Medicare’s Annual Choice: The 2 paths of Medicare

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This is the Truth Network welcome to finishing well brought you by Cardinal guy, certified financial planner belongs to child best-selling author and financial planner helping families finish well for over 40 years of finishing well will examine both biblical and practical knowledge to assist families in finishing well, including discussions on managing Medicare IRA long-term care life insurance and investments and taxes.

Now let's get started with finishing well welcome to finishing well on child they know is the annual choices. Medicare so no interestingly, we have our choices and you may wonder why God chooses and you might remember the story from the book of Joshua were Joshua was coming up against Jericho and when we pick up the story and jerk in Joshua 513 it says now in Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and he saw a man standing in front of them with a drawn sword in his hand and Josh went up to the NASCAR you force a Guinness that actually said are you force or our enemies. Neither he replied, but as commander of the Army of the Lord I have now come then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reference and ask him what message does the Lord have for his servant, the commander of the Lord's army replied take off your sandals to the place where I am standing is holy ground. And Joshua did so.

So you know Hans that I see so clearly in summary things with working with is that there is so often 1/3 option and I think it's either you know Bama or Auburn or some choice like United NC State or Duke or whatever when actually you know there are more options that the Lord would have me consider sure this relates to Medicare is I can prep you on this. This is really not the consumers or the people there listening to this radio show better here. It's more the people that sell Medicare and offer the plans and work for the company's that they have so much passion around their side of the game and different points. I've been part of either club lettering. When I opened this business 10 years ago I was clearly a Medicare supplement and original Medicare part a and part B and then supplement on top of that is the way to go and do a Medicare advantage. I went for that is all we sold some of it but I always saw that as you gotta put up with networks you can have some organization other than the government can control your healthcare and insurance less expensive to carry that in terms of premium, but I was I was for the one route really against the other route and things change of time and my whole sales organization.

I think many of them haven't really change the kind of stuck with that early thing I taught him most is people are coming to work under me. We do we have thousands of clients all over the country that have Medicare supplement insurance with this like approaching 6000 people, and we probably have a thousand that have Medicare advantage in three or four years ago we had 200 that have Medicare. So we were clearly on one side of this thing and the other side of it is the people that sell Medicare damage the companies that sell that they're not only one-sided on their side decision with the greatest things ever happened to you is having this Medicare advantage they take it even deeper.

It's like our Medicare advantage. It's like Humana or whomever you know Cigna, United healthcare Blue Cross is like because most of them historically have only sold can sell one of those companies, but there really is a group or argument.

This is the way God and when you watch TV commercials probably 98% of them for Medicare advantage in 2% of her for Medicare supplement and so people cannot hear all that in many of the consumers like you, especially if you're not on it yet you don't even know which one of these.

There are so one of the things that I wanted to do in the beginning of the show here is established for people.

These are two distinct routes and you gotta pick one of Daniel annually so you can unpick it or you can review annually and in some cases sooner than annually. But annually when you're on this particular route you're on it all the way you got a Medicare advantage plan. That's what you're on. You don't have a supplement you don't have original Medicare you got Medicare vanished next to been outsourced yet and it really the amount of confusion that people have consumers and talk about radio listeners. People like you I when I sit down with most people, and I'm trying to figure out there trying to figure out like what they've got in and we gotta find the starting place for him to help him this many people out there like they think they can tell me which bathroom so they start telling these things about their plan.

Like as soon as I hear they pay zero premium or low premium that I know they're there on a Medicare advantage, but they might be describing it as a Medicare supplement.

Okay and I got golden sneakers or whatever.

That is probably a Medicare advantage, but we have Medicare supplement companies that lets you buy silver sneakers to live and I'm sorry if I was going silver sneakers so don't make this easy and there's a reason people are confused but it's really important if you can understand your coverage or if you can make some decisions and some changes going forward, but we we could get real clear where we are or if you just summary coming up on Medicare then you need to learn this is it's almost like when you're talking to some is that which path you want to know is one of the other names you know my Facebook 15 minute video explaining all this displays all over the United States and people watch that that they understand this point.

