal. The last six months of your life, a lot of people go back and back and back and forth to the hospital as they try to keep you alive.

Well, he went back and back and forth to the hospital and ended up owing absolutely no medical bills as he passed. So we want to remind you that you can always go to cardinalguide.com. This show is brought to you by Cardinal Guide. Get more resources, the seven worries tabs, obviously this one being Medicare, and Hans's book, The Complete Cardinal Guide to Planning for and Living in Retirement, as well as how to get up with Hans. It's all there at cardinalguide.com.

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 Simplified. So simple as possible, Hans. Well, yeah, so if you're not on Medicare yet, you got three sets of decisions that you're going to make.

And let's just talk about those, okay? So if you're not on Medicare yet, the first decision is when am I going to sign up for Part B? Am I going to do that at 65 or am I going to do it at some point later? And really the driver on that is are you still working or is your spouse still working? So if you're still working or your spouse is still working and covering you and you're turning 65 or you're already 65, you can delay signing up for Medicare and paying the premium for Part B based on the fact that you have creditable group insurance. So you can do that.

You don't want to do this on your own. If you're in this situation, you want to call me and we'll talk about it and make sure that you're doing the right thing. But, you know, I intend to work for as many years as the good Lord allows me to. But I'm just turning 65 and I did go on Medicare because I want it. It's just so much better coverage than what I have through my group.

And furthermore, my group is not creditable. So if you're approaching 65 and you don't have creditable group insurance to rely on, you're going to need to sign up for Medicare Part A and Part B and you're going to have to pay for Part B, $164.90 a month this year for Part B of Medicare. You're going to pay to the government and more than that if you have a high income.

And that's called Irma. So that's the first set of decisions is when am I going to sign up for Medicare? It's really a matter of when, not what am I going to sign up. Everybody signs up for the same thing, Part A and Part B.

Okay? So it's the timing of that. And then if you're already on Medicare or you've already made those decisions and, you know, and you're planning, then the second set of decisions is the one that makes Medicare so confusing because it's a binary decision. It's an either or.

I mean, you're at a fork in the road and you either need to take a left or you need to take a right. And what a left is, is you're already on Medicare, you got Part A, you got Part B, and you're going to keep your Medicare with the government. You're not, you're not going to go on a Medicare Advantage plan. So since you're staying on Original Medicare, you're then going to need a supplement. And the supplement, there's just an infinite, we're not going to get into talking about all your choices and all that kind of stuff.

We got lots of other videos, lots of other radio shows on that. But if you're making the fork in the road, you're staying on Original Medicare, and you're getting a supplement, then you're going to need to get one. And that's, with the business I'm in, we offer those. And we can walk you through that. We do it on the phone, through Zoom, regardless.

But this is where people get tripped up, is at the fork in the road. And so if you stay on Original Medicare, you're going to need a supplement. You're also going to need to buy a Part D drug plan. You're going to need to buy a separate plan that, again, is Medicare. It's Part D. It's offered by a private insurance company.

We can help you get that as well. And your Part D is going to pay for your drugs, or at least pay part of your drugs. Right.

And it's absolutely critical that you realize that if you don't sign up for your Part D drug plan, if you decided to go on Medicare, and you went on Medicare, and you've stayed on Original Medicare, if you don't get a D plan, you will get a penalty for the rest of your life. So it's not like you have an option there. And they don't make that real clear, in my opinion. No, they don't. They don't.

But we do when people come see us. So you got Part A and Part B, Original Medicare, and you're buying a supplement policy from a private insurance company. We can help you with that. You're getting a Part D, again, from a private insurance company through us, but it's Medicare. And then if you want it, separate dental and vision insurance, again, from a private insurance company that you can buy from us. So that's one route. That's the left-hand fork. The other fork, the other direction, is the Medicare Advantage route. So, and you can't go both ways.

And this is, there's all kinds of ways people get confused, but you need to have clarity on this. And if you're already on Medicare, and you're still confused, the first place I'm going to go is, are you paying anything for your supplement to a private, who is the company? Because just finding out who the company is, because Humana sells Medicare Advantage plans, and they sell Medicare supplements. So does UnitedHealthcare.

