Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. This is the second Saturday of October twenty
twenty four. Craig Schillig here, and this is Safe Money.
As a reminder, Halloween is three weeks away, So get
your costume and can you ready? We're here every Saturday
to talk with you our listeners on financial strategies we
use to manage and protect assets safely. Now, I know
(00:23):
you're accustomed to hearing my father, Dick do the talking
on this show. As a matter of reintroduction, I'm Craig Schillig,
the son of Dick Schillig. I'm an independent insurance broker
here in Iowa, Illinois. I've been an insurance agent for
over twenty four years. I've learned a few things from
my father about insurance strategies since then, like using annuities
(00:45):
as safe money harbors, or using cash value life insurance
for long term planning. Some other items that I handle.
I do a fair amount of paycheck insurance. What is
paycheck insurance? Simply put? If I take away your paycheck,
how long would you sustain without an income? I'll cover
that topic in a later show. I do a lot
(01:09):
of medicare business. Now, my office doesn't represent every carrier
in this area, but we cover the major players in
both states, Iowa and Illinois. I also do individual health
insurance on and off the health insurance marketplace. You can
call it Alabamacare or biden Care if you want. I
(01:30):
help clients in both states as well. If you're an
Iowa citizen. There's even an individual or family plan from
Farm Bureau that's administered through well Mark that is a
fully insured product. They have three different types of plans.
There's a regular plan with some copays and a minimal deductible.
(01:51):
They do have a true copay plan, and then they
also have an HDHP, also known as a high deductible
health plan. These are the new version of what used
to be called Health Savings Account plans. This Farm Bureau
platform is not on the health insurance marketplace. Now understand
(02:12):
that you still need to pass underwrite in order to
be accepted. They can deny you. They can say no, Craig,
we won't accept you due to a past medical history
or medical diagnosis. However, for those that are accepted, the
monthly premiums, the deductibles, and future premium increases are usually
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much much lower than traditional than using the traditional health
insurance marketplace, again, Please note you must be accepted onto
this type of contract. And also, just to confuse you
a little bit, there are some Farm Bureau health plans
on the Health Insurance Marketplace Exchange that are completely different
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from the fully underwritten plan that I just spoke of.
Take note the annual enrollment period for individual and family
health insurance Marketplace plans begins on November first, and that
runs until December fifteenth of this year. I'll talk more
about that in a later segment. Let's talk about small
group health insurance for small businesses, you know, one to
(03:22):
three employees and on up to twenty fifty or one hundred.
I usually have an expert brought in for some of
these small group cases. I don't do everything in that arena,
and sometimes I find it's better to let some other
people handle that aspect. There's just only so many hats
that I can wear. International health travel policies for when
(03:46):
you go outside the United States that's another arena that
I help in a lot. These contracts aren't so much
for the health insurance aspect, but more for the cost
of jet fuel. By that, I mean if you need
need to be medically evacuated due to sickness or injury.
Who's going to pay the jet fuel bill. That's where
(04:06):
these types of policies come into play. I'll talk about
more of that in a later segment. And those plans
do have some embedded travel benefits also, baggage reimbursement, trip delay,
stuff like that, and I'll get into that later. Currently,
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we're in the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period, also known as AEP.
This runs from now until December seventh. If you intend
to make a change on your Medicare plans, you can't
do that till this Tuesday, October fifteenth. So let's talk
a little bit about Medicare. I give monthly virtual meetings
(04:49):
from two different companies every single month throughout the calendar year.
They usually fall on the third week of the month,
and they're usually on Tuesdays and three Thursdays at ten am.
You can call our office at five six three three
three two two two zero zero for the dates and times,
(05:11):
or you can email me directly for the zoom codes
at Craig at Craigshillig dot com. That's c R a
I G at c R A I G S c
h I L l I G dot com. My last
name is pronounced Shillig, not Shilling. I just use shilling
(05:35):
I n G when I make dinner reservations. Perhaps you've
heard of Etna, Maybe you've heard of well Mark. You
might have heard of United Healthcare or across the river
Blue Crossley Shield of Illinois. These companies have several plans
in the Medicare Supplement and Medicare Advantage plan arena. Now
(06:00):
there's pros and cons of choosing one side or the other.