So that's the second decision they made make people coming up on Medicare and I got to go down this path. That path and you can choose both if you have a little bit of one. A lot of the other is one of you so will keep reiterating that throughout the deal here. Jan go over just moving to end up with some why would you want the one over the okay to get to there doesn't mean that the others bad or even bad for you.

It just we want to get down to the pluses and minuses of both help you affect your decisions really think that your story of man in New York City and I would be something that had I come up in his situation. I would not not being on a Medicare supplement/so that's a good one to babysit.

I think this is really cool and we can thank Facebook for that that I can play a 15 minute video which I can really get a concept of the white border crossing 15 minutes much more than I can in one minute. 30 seconds so it's the same price as the 32nd deal and then people have a choice whether they want you to go so this guy watch my video. Like a lot of people really moved in me sending this information affect he didn't do that. He called me and he want to talk to me call the office to sell or talk to do that. This teacher going through to me clearly conversation discuss a dentist makes 400 grand a year is in partnership with his brother's quarantined existing patients three days a week didn't get whether his income is gone down or not he's turning 65 and when he was the video he had deducted that he needed help making this decision of one of the other and he thought the two pass two choices were HMO or PPO and he didn't realize he was over on one path Artie made that decision and then making a no next decision of an HMO because they're both under the same decision, so I had to unlearn all that go back explained to him again and said no. This is because sign up for Ray because Sanford B matter which path you do that first.

Gotta pay for B this guys case is knowing a pay for B's conveyor Irma bigger Irma calculated that can't do anything about that until he retires and we can fill form and get out of it for year two. We can do some financial planning to get his postretirement income down so that he won't have to deal with her, but you sign up for ANB.

No matter which route you take. Once we do that, then were either going to just stay on original Medicare. ANB were to buy a supplement New York City bring about their expense with get to that sack.

Then when I go over his own decision that he could make his he could outsource his Medicare can allow the government to outsource your original Medicare your filing your claims with Medicare doctors dealing with Medicare itself and they're getting money directly from Medicare.

When you go to a Medicare advantage.

Once you enroll like with Humana Humana is going to get a check every month from Medicare discussing Robert Gilmore. Probably won't, but it just disagree.

The government is probably like 900 bucks a month maybe a thousand a month every month they're going to governments going to be sending it to Humana and they're going to say here you cover Robert Gilmore you Pam. You pay for his Medicare were just gonna pay you that's that's really what's going on and then this is called officially Medicare part C but you can't get on Medicare part C until you enroll in a big still in a still and be achieved now moved over here to see, and you know only have Humana pick from you that healthcare across Cigna, Aetna, you name so you got a whole list of them and they all want to check for Medicare just so they want your business and most of these days offers zero premium metaphors are not making any payment right and that puzzles a lot of love people are puzzled him at how can this be you on one side you want 300 bucks a month for the supplement and on this side. You tell me I go with the same company at Selma United healthcare Medicare advantage but is premium is now zero and so him and explain that when we come back, tell him what tell all of you what I told him that it applies to all you how they can make the premium, zero is not really zero-we come back again and you can find out all this information in the Hans's book the complete cardinal guide to planning for living in retirement, which is from Cardinal guy.com email Hansson if you want to comment to the numbers right there really do that as well.

You get there. When we come back to find more advantages and disadvantages of care management be right back. Hans and I would love to take our show on the road to your church and Sunday school Christian or civic group.

Here's a chance for you to advance the kingdom through financial resources and leveraging Hans expertise and qualified charitable contributions veterans aid and attendance IRA Social Security care and long-term care. Just go to Cardinal guy.com and contact Tom to schedule a live recording of finishing well, your church, Sunday school or civic group contact Tom Cardinal guy.com that's cardinal guide.com welcome back to finishing well certified planner Hans Schild today show is the advantage with amphetamine with the patient were taken Medicare. We had to pass through the people have two distinct grounds. So this is going talk about the dentist so we got this to you, he still mixed up on the two bands.

