Safe Money - 11-04-23

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good Saturday morning to all on thisfirst Saturday for the month of November two
thousand and twenty three. Boy,the year is winding down. You know,
we remain in two very important enrollmentperiods for major medical insurance this morning.

(00:20):
The first is the Medicare annual Enrollmentperiod that began on October fifteenth,
and it continues until December seventh.So if you wish to make a change
in your choice for Medicare, now'sthe time to do so, and the
new choice will be effective January first, twenty twenty four. Now, this

(00:45):
is called the annual Enrollment period forMedicare. On this topic, I'd like
to share with you example of howwe've been able to help with this choice.
I visit with a couple earlier thisweek. The couple was aged eighty
and seventy four. Their choice earlierthis year was to choose original Medicare with

(01:11):
a Medicare supplement program and a prescriptiondrug plan. Now, the premium for
the Medicare Part A and B.For Medicare Part A is zero dollars,
but for Medicare Part B, thepremium next year will be one hundred and
seventy four dollars. Per month perperson. There is a further premium for

(01:33):
a Medicare supplement plan, which wastwo hundred and seventy four dollars premium for
the Medicare Supplement program, and thenPart D premium was thirty four dollars a
month, so that total over fourto five hundred dollars. This is for

(01:57):
one of the spouse's. Now rememberthis is a husband and wife, so
the premium is double boy, thattakes a big chunk out of our monthly
pension income. So I'll have moreto say about Medicare advantage plans later,
but first I want to remind youthat on November first, we entered into

(02:22):
our second important enrollment period for personswho are under the age of sixty five.
This enrollment period is for persons whoare not yet eligible for Medicare.
So this is the enrollment period forindividuals or families for major medical insurance.
So if you now have major medicalinsurance for yourself, for your spouse and

(02:46):
family, now it's the time tochange these plans. If you desire to
change the plans. Why would youwant to change the plans? Well,
the major reason for wanting to changemajor medical plans is because your costs for
medical services has changed significantly due tothe provider no longer being a part of

(03:09):
the network, or perhaps prescription drugcosts have increased significantly. Those are the
major reasons for wanting to change thatif your doctors do not participate in the
plan, or if your prescription drugcosts are not part of the plan or

(03:31):
not very favorable part of the plan. In addition, if the premium has
changed significantly, there may be justificationsfor wanting to change plans. So this
second major enrollment period began a fewdays ago on November one, and it

(03:53):
runs till January fifteenth. Now,this second major enrollment period, there's for
persons who are not yet under Medicare, So once again we are in two.
We are in two important enrollment periodsfor major medical insurance. First is

(04:18):
the Medicare annual enrollment period that runsfrom October fifteenth to December seventh. And
then the open enrollment period for personswho are not yet eligible for Medicare would
be from from November one to Januaryfifteenth. So there's our choices for the

(04:53):
major medical insurance. We're in ourMedicare annual enrollment period right now, and
then, in addition to the Medicareannual enrollment period, on November one,
we started the enrollment period for personsnot yet on Medicare. Those are for
individuals, for spouses, for families. These groups are not yet on Medicare,

(05:17):
and so they have individual health insuranceplan. Now, having said that,
I want to remind you that withindividual health insurance plans, thehealthcare dot
gov website is a fantastic place todetermine a major medical insurance plan for you.

(05:39):
If you have problems with that,please call me. Please give me
a call five six three three threetwo twenty two hundred, and we'll be
happy to walk you through that exercise. The beauty about healthcare dot Gov is
that it gives us immediately the opportunityis that if we callqualify for a Medicare

(06:00):
subsidy, for a premium subsidy forhealthcare insurance, that tells us automatically if
we qualify for that, and howmuch we qualify for. Boy, I've
help people who've had seven eight hundred, eleven hundred monthly premiums for major medical
insurance, and they come in andwe look at the Medicare or excuse me,

(06:25):
we look at the healthcare dot govwebsite, and we determine that a
premium subsidy is available. And boy, that subsidy helps reduce the cost of
major medical insurance. I have clientsthat pay nothing, that pays zero dollars
a month for major medical insurance becauseof that premium subsidy. So it's a

(06:47):
very very very very worthwhile exercise totake advantage of. I encourage you to
do that. If you need helpin doing that, boy, give me
a call at five six three threethree two twenty two hundred, or you
can email me. Go to mywebsite. Simply go to Dickshillick dot com

(07:08):
and scroll over to the contact iconand drop down for my email address and
send me an email. Be I'llbe happy to help you. Now,
I'd like to say something about Medicareadvantage plans. First, I want to
remind you about the choices we havewhen we become eligible for Medicare. We

(07:33):
can choose original Medicare. That iswhat is referred to the three card system.
You have your Medicare card issued bythe government with the Medicare Part A
and Part B on that card.Then you have a second card issued by
a private insurance company, and thatis a Medicare supplement card. And then

(07:56):
you have a third card issued byagain a private insurance company, and that
is the prescription drug plan. Soif you have original Medicare, and if
that is your choice for Medicare,that's what we call the three card system.
Now, if you have the alternativeto original Medicare, and that is

(08:20):
the advantage plan, we call thatthe one card system. You have a
single card issued by a private insurancecompany that covers both Medicare Part A and
Part B, and it has aMedicare supplement attached with it, and it
has a prescription drug plan included.Now there are some the couple that I

(08:46):
had my office earlier this week,My gosh, they were paying more than
seven hundred dollars per month for thecost of a medica For the first of
all, the cost of Medicare PartB, which was it was one hundred
and sixty four dollars in twenty twentythree. It'll go up to one hundred
and seventy four dollars in twenty twentyfour. So they were paying that cost