Our office represents both sides of this Medicare coin, so
we can offer you one or the other, and there's
no compensation arrangement differences to us. We can handle both.
Let's talk about Medicare Part D. I'm talking about standalone
(06:23):
prescription drug plans Medicare Part D. And why I say D,
I mean DEA's and drug. Some of the companies in
this arena are ATNA, Silver Script, Wellcare, United Healthcare, and
well Mark, just to name a few, and we do
represent all these companies. If you're now on Medicare and
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you'd like to change your choice of Medicare options for
twenty twenty four, you have until Saturday, December seventh to
do so. If you have a supplement or a drug plan. Now,
you probably won't change your supplement, but I would encourage
you to at least check into your Part D drug
plan for twenty twenty five. There's several changes that are
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occurring in this arena for twenty twenty five. There'll be
a lot of pricing differences, some good, some bad. But
this is something I would encourage you to at least
address during this fourth quarter. Remember, with Medicare, you have
two general choices. You may choose original Medicare. We sometimes
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call that the three card system. You would have your Medicare,
your red, white and blue Medicare card issued by CMS,
which is the center for Medicare and Medicaid services. You
would have a Medicare Supplement plan. This is a contract
issued by a private insurance company like well Mark, Etna,
(07:53):
United Healthcare, just to name a few. Then you also
have your standalone prescription drug plan. It's also a contract
issue by a private insurance company like ATNA, Silverscript, Welcare,
United Healthcare. All three of these cards combines are sometimes
called the three card system, or they're also referred to
as original Medicare. The alternative to this three card system
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is known as Medicare advantage plans. Now, that's what we
sometimes refer to as the one card system. They're also
sometimes called you may hear the word advantage or MA
or MapD plans. MA just means Medicare advantage without a
drug plan. Maybe you have a drug plan through a
(08:40):
retiree benefit and you don't need an embedded drug plan,
or MAAPD refers to a Medicare advantage plan with built
in drug coverage included. These are also contracts issued by
private insurance companies like Etna, United Healthcare, Blue Cross A
(09:03):
Blue Shield of Illinois, just to name a few. Medicare
parts C combines and administers Medicare Part A, the hospital
part of Medicare Part B, which is the medical services
side of Medicare, and then that combines with a drug
plan all in one complete package. Hence, this is sometimes
(09:25):
referred to as the one card system. You use the
same card for both medical services and your pharmacy drug purchases.
A big perk to an advantage plan is you only
have one card. You no longer use the red, white,
and blue Medicare card for claims. You only use that
one card issued by that private insurance company. Now locally
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here in eastern Iowa western Illinois, there's nine different Medicare
advantage plan companies to choose from. As an independent insurance agent,
we represent most of the nine Medicare advantage plans in
this area and going into twenty twenty five. These plans
are available in Clinton, Scott, Muscatine County on the Iowa side,
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or the Illinois counties we're talking about Rock Island, Henry
or Mercer County if you're across the river. If you
choose original Medicare, which includes the Medicare Card, a Medicare
Supplement card, and a prescription drug card, let's review the
monthly costs of what this would cost you. Base costs
(10:34):
for Medicare is generally no cost for Part A as
long as you've worked ten years or contributed forty quarters
of fight of taxes. Now, if you're married, you can
claim credits from a married spouse if you don't have
enough earned credits. I sometimes run into this with homemakers,
(10:55):
certain teachers, some municipality employees like police or firefighters that
didn't contribute enough to fight at taxes. The Part A
hospital part of Medicare is everything that happens to you,
while you're admitted into the hospital. Now, the key point
here is they would say, Craig, we're admitting you to
(11:17):
the hospital. Now you're not in sometimes what's referred to
as er hospital observation. If you go to the ER,
if you go to the AR and then they send
you home, that's not going to be covered under Hospital
Part A. That would be covered under Medicare Part B.
(11:40):
Now there is a Part A hospital deductible this year
of sixteen thirty two. That's one six and thirty two
dollars for twenty twenty four per hospitalization admission. Now Medicare
Part B as and boy, there's no car, there's no cost.
(12:02):
Excuse me, there is a cost for Medicare Part B,
and that base cost this year is one seventy four seventy.
