Medicare Part B Premium Jumps Dramatically for 2022 | Kiplinger
Rising health care costs and the approval of Aduhelm, a new expensive Alzheimer’s drug, were partly to blame for increases in the Part B premium and deductible.
Health Savings Accounts: An underutilized tool for long-term financial wellness | BenefitsPRO
To help boost that longer-term growth potential, most HSA administrators will allow HSA members to allocate contributions to mutual funds or a brokerage account once their balance reaches a certain threshold.
There’s more: HSAs are owned by the individual and are portable for the employee from employer to employer. And, in the event of the HSA member’s death, the balance is payable to a beneficiary.
Understanding Medicare Advantage
Fall is upon us, and so is open enrollment AEP 10-15-12-7. Our independent agency can help review your benefits and help you determine what makes sense with our 23 years of experience and health insurance planning for retirement.
Medicare & COBRA
COBRA is the temporary insurance that allows people to remain insured for 18 months (or sometimes longer) after leaving employment. It is designed to give people time to get another job or find a different health plan. Aside from the expense—terminated employees must now pay the entire premium themselves—it works well for people under age 65 who are not yet eligible for Medicare.
But for people over 65, COBRA can be a minefield. The first minefield has to do with getting medical bills paid, which is the whole purpose of insurance. The second one relates to Medicare enrollment, which can result in penalties and overage gaps if not done right.
COBRA pays secondary to Medicare
COBRA pays secondary to Medicare. So when a medical bill is submitted to the insurer providing the COBRA, the insurer will wait for Medicare to pay its share. Once Medicare pays its share, such as the 80% of Part B services that Medicare covers, the COBRA insurer will pay what remains of the bill up to the policy limits.
But if the over-65 terminated employee is not enrolled in Part B, Medicare will not pay. And the COBRA insurer will not pay either. This leaves the client stuck with the entire bill.
Sadly, many people over 65 are not being told that when they go onto COBRA they must enroll in Medicare in order to get their bills paid. They assume their health insurance will go on as before, the only difference being that the premiums are coming out of their own pocket now (or in some cases the former employer will subsidize). What they don’t know is that COBRA, for a person over 65, is not complete insurance.
Medicare applications raise anxiety for seniors in pandemic
Medicare Advantage Enrollees Discover Dirty Little Secret
Wake Up AARP! A Message to Seniors: Medicare “Disadvantage” Is a Corporate Trap
Medicare Part B Premiums Rise 7% In 2020, With Premiums For Highest-Income Couples Nearing $12,000 A Year
Guess What US State recently became the fifth largest economy in the world?
As the globe’s fifth-largest economy, California recently scooted past the U.K., taking its spot in the rankings. The state’s gross domestic product exceeded $2.7 trillion in 2017, rising by $127 billion in a single year, while the U.K. saw theirs shrink over that same period. California’s sizable population, at 40 million (compared to the U.K.’s 66 million), may have something to do with its ability to compete on the global stage — that, along with its agriculture, technology, and entertainment industries. Entrepreneurial spirit and worker productivity are also quoted by experts as being economic bolsters for the state. The only countries to surpass California in total GDP? The United States, China, Japan, and Germany.
