HI. WELCOME TO week two of your “64 checklist.”
We started this last week because so many of us freak at age 64, convinced that there is a vast list of secret laws and do-or-die tasks that must be accomplished on the day we turn 65.
There isn’t, and last week I went on a bit about Social Security, as a way of establishing the non-existent level of crisis.
You might also recall that I recommended against dithering about (although, I might have implied a more colorful verb).
In other words, get it on your horizon and keep it there, until you deal with it.
The other thing that usually looms large in the brains of most American 64-year-olds is: Medicare.
Thus, we’ll take a cursory look at that today.
Two notes: (1) I’m not going to attempt to address every possible nuance or scenario that could ever happen to anyone — I’m just going to focus on what happens to most of us, most of the time, and (2) this is not going to be a comprehensive explanation of all the moving parts of Medicare — just enough to get you through your panic and, hopefully, set a goal.
As we learned last week, age 65 no longer has huge significance when it comes to Social Security because the full retirement age is a moving target, but with Medicare, age 65 is still the threshold, so let’s pay attention.
For most of us, most of the time, we’ve been work-work-working away and qualifying for Social Security.
At the same time, we were qualifying for Medicare (yes, a twofer).
Now, if you paid attention last week and went onto the Social Security website and set up your “my Social Security” account, you already know if you have enough of a work history to qualify for Medicare.
Most of us do so let’s proceed.
Happily now you are eligible to enroll in Medicare.
Do you have to? No.
Might you want to? Maybe.
If you are unemployed, unhappily employed and/or saddled with cripplingly expensive health insurance (or no health insurance) you very well might want to.
If any of those sound like you, go to www.medicare.gov with a friendly beverage and take your time — you can learn a lot.
Most of the folks I hear from are employed, and want to (or need to) stay that way, but they don’t want to screw up their Medicare future. This is smart.
And, they often have health insurance coverage through their employer, so what should they do?
In general, I’d suggest applying for Medicare Part A (think “hospital”), because it’s free so why not?
It’s Medicare Part B (think “doctor”) that has a monthly premium, so if you already have insurance through your employer, why incur the unnecessary expense?
Let’s be careful here: Generally speaking, if we don’t enroll in Part B when we’re eligible, we can incur a penalty in the form of an inflated monthly premium that will never go away.
Now, if we have employer-based health insurance, we’re exempted from that dreaded penalty unless or until we sever employment or lose that insurance.
What we do then is get a letter from that employer saying that we had continuous coverage, and that gets us a special enrollment period to sign up for Part B, penalty free. (Yes, you should go back and read that again; then, read it again).
As an FYI, your initial enrollment period for Medicare starts three months before your 65th birthday, includes the month of your birthday and extends for three months after your birthday, so we have a seven-month window to get it right and avoid the forever penalty.
And, I’m also assuming that you, Employed Worker Bee, have prescription drug coverage, as a part of your employer’s insurance plan, that is equal to or better than Medicare Part D.
If you do: (1) You should get a letter from your plan every fall that says that, so keep it someplace where you can actually find it, because (2) that will keep you from having to worry about Part D now and exempt you from the Part D forever penalty when you do jump to Medicare.
That’s it.
See? Being 64 isn’t so bad.
Now, I’m hoping that, along the way, you’re thinking about things such as wills, advance directives, community property agreements and durable powers of attorney.
In fact, I’m hoping that you’ve had that stuff sewn up for a long time.
If not, 64 is as good a time as any.
So, if you’ve thought about Social Security and Medicare (or, you’re at least thinking about thinking about them), you can relax and just be 64.
The fact is that you’ve been dealing with stuff way more complicated than this for most of your life, so just put it all to bed and move on.
You have a lot of living yet to do.
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Mark Harvey is director of Clallam/Jefferson Senior Information & Assistance, which operates through the Olympic Area Agency on Aging. He is also a member of the Community Advocates for Rural Elders partnership. He can be reached at 360-452-3221 (Port Angeles-Sequim), 360-385-2552 (Jefferson County) or 360-374-9496 (West End), or by emailing harvemb@dshs.wa.gov.