That's one hundred and seventy four dollars and seventy cents
a month. In twenty twenty three, the base cost was
one sixty four. Now I don't have the twenty five
numbers yet, but the rumor is around one hundred and
(12:22):
eighty five dollars a month for twenty twenty five. But
stay tuned, we'll see what that number is. In a
couple of weeks. Usually one of my clients will notify
me of what that amount is because they're aging into
medicare before where we've been officially notified as agents in
the field. Now, let's talk about what happens if you're
(12:46):
too successful. What does too successful mean? Well, for singles,
that number this year is going to be one hundred
and three thousand of gross annual income. If you're a
joint household, that number will be north of two hundred
and six thousand of gross annual income on your twenty
twenty two filed tax return. The rule for this is
(13:10):
it's two years in arrears. So if we're in twenty
twenty five, they'll look at your twenty three filed tax
return and so on. This falls under what we call IRMA.
This is known ASMAA. IRMA because of texting, nobody uses
words anymore. We just use acronyms. But IRMA known ASMAA
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stands for income related monthly adjusted amount. If your income
happens to increase or decrease as time goes on, then
the IRMA amount will also go up or down as
time moves on. This comes from the two thousand and
three Medicare modernization Act to help increase financial stability of
(13:56):
the Medicare program, and this is also part of the
twenty eight Team Bipartisan Budget Act. Under the Trump administration,
original Medicare costs per person per month. Remember there's no
cost for Medicare Part A, but Part B cost per
person is one hundred and seventy four dollars monthly. If
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household income is higher than the standard rate, your B
will be cost higher per month. Remember original Medicare is
the three card system. You pay your cost for your
Part B base, which is one seventy four monthly for
most people due to a Part A deductible and twenty
percent co insurance under Medicare, most persons then eligible for
(14:45):
Medicare choose to participate in a Medicare supplement plan. And
this is where the confusion with Medicare begins. Medicare's supplement
plans are standardized. By standardized, I mean the benefit are
the same from insurance company to insurance company. So a
plan and is a nancy with one company benefits that
(15:09):
are listed would say the same thing as a plan
and is a nancy with another company that's by federal law.
The difference between supplement companies is the price they want
to charge for monthly plan premium on a given class
or type of insured risk, and more importantly to consumers,
(15:32):
their track record for historical premium increases. Now, remember that
supplements increase in price as we age, So you're paying
the lowest amount at age sixty five. In every year,
those are going to creep up a little bit depending
on the company. Some of them will level off at
age eighty one, but some contracts can go as high
(15:53):
as age eighty five or ninety and that depends on
the type of carrier. Supplement plans are letter coded beginning
with Medicare Supplement Plan is an Apple alphabetized all the
way to Medicare Supplement Plan and is an Nancy. Let
me give you approximate monthly costs of Medicare Supplement Plan G.
(16:16):
This is the most comprehensive supplement that you can purchase today.
Medicare Supplement Plan G. Premium with an insurance company offering
a household discount. Household discount means the client lives with
another person. Using a non tobacco premium for a male
person this year at age sixty five is going to
(16:38):
start around one fifty seven to one eighty maybe one
to eighty five a month, and then this would increase
every year at to age eighty one or up to
ninety depending on the company. Now, if you live in Illinois,
I'd add about twenty dollars of premium to that amount
I just gave you, because Illinois does cost more card system.
(17:01):
So the cost for Medicare is one seventy four. Monthly
costs of your supplement would be around one fifty seven
one eighty a month, with or without a discount, and
then this increases with age every year. Now, prior to COVID,
I would have told you a decent premium increase was
between four and six percent. Now I'd plan on eight
(17:24):
to ten percent for at least the next couple years.
Then the third card in this stack is the prescription
drug card. And those monthly premiums this year as low
as zero. They're fifty cents in Iowa, but they can
go as high as one hundred and twenty five or
up to one seventy six a month if you live
(17:45):
across river in Illinois. Again, Illinois, you guys pay a
little bit more than Iowa's citizens do. If an individual
elects a Medicare advantage plan, also known as Medicare Part C.
We refer to this sometimes as the one card system.