But I'm set straight. He got the fact that there are two passages that they were HMO and PPO so I had had back him up off the lab back to this is Medicare advantage in outsourcing back them up to ANB, start all over. That's what I've just done before the break years I went through got them signed up for a sign-up for B and then looking at a supplement plan G was 300 bucks a month. New York City is right Manhattan the same exact policy that you bought Robbie at the same age for 195 something like yeah I don't bucks a month so this three times for exactly the same thing. And even that is as well. Maybe I'll take a look at those Medicare advantage plans that we get over the Medicare advantage plans and you wouldn't believe how many of those are available in 5 mile radius of New York City just is just like infinite and so we just can't narrow them down when I look at all the silver getting getting down to the babies was, he saw there was no premium zero premium and zero premium so he's looking at that.

He just will. How can that be. It was even the same company was United healthcare on both sides that off of the $300 a month premium which is a good deal and then after the zero. Actually, to and when I explained to him is this that I don't know how much is in their sable events more in a thousand a month is that if you elect this plan. Medicare is going to pay United healthcare, a bunch of money every month and there to be rid of the liability of paying claims. So if you know if you just can't have a mild year with a thousand box or something. Then the government didn't do themselves a disservice by paying United healthcare $12,000 to be really but they do that with some people and they pay United healthcare 12,000 and that person costs United healthcare hundred thousand percent return thousand South will let them worry about that.

There is zero premium to you to him. Should I compare zero premium to 300 bucks a month. Our talking and he would have had to pay a premium for his part D drug plan that he would buy separately. In addition to the maximum. Those are ridiculous and pricing their sufficiently nearby. Alexander not much but is still something that comes along with the zero premium on the Medicare advantage plan and so we went through that and then now we went up to over the HMO or PPO because the HMO plans within Medicare advantage look more attractive. Mostly do they think at some extra stuff in the catches with the HMO is you can't go outside the network. There is no nonnetwork providers in that if you want to see a specialist.

You gotta go. Your primary doctor first, and that Dr. has to refer you to a specialist inside of their network with the PPO's differently stood at the same ballgame on you gotta go to somebody in network to have in network cost, but you can go to network and then you just have a higher cost, which didn't seem to bother him, but what really bothered him is being stuck in their circle of doctors in New York City just so I could have doctors.

I don't want yes you could so I would just scratch out the HMOs can get plenty of PPOs to pick will just so we did our work and he's probably gonna buy a zero premium PPO from one of those companies and I think they've narrowed it down is a really matter which one and Tom sell that and when I pointed out to him in the whole thing is we spent a lot of time with his car back and forth.

He's Alice's smart guys. A scientist is a doctor so I just spread something out of my said you were talking about thousands of dollars here. So this is an important decision you turn 65 and is important to the extent that whatever you decide for May 1. You're stuck on that tilt for the rest of the year, but you can change this in the fall. Even if we make a bad decision now or less, just a poor decision. We can get out of it and were talking about several thousand dollars for it has significant you know that I've moved them over did was asked if he was aware that Medicare pays almost nothing for long-term care and they certainly have almost nothing at home and then you know how much is a cost to hire private duty nursing and aid services from home healthcare agency in their city of Manhattan. If you're this rich retired guy were probably talking hundred thousand dollars a year.

That's how much benefit I will put on this policy, we got a cover that for several years and you're ready to just do without that.

If he had talked to me so I really woke him up that meant sure this decision about Medicare is important but the whole deal around long-term care is really important and you can't rethink those decisions. What you decide now yes or no and how much coverage that's got to be pretty much it. You can't sit on 80 years old. Source and lastly, change my decisions about long-term care, no you need to make those now so back on the topic. It's just important for people to understand that you get two distinct routes to original Medicare, and then most people at a supplement to that and they had a part D drug run so at-bats in New York City, but here we are in beautiful North Carolina yeah I made the same decision based on similar factors back back really last July and in my situation and I looked it you know there's people in my family that I Medicare advantage plan and I just happen to get their mail and I can see that there's deductibles and co-pays that are fairly significant and what their plan is because there in the hospital. He gumming up the savings anything like you have on your current insurance and and and so that you what I could see was clearly with them at Medicare advantage in my case, having been a cancer survivor have a couple other chronic conditions, and stuff that like Amanda Fike on the hospital you normally have some exposure. However, I could buy in my case supplement for like you said it was like hundreds of 100 bucks in my drug plan that I added to it was like 25 bucks a month and I think the one you're on now is probably seven it's just we changed a lot of people CVS came out with a seven dollar monthly.

