By John Rossheim | NerdWallet
You can think of enrolling in Medicare as an enormous dinner out with very filling starters. But before you order, you must choose one of two menus: Do you prefer Original Medicare or Medicare Advantage?
Original Medicare starts with two courses of alphabet soup: Medicare Parts A, B and D followed by your choice of Medigap supplemental insurance plan types: Plans A, B, D, G, K, L, M and N.
Go for the other menu, Medicare Advantage, and you’ll get a blue-plate special bundling together the coverage of Parts A, B and D. But from there, the options can still overwhelm. Those from Ohio, for example, can choose among 216 Medicare Advantage plans offered by 20 insurers.
Given all this complexity, many first-time enrollees feel uncomfortably full — at least their heads do — before they even address the big question: How can they ensure 5-star health care for the rest of their lives?
The key is to avoid a handful of fundamentally bad choices that can only be reversed at a high cost, if at all.
And just how steep can your health care costs be under Medicare? One measure is the proportion of Medicare-eligible folks who find themselves mired in debt related to their care. Some 22% of people age 65 and up said they owed money on medical or dental bills, according to a 2022 survey by KFF, a health policy nonprofit.
Let’s dig in to illuminate the big-picture mistakes that you can work to avoid.
1. Don’t enroll late, even if current health care needs are modest
Know this: If you fail to enroll in any part of Medicare during your initial enrollment period, you will pay one or more penalties not just once, but month after month, often for the rest of your life.
Consider Medicare Part B, your coverage for doctor bills, outpatient services and so on. In 2022, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services average Part B late-enrollment penalty was 27% higher than the base premium. That penalty amounted to $45.93 per month. With Part B,…
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