Under a Medicare advantage plan. This is a contract offered
(18:08):
by a private insurance company like Etna, well Mark, United Healthcare,
just to name a few. The insurance company issuing the
advantage plan receives some help from CMS using your Part
B premium that you send them every month. In the past,
I've heard rumors of on top of your Part B premium,
(18:29):
they're paying another three to eight hundred dollars a month
to these Medicare advantage insurance companies to incentivize them to
remain profitable and solvent. Hence, there's minimal monthly premium for
Medicare advantage plans on a monthly basis. Some plans locally
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here you can get an advantage plan for as low
as zero dollars monthly premium, but some plans do go
as high as fifty dollars a month depending on the plan.
On the Illinois side, there are still zero dollars a
monthly plan premiums there, but some advantage plans can go
high as one seventy eight a month depending on the
platform you choose. Now let's talk about some of the
(19:14):
perks of a Medicare advantage plan. A lot of Medicare
advantage plans locally include fitness gym memberships, basic and sometimes
comprehensive coverage for eyes, ears, teeth, and chiropractic. Some plans
even provide home monitoring services with panic buttons. Other plans
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also give you quarterly amounts of money forty five to
maybe ninety dollars a quarter for over the counter items
that you'd typically find in your medicine cabinet, neo sporren,
cough drops, band aids, stuff of that nature. A lot
(19:55):
of them will You'll have access to Walmart, dot Com
or some other vent. There's pros and cons with different companies.
Benefits are different, networks are different, etc. Everybody's situation is different,
but my office can help you pick and choose a
plan that bets fits your needs. So a couple points
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to know. The primary difference between a supplement and a
Medicare advantage plan is a supplement doesn't have any doctor
hospital networks. You can go anywhere in all fifty states
as long as they accept the redbody and Blue Medicare card.
There's no networks, no referrals needed. Now, under an advantage plan,
you're subject to their doctor hospital network. Now locally here,
(20:41):
it's kind of a mute point. Most advantage plans locally
here you can go to Mercy One, Genesis or Unity
Point Trinity. Saint Luke's across the river is in network,
as well as the University of Iowa hospitals and clinics
in Iowa City or Peoria. Some plans locally here will
(21:06):
be HMO plans known as Health Maintenance Organization plans, which
have one type of network, and some plans locally here
operate off of a PPO chassis, which known as Preferred
Provider Organizations. These types of plans provide you both in
and out of network coverage. So let me give you
(21:29):
an example. If you have an advantage plan that's an
HMOPOS plan, and let's say you want to go outside
your home area like Houston, Texas cancer treatment centers, or
I've had a client who want to go to Cleveland,
Ohio for the Cleveland Clinic. Under a supplement, you would
just go there. But if you have a Medicare advantage
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plan and you're on in HMO, you may need to
get a referral approved prior to acceptance. Now, if you're
his plans a PPO plan, you could go to some
of these out of network areas for just a slightly
higher copayer, deductible or max out of pocket depending on
the plan you're on. Remember a couple things here. You
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can always start on a supplement and a prescription drug
plan and then move to a Medicare advantage plan later
in life by just answering a couple basic questions. The
current questions that most contracts ask you would be do
you live in the service area? Is your doctor in
the network? Do you have a satisfactory enrollment period? Now?
(22:41):
I give monthly virtual meetings for different for two different
companies every month. I do one specifically on supplements and
standalone drug plans. I do the other virtual meeting I
focus solely on Medicare Parts C known as Medicare Advantage plans.
(23:01):
Each topic is different. I still cover the four pieces
of Medicare in both platforms, but I usually cover these
on the third week of the month. It's usually at
Tuesday or a Thursday ten am. I do two every month,
and then both this month and next month, so October
and November I'll have some additional dates. I'll do probably
(23:26):
maybe two or three a week, and I do that
just because you're getting inundated with mail and stuff about
making plan changes and that kind of confuses you. Guys,
my next two virtual meetings or this Tuesday and Thursday,
coming up October sixteenth and eighteenth. You can call our
office at five six three three three two two two
(23:48):
zero zero for information on getting the zoom codes to
join those virtual meetings, or you can email me at
Craig at craig Chilly dot com. That's c r a
I G at c r a I G S c
h I L l I G dot com and I'd
(24:11):
be happy to send you the zoom code links for
that meeting. Or I think I have about, oh maybe
a half dozen scheduled over the next two or three weeks.
This is Craig Shelly with Save Money. Thanks for joining
and enjoy the Hawkeye game. I'll see you next week.