So do a lot of these companies. So if you're paying a premium, and you have a card that says like Plan G on it, or Plan F, or Plan, Plan F, or Plan, you know, so I can help you decide which one you're on, but we got to figure out where you are now, and kind of undo everything that was told to you, and kind of get back to this fork in the road, or walk you back there, because this is the biggest point of confusion. So everybody's got to get Medicare, part A and part B first. Some people supplement it, other people take it and turn it into a Medicare Advantage plan. And then a lot of those have zero premium. So you're not having to pay for them, you just got to sign up for it. And then they're going to get compensated by the government for taking you on and handling it.

And say, well, why would I want to do one or the other? Well, I mean, that zero premium is very attractive compared to a Medicare Supplement premium. So that's the second decision is which route am I going to go? Medicare Supplement, Medicare Advantage. And then the third set of decisions are going to be once I've chosen my path, then which plan am I going to buy?

Which insurance company am I going to buy it from? How am I going to do the drug plan? How am I going to do the dental and vision benefits? Or am I not going to have those?

I mean, so there's a whole bunch of other decisions that work around that. And what I was wanting to do with this thing is just kind of boil it down to that simple thing. And I would encourage you if you're still confused about Medicare, is that you would go to our website, cardinalguide.com. And you would go to the Medicare tab, the Medicare worry. I would also encourage you on our website or these YouTube shows, we made a video called Medicare Simplified. Either go to YouTube or go to our website, and watch the Medicare Simplified video.

And I think when you can watch it on video, get the show notes. And if you're still confused, give me a call. I'll be glad to explain this to you relative to your situation over the phone. Right, because inside of those decisions, you know, clearly, what's your health? Right? I mean, you know, what's the history of your health and all those kind of things?

Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, when we get into that third decision area, where we need to, if we're going to get you into a supplement, and you're beyond the beginning of Medicare, we're going to ask you health questions. So and that's one of the pluses we sell for 40 different companies. So and it might be that the least expensive ones might not take you because of certain health conditions.

But don't assume you're out of luck. If you want to get back on original Medicare and get a supplement. We've got some companies that take people with health conditions.

So that's why we have, that's why we represent 40 of them. But also, it's an indication that that window of opportunity, as soon as you return to 65, to make the right decision to start with, because they don't ask health questions. The day you turn 65, within six months of your starting of Medicare Part B, no health questions by from anybody.

I mean, just right. And so that that, again, you know, it's nice to know if you're 63, 64, wow, I've got a six month, especially if you've got a bunch of health conditions, diabetes, high blood pressure, all those things that a lot of us have, then man, that first six months window of opportunity, especially if you what you're thinking you want to do is stay on original Medicare and get a supplement. Really a good idea to have decisions locked in ahead of time. I have people that come into me, boy, all my friends have that Medicare advantage. And they, they just love it. They say they pay very little. They get their drugs covered, and they got the gym membership. And they got all these other programs that they got some dental on there.

They've used that and they just on and on and on and on and on. And I tell people that come to me, if you've already made up your mind of something to do, and then you hire me, as your financial planner, just expect that I'm going to give you a look at the downside of whatever you decided to do. I mean, I just, you're going to get some pushback. In the end, we're going to do what you want to do. But I'm going to go to the other side. And I always ask these people that are all flowery, I say, when you surveyed your friends, are any of them sick? And then I just shut up. And then most of the people say, Well, no, they're all healthy.

Well, there you go. What are you buying this health insurance for? Are you buying it for a time when you're healthy? Do you expect to stay healthy for the whole length of your retirement? Or are you buying it in case you get, as we, my old guy used to say, in case you get bad sick?

That's what I'm buying it for. So be careful consulting friends, based upon their limited experience. Because if they're all around 65, 67, they're all in good health. They're experiencing all the freebies, and they love it. Well, we're so thankful that you listen to us today. And hopefully we've enlightened that whole subject of Medicare a little bit more. If you want some more enlightenment, of course, we'd always recommend you go to cardinalguide.com. That's cardinal, like the bird guide.com. And there you're going to find a Seven Worries Tabs, which today's show is Medicare, it's going to be under that. There'll be the show notes, this board that he's been talking about right there in the show notes and those four simple boxes, really helpful, as well as the video he talked about, that they did a YouTube video as well. And also to be one of the big resources there is how do I get up with Hans, his contact information, it's all there at cardinalguide.com. And oh, by the way, the complete cardinal guide to planning for and living in retirement, which is a whole bunch of what we talked about today. And so Hans, great show. Thanks.

Thank you. The opinions expressed by Hans Shile 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.