Just so those prices are actually coming down so there was clearly a good decision and I recommended it and that's probably when I'm going to do if I'm still living in North Carolina, which I probably will be analog parts of the country. Almost immediately, like boom I went on Medicare in October while you might recall, if you know me well, that was when I chose to cut off the end of my finger with my hedge trimmer with which you may not seem all that severe at the time, but between all the common complications that happened.

Of all the antibiotic antibiotics I was taken and all sorts of things that happened you know I and at the hospital. Three different times. You know in the next month and like holy mackerel, was I glad I had the supplement that I had this boom. I paid my deductible and I was good to go.

There was nothing else. People love them and they absolutely love them. Now, I'm a tell you it is, is that we have a lot of clients that have the same supplement with us, five, six, seven, eight years and they've kept the same one we have a change in even though it's gone up because they've developed health conditions serious health conditions. Many of and they're not eligible to switch to a new supplement and it's killing them and 200-5300 bucks a month for the supplement zone gone up to that point and a lot of our sales people have difficulty getting by the biases of what you don't want to give that up. And these people don't want to give it up, but when they find out that they can give up the $250 a month premium and go to zero premium.

Many of them are doing it and and so so removing people that are over later so just want to give Medicare advantage. It's due today and the sky may move back to this dentist may move back to a Medicare supplement was never been on one, but he may opt that after a year being on this thing of dancing around some different doctors and so I want to be real clear and I don't want to insert biases into people like one is better than the other because with a Medicare advantage you get a deal with the networks and you got a deal with some deductibles and co-pays hellos a Bottom there still there and with the Medicare supplement and original Medicare put together.

You have almost no cutbacks in deductibles and you gotta pay the part B deductible is $203 a year and that's it. I mean just you get 80% from Medicare you get 20% from the supplement. If anybody excess bills. It you get coverage for that of the supplement and then there's the other part D drug plan, which by the way does have co-pays or they got a Medicare supplement or not, but you got co-pays and all that stuff with your drug plan, which is really an outsourced well, yes� And so you are on a little bit a Medicare advantage when you're on the path you know the Medicare supplement path together by a separate part D so there would be a disadvantage with the advantage that is you get to pick your part so we can go through and pick from all the part D plans wears when you're over on the Medicare advantage side you just get whatever part D plan they gave you and you probably can be fine with that but you don't get to pick or she use that to pick the plan then is like the tail wagging the dog. Most people use the doctors to pick the Medicare advantage point, and some with the drug plan with all the different companies that you guys used in a Tom was able to put my medications into the computer and say all reality you're on these. This is gonna be big. The drug plan that covers most of your medications are those kind of things were again if you had bought a Medicare advantage whatever they had.

You got but in the case when you got a supplement I thought was nice surely can put in. You can pick it, you can pick the one. It ended so there's there's there's different plans for different people. This used to be kind of a 50-50 you know like half the people were on Medicare advantage plans half on Medicare supplements and original Medicare. In fact, it used to be slanted more toward the supplements.

Now it's slanted a little bit more toward the Medicare advantage in there picking up steam and they've made these things better and better and better.

The networks are better than they used to be that coverage areas so you get summary down the beach here in North Carolina are up in the mountains somebody out in the mountains of West Virginia.

These do not have Medicare advantage optional point impairment. Now they do and they get some chores. Once again we want let you know that this all this is covered in Hans's book the complete cardinal guide to planning for living in retirement, which is available@cardinalguide.com along a scene. I can always just email Hans as first book and it it's helpful to be able to have CVs in the charts that he has almost kind of thing.

So were so grateful you joined us today and finishing well. We hope you enjoyed finishing well brought you by cardinal guide.com visit cardinal guide.com for free downloads of the show previous shows on topics such as Social Security, Medicare and IRAs, long-term care and life insurance, investments and taxes as well as cons 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 when you get Hans book go to cardinal guide.com if you have a question, comment or suggestion for future shows. Click on the finishing well radio show on the website and send us a word. Once again, that's cardinal guide.com cardinal guide.com this is the Truth Network