If I Already Have Florida Healthcare Advantage Insurance
This article was updated on April 9, 2018, and originally published on July 16, 2017.
The standard eligibility age for Medicare in the United States is 65. However, many people don't know if they demand to sign up for Medicare if they already have other health insurance coverage, such every bit through a job, a spouse's employer, from their onetime employer, or through COBRA. Here's a quick guide that can help you determine if you need to sign up for Medicare when you lot plow 65 or if you lot tin wait longer without paying a punishment.
How Medicare works with your other insurance
When you take more than 1 insurance provider, there are certain rules that determine who pays what it owes offset and who pays based on the remaining residuum. For seniors who don't accept other insurance, Medicare is patently the primary payer. However, when you have other insurance, information technology'due south a little more complicated.
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Depending on the type of insurance you have (group coverage, retiree coverage, COBRA, market coverage, etc.), Medicare can either be the chief or the secondary payer. If Medicare would be a secondary payer to your current insurance, you can delay signing up for Medicare Function B. If your current insurance would get a secondary payer to Medicare, you should sign up during your initial enrollment menstruation, which is the seven-month period that begins three months prior to the month y'all'll turn 65.
It's also worth noting that although I'thousand specifically mentioning Medicare Part B, which is medical insurance, this applies to Part A (hospital insurance) equally well. Yet, Medicare Office A is complimentary to the vast majority of Americans, and so it's probably worth signing up for Part A whether you're required to or not. On the other hand, Medicare Office B has a monthly premium you'll have to pay ($134 per calendar month for most new beneficiaries in 2018), which is why it can make sense to delay signing upward if information technology's not going to be your primary insurance.
Who can delay signing up for Medicare?
So, whose insurance remains the chief payer? In a nutshell, if yous have coverage through your or your spouse'south current employment, and the employer has xx or more employees, your insurance programme remains the primary payer.
If you aren't sure if your employer meets the "grouping wellness coverage" criteria, ask your employer'south benefits manager.
If y'all do qualify, y'all can delay signing upwards for Medicare for as long as you (or your spouse) are still working. Once the employment or your employer-based health coverage ends, you'll have eight months to sign upwards for Medicare Part B without paying a penalisation, which is a permanently higher premium.
It's likewise important to note that regardless of whether you're still working or non, if you've already signed up for Social Security benefits, you'll be automatically enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B when you turn 65. If you lot don't want to go along Part B, you'll need to cancel it (instructions are on the Medicare card you'll receive).
Who should sign up at 65, fifty-fifty if they accept other insurance?
This leaves a fairly long list of other types of insurance that get secondary payers to Medicare. Therefore, if you're turning 65 and any of these situations apply to you, you lot should sign up for Medicare during your initial enrollment menses.
- You accept grouping coverage through your or your spouse's employer, but the employer has fewer than 20 workers.
- Y'all take retiree coverage, either through your former employer or your spouse's former employer.
- Yous have group coverage through COBRA.
- You take TRICARE, the healthcare program for military service members, retirees, and their families. Retired service members must get Medicare Office B when eligible in lodge to keep their TRICARE coverage. (Notation: If you're nevertheless on active duty, y'all don't take to enroll in Medicare until after you retire.)
- You take veterans' benefits.
- Yous have coverage through the healthcare market place or have other private insurance. In one case your Medicare coverage begins, you lot'll no longer get any reduced premium or tax credit for marketplace coverage, and you should drop this coverage every bit you lot'll no longer demand it (unless yous're not eligible for premium-costless Part A, which is not mutual).
If one of these situations applies to y'all and you don't sign up for Medicare Part B during your initial enrollment period, you could face permanently college premiums when you do.
Source: https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/07/16/do-i-need-to-sign-up-for-medicare-at-65-if-i-have.aspx
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