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Good Health in
Retirement
For good health in your later years, eat good
natural food and not too much of it. Exercise
three or four times a week. And have annual check-ups. But you know
this already, so on to the two key issues of health
insurance after retirement.
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Early
Retirement and Health Insurance.
If your early retirement
package includes a good health care plan, you are a very lucky
person. If you choose early retirement and do not
have health insurance from your previous employer, you may face
health care premiums of $500 to $800 a month per person!
That is--if you can find a company that will insure you at
all. Early retirees should factor this into their
plans. It is an ugly situation! Some early
retirees end up taking part time jobs
just for the health
insurance benefits.
Medicare and Health
Insurance.
Medicare
is a federal
government program that pays for part of the medical and
health care costs of people age 65 and over. The
monthly fee (currently $96.40 for retirees with an annual income
of less than $85,000) is deducted
automatically from your Social Security payment. If you start collecting Social Security at 62, you still are not
eligible for Medicare until 65.
What Medicare Covers
- Medicare Part A is for
hospitalization.
- Medicare Part B is for doctors services.
- Medicare Part D is for prescriptions.
And there is more fine print and deductibles and coinsurance with all of these than you can
shake a stick at! Because there are many
aspects of health care that are not covered by Medicare, or only covered
partially, most people choose to add some additional
insurance.
1. Private Medicare
Supplemental Insurance. This is commonly known as Medigap
insurance. This type of policy usually lets
you choose any doctor, any hospital, any specialist without
another doctor's referral. Medicare regulates these
policies, which are identified as Plans A, B, C, D, etc.
Each insurer who offers these policies must offer most of the 10
Plans. For example, some Plans cover you when you
travel overseas; some Plans cover in-home recovery. You pay a monthly fee for this
insurance. The price varies by age and coverage. To
see a list of the mandated benefits of Medigap policies click
here.
2. Medicare
Advantage Insurance Plans. Basically, these are HMOs
or PPOs. When you "join" one of these plans you are
assigned a primary care doctor who decides on treatment,
referrals, hospitals, etc. These plans often offer
additional services such as exercise facilities, eyeglasses and
prescription coverage. You pay no monthly fee as a
"member". (In reality, you are not a
member--you are a pre-paid patient.) You
usually pay no monthly premium. If you go to a
doctor or hospital outside of their service you will probably
have to pay 100% of the costs. It appears that the
2010 Health Care Reform Act will restrict these plans.
3. Private Fee For
Service Plans. These are new and only available in
limited areas of the country. The Medicare website and
your annual Medicare book from the government has more details
about them.
4. Prescription
Insurance. This is new and every large and small insurance company in
the country is getting in on it. You pay a monthly
fee and most of your prescription costs are partially covered up
to a limit set by Congress. The medicines available
through each company vary enormously, so make sure
the prescriptions you take are included in their formulary,
their list of covered drugs. And check again each year
because the formularies change annually. The monthly fee
changes annually, too. The 2010 Health Care Reform Act
increases the benefits for retirees.
5. Other Medicare
and Medicaid Plans. We suggest that you view your
options on the official Medicare website. There are plans
for people with special health conditions and with low fixed
incomes. |
| A Real
Life Retirement:
Coral, a retired
advertising executive, didn't want to
belong to an HMO, and spent a lot of time sorting
through stacks of Medigap Supplemental Insurance advertising
then searching
online until she discovered that there were only 10 Plans defined and
regulated by Medicare.
Then it became easy to decide which one was best for
her.
Be sure to insist that you receive detailed
information in writing about all the Medicare Approved
Plans an insurer offers before you sign up. Don't
let a sales advisor or insurance agent make the
decision for you over the phone. |
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Your feedback and comments
are welcome. If you have experiences or ideas to
share, please send
feedback now.
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NOTE: All names
on this site have been changed to protect the individual's
privacy. The stories are real, the names are not.
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150
The number of
minutes an older person should walk briskly every week to
help avoid Alzheimer's according to the Journal of the
American Medical Association. |
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