Medicare Part C

[JD8]

One thing people also need to realize is that with part D..... make sure you enroll in it when you turn 65..... otherwise they will penalize you. There are exceptions. Either way, as people get older they need either more meds, or different ones from year to year. You can switch med companies every year if it benefits you. You do this by going to the medicare.gov site and creating an account. You will then put in your formulary of what you are taking and it automatically lists the companies that will best suit your needs. It will show you an expected overall drug cost for the year. I highly recommend people doing this every year to save money, it can mean a LOT of money if you have a special formulary that you take. It's a pain in azz though for sure.

You cannot obviously do this on a MA plan.

 

[dennishoddy]

One thing people also need to realize is that with part D..... make sure you enroll in it when you turn 65..... otherwise they will penalize you. There are exceptions. Either way, as people get older they need either more meds, or different ones from year to year. You can switch med companies every year if it benefits you. You do this by going to the medicare.gov site and creating an account. You will then put in your formulary of what you are taking and it automatically lists the companies that will best suit your needs. It will show you an expected overall drug cost for the year. I highly recommend people doing this every year to save money, it can mean a LOT of money if you have a special formulary that you take. It's a pain in azz though for sure.

You cannot obviously do this on a MA plan.

We go to our local independent insurance agent for part D as it changes every year. If you travel a lot there are options. If you live in one spot and are pretty much stationary their may be better or different options.

 

[TerryMiller]

One thing people also need to realize is that with part D..... make sure you enroll in it when you turn 65..... otherwise they will penalize you. There are exceptions. Either way, as people get older they need either more meds, or different ones from year to year. You can switch med companies every year if it benefits you. You do this by going to the medicare.gov site and creating an account. You will then put in your formulary of what you are taking and it automatically lists the companies that will best suit your needs. It will show you an expected overall drug cost for the year. I highly recommend people doing this every year to save money, it can mean a LOT of money if you have a special formulary that you take. It's a pain in azz though for sure.

You cannot obviously do this on a MA plan.

Exactly on the part in bold.

I ran into that one while in Oregon. I had signed up at 65 for Medicare A and B. Part B will also get you penalized if one doesn't sign up for it as well. (At least it was that way about 10 years ago.) The guy at Social Security said that if I took in a document to the "powers-that-be" at work, I could get a waiver for Part B. I decided that no longer than we planned on working, I'd just sign up. However, he didn't tell us that Part D (Prescription Drugs) would also penalize us.

We retired in July of 2014 and went to Colorado. 14 months later, I signed up for a Medicare Advantage plan in Colorado and thus got a prescription plan there. The government decided that I hadn't had a prescription plan in about 3 or 4 years and wanted to penalize me for every month that we didn't have coverage. I had to come back to Oklahoma and get documents showing that I still had coverage while I was still working.

In the end, I get penalized for the 14 months. And, to mention it here, one gets penalized each and every month from now on for any months that they don't have some prescription coverage. So, I now tell folks that when it comes time to sign up, sign up for ALL of it.

 

[JD8]

Exactly on the part in bold.

I ran into that one while in Oregon. I had signed up at 65 for Medicare A and B. Part B will also get you penalized if one doesn't sign up for it as well. (At least it was that way about 10 years ago.) The guy at Social Security said that if I took in a document to the "powers-that-be" at work, I could get a waiver for Part B. I decided that no longer than we planned on working, I'd just sign up. However, he didn't tell us that Part D (Prescription Drugs) would also penalize us.

We retired in July of 2014 and went to Colorado. 14 months later, I signed up for a Medicare Advantage plan in Colorado and thus got a prescription plan there. The government decided that I hadn't had a prescription plan in about 3 or 4 years and wanted to penalize me for every month that we didn't have coverage. I had to come back to Oklahoma and get documents showing that I still had coverage while I was still working.

In the end, I get penalized for the 14 months. And, to mention it here, one gets penalized each and every month from now on for any months that they don't have some prescription coverage. So, I now tell folks that when it comes time to sign up, sign up for ALL of it.

It's one of the parts of Medicare that is quite ridiculous IMO. People are living longer, granted there's a ton of people on meds turning 65, there's also a number of people who don't need anything but like a BP med or something.

 

[TerryMiller]

It's one of the parts of Medicare that is quite ridiculous IMO. People are living longer, granted there's a ton of people on meds turning 65, there's also a number of people who don't need anything but like a BP med or something.

I'm actually in that category. The sum total of my prescription meds is one for cholesterol and one for blood pressure. All the rest I take are vitamins and calcium.