Maximize Your Medicare Newsletter April 24, 2015 Not the News: Retiree Benefits Weakening Courts lining up to approve weaker retiree benefits It shouldn’t be a secret to anyone. Employers are faced with a higher retiree count, and the cost per retiree is increasing. The U.S. Supreme Court has recently ruled that an employer can eliminate retiree health benefits, and that a contract must be very specific in order to guarantee lifetime retiree health benefits. In the State of Michigan, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled (this week) that teachers can be required to pay more in order to preserve their pensions and health insurance benefits. You can read the article here. Practical reality: the payers are facing stress due to the fact that the number of retirees is frequently greater than the number of employees, and just recently, the size of the “hole” is being made public. This simply highlights a point that I make in Maximize Your Medicare: you need to keep updated on this. And, there is good news, because you DO have the right to switch to a Medicare Advantage or Medigap plan (most of them), even outside the Annual Election Period (which runs from October 15th-December 7th). That is not to say that you should change, but the fact is that you can change, and that you can go through the exercise to see how the changes could impact you.
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From a client: Dear Mr. Jae Oh, My husband and I are so thankful for your help. We were in need of a special insurance program and could not figure out how to meet the government’s December 7 deadline without finding ourselves locked into the same program we had last year. You phoned after I had searched the Internet for an answer, heard my distress, and created a course of action to solve our concern. This was amazing since you know you would not receive any financial reward for this kindness. We are grateful to you. Thank You! Sincerely, Robert and Phyllis Nulty Northville, MI
FREE ANDROID APP: You enter Date of Birth, and check some boxes. Depending on your answer, out comes a checklist of issues to consider. A perfect place to start for those new to Medicare.
Maximize Your Medicare Newsletter April 24, 2015
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Medicare ABCs, Miami, May 18th 3PM Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Miami I am not asking for sympathy, but you will get the point: A. People aren’t informed correctly about Medicare, for a variety of reasons. B. People make Medicare decisions based on that faulty understanding, costing money, and creating fear, that could have been reasonably avoided, in many cases, C. People wrongly think that they are “all set.” D. Adult-age children, even if well-intentioned, use non-Medicare understanding and attempt to apply it to Medicare. E. Financial/retirement planning doesn’t include proper understanding of healthcare costs because all of the attention is paid to asset accumulation, but much larger downside exists if Medicare is neglected. F. Faulty understanding leads to cost overruns, and communities, hospitals, healthcare providers, and you, end up paying for it. If you do not fit one of the above, then please accept my highest compliments. For the rest of you (the overwhelming majority), there is Medicare ABCs. You can find out more information about this session here and here.
SEND JAE YOUR PERSONAL QUESTIONS and REQUESTS Jae [at] maximizeyourmedicare [dot]com or CLICK THE ICON FREE ANDROID APP You enter Date of Birth, and check some boxes. Depending on your answer, out comes a checklist of issues to consider. A perfect place to start for those new to Medicare.
Maximize Your Medicare Newsletter April 24, 2015
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Subscribe to the Maximize Your Medicare Podcast! You can listen on your Apple or Android device, or on your computer. SUBSCRIBE BY CLICKING HERE.
Hall of Shame: Chelsea Community Hospital and Saint Joseph Mercy Health System The flyer here is factually wrong in point #5: “As always, you will be able to choose your own doctors.” Huh? If you are part of Medicare Advantage, then you may need to have a Primary Care Physician that accepts your plan. If your physician doesn’t accept Medicare at all, then you will need to change physicians. It is very alarming that hospital systems publish this type of thing, which people rightfully hope is accurate, but isn’t.
SEND JAE YOUR PERSONAL QUESTIONS and REQUESTS Jae [at] maximizeyourmedicare [dot]com or CLICK THE ICON FREE ANDROID APP You enter Date of Birth, and check some boxes. Depending on your answer, out comes a checklist of issues to consider. A perfect place to start for those new to Medicare.