T<\/span>hroughout their working years, most Americans get health care coverage through their employer. At the time of retirement, the majority also qualifies for Medicare. Thus, it’s vital to know how to coordinate your new insurance in time to safeguard your assets.<\/p>\n Per the Social Security Amendments of 1983<\/a>, the full retirement age<\/a> began its gradual increase. Those born in 1960 and later don’t reach full retirement age until 67, whereas Americans born in 1937 or earlier were entitled to receive their full Social Security benefits at age 65.<\/p>\n However, if you have sufficient work credits, you may begin receiving Social Security benefits at age 62. Keep in mind that if you start receiving Social Security benefits before age 65, you’ll automatically enroll in Medicare when you become eligible.<\/p>\n Those waiting to retire until they can receive their full Social Security benefits may wish to delay Medicare coverage. For those who paid Medicare taxes for at least 40 quarters (ten years) and can receive Part A premium-free, there’s no real benefit to waiving this hospital insurance.<\/p>\n However, your employer group coverage will be creditable for Medicare if you work for an organization with 20 or more employees. This rule also applies if you’re on your spouse’s plan and their employer meets that threshold. With creditable coverage, you can delay Part B without being responsible for the late penalty you incur if you lack creditable coverage. The penalty is in addition to your Part B premium each month when you eventually enroll.<\/p>\n When retiring after you become eligible for Medicare, you’ll want to make sure you have Parts A and B of Medicare. If you didn’t enroll due to receipt of Social Security benefits, there are three windows of time when you can sign up.<\/p>\n Medicare doesn’t consider COBRA or retiree insurance creditable, meaning you should enroll in Parts A and B ahead of retirement. Otherwise, you’ll risk coverage gaps and penalties.<\/p>\n When the time comes for you to sign up, you’ll need to do so through the Social Security Administration. The SSA provides the options of enrolling online, over the phone, or in-person at a field office.<\/p>\n Plenty of Americans assume that Medicare pays for everything. In truth, Medicare covers only 80% of inpatient and outpatient costs, leaving the rest to the beneficiary.<\/p>\n However, you can purchase extra coverage for a monthly premium that will take care of the other 20%. These policies are called Medicare Supplement, or Medigap<\/a>, plans.<\/p>\n Neither Medicare nor Medigap provides coverage for dental, vision, and hearing care. However, if you’d like coverage from these, you can purchase an ancillary policy. Additionally, if you take prescription drugs or expect to in the future, you should also sign up for a Medicare Part D plan. Enrolling in Part D when you enroll in Parts A and B will help you avoid another late penalty.<\/p>\n If bundling all the above with your Medicare coverage sounds ideal, a Medicare Advantage plan could be of interest to you. However, you should be aware that Advantage plans involve doctor networks, don’t travel with you, and are subject to change every year.<\/p>\n Most doctors across the nation accept Medicare, the top Medigap plans provide foreign travel emergency coverage. Further, benefits on a Medicare Supplement plan don’t change.<\/p>\n Arranging your future health care coverage should be the next item on your checklist after you choose a time to retire. Much of our attention leading up to retirement centers around our 401(k) or IRA, but we shouldn’t let health insurance fall to the wayside. After all, setting up adequate coverage helps protect the savings we work so hard to build.<\/p>\n What to know . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2021","category-fall-2021-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11658"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11870,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11658\/revisions\/11870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How Social Security Affects Medicare<\/h3>\n
Avoiding Late Penalties<\/h3>\n
When to Apply for Medicare at Retirement<\/h3>\n
\n
Ensuring Full Coverage<\/h3>\n
Retiring with Medicare<\/h3>\n
Lindsay Engle is a Medicare expert for MedicareFAQ<\/a>. She hosts the MedicareFAQ YouTube channel<\/a>, which is a learning resource center for individuals 65 and older to learn about Medicare options and plans.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"