(09:13):
Medicare Part B premium cost, andthey were paying the cost of a supplement.
And then in addition to that,they were paying for a prescription drug
plan. So all total, theywere probably paying close to five or six
hundred dollars per month for both ofthem together. My gosh, over a

(09:35):
year's time, that's over six closeto seven thousand dollars in premium. Now,
the Medicare Advantage Plan, you continuepaying your Part B premium, which
as I mentioned, will be onehundred and seventy four dollars per month per
person starting in twenty twenty four.Then that you paid the premium for that

(10:01):
Medicare Part B, you continue payingthat. And then if there is a
premium for the Medicare Advantage plan,then you pay that. Also. I
believe that the more competitive advantage planin this area is the AARP Medicare Complete

(10:22):
Plan, the Medicare Advantage Plan offeredby United Healthcare. I think it is
the more competitive of the Medicare advantageplans. And I say that because,
first of all, the premium youcan choose either a zero dollar premium per
month or the premium in twenty twentyfour will be thirty nine dollars per month.

(10:45):
Now, what's the difference between azero dollar premium plan and a thirty
dollars a month premium plan. Thedifference is the out of pocket. You
have a much higher out of pocketwhen you have a zero dollar premium for
that Medicare advantage plan. I becameaccustomed to using the Medicare advantage plan,

(11:09):
which has a lower out of pocketmaximum, and that out of pocket maximum
I believe is thirty four hundred dollarsthree four hundred dollars. Now that's a
out of pocket which covers doctor officeand visit co payments, or it covers
medical services co payments, So abunch of a co payment for an X

(11:31):
ray, so much of a copayment for a medical exam, and for
other services as well. But theco payment is minimal compared to the costs
that we would pay for original MedicarePart B premium, Medicare Supplement premium,
and the prescription drug premium. Thoseare quite quite high. A couple I

(11:56):
referred to earlier was paying between sixand seve one hundred dollars a month premium
for those costs, and so theywere looking at a Medicare advantage plan.
And with that advantage plan, youcontinued to pay. You're one hundred and
seventy four dollars based premium to Medicurefor Part B of Medicure, and then

(12:18):
of course you pay if there isa premium for the advantage plan, you
would pay that. I like touse the premium, which is a thirty
four dollars premium every month per personfor a AARP Medicure advantage plan because I

(12:39):
believe that plan as one of thelower out of pocket maximums for all the
Medicare advantage plans that are out there. So you pay a little bit of
premium for that advantage plan, butthen you're out of pocket cost is minimal
compared to the premium that you wouldpay for original Medicare Supplement and Part D

(13:03):
plan, the original Medicare. TheMedicare advantage plan is what we call the
one card system. You have asingle card for the Medicare advantage plan,
and the alternative is an original Medicarein which you have a three card system.

(13:26):
You have your Medicare card, andyou have your Medicare Supplement card,
and you have your prescription drug Premiumcard that goes with that. So I
would encourage you, while we're inthis annual enrollment period to give me a
call to do some research to dosome investigations on what you are paying with

(13:48):
those costs, what those premium costsare, and what the alternatives are too.
I encourage you to take a lookat that. That's very very important.
You know. There was this studieddone, and there's always studies being
conducted, and a study was publishedWednesday by Harvard Medical School, and the

(14:11):
study relied on a sample of fiftythousand individuals that were enrolled in either Medicare
or a Mediccare advantage plan. Sothey were the two choices for original Medicare
and the other choices a Medicare advantageplan. This study of fifty thousand individuals

(14:35):
consisted of ten thousand individuals who wereenrolled in a Medicare advantage plan. Now
it adjusted for pre existing differences betweenthe two populations. But the outcome of
that was that the fee for serviceplan that's original Medicare with a supplement and

(14:56):
a prescription drug plan and ten thousandindividuals and a Medicare advantage planet, was
found that the individuals in a Medicareadvantage plan used fewer medical services than people
enrolled in original Medicare with a supplementand a prescription drug plan. So that's

(15:22):
what we call a fee for serviceMedicare plan. So if we look at
that, the research has discovered thatMedicare Advantage plan beneficiaries experienced seventy percent fewer
readmissions to a hospital than fee forservice Medicare enrollies did. In addition,

(15:46):
Medicare advantage Medicare Advantage enrollees had twentyfour percent twenty four percent fewer preventable hospital
is aations, and fifty nine percentfewer preventable acute hospitalizations. The magnitude of

(16:07):
the quality improvement that the Medicare Advantageprogram achieved was surprising. That's according to
a health economist at Harvard Medical Schooland lead researcher of this study. These
findings also confirmed that a lot ofthe overall healthcare utilization reduction was that we

(16:30):
saw under Mendicare advantage that came throughimproved health outcomes for patients where than those
restricting or rationing care. But anotherway, a key reason why patients appeared
to be going to the hospital lessunder the Medicare Advantage plan is because they
have fewer complications and don't need thecare unlike those in fee for service plans.

(16:56):
So I think it's certainly worth takinga look at and worth comparing.
First of all, the premiums thatwe pay for original Medicare with a Medicare
supplement and a prescription drug plan.Take those premiums and compare that to a
premium which is available for a Medicareadvantage plan under the one card system,

(17:22):
the Medicare Advantage plan. Remember,we continue to pay the Part B premium,
which is normally a deduction from ourSocial Security check, and in twenty
twenty four, that based deduction willbe one hundred and seventy four dollars per
person per month, and that iswhat you would pay for the advantage plan.

(17:48):
You will continue paying that Part Bpremium plus you would pay you may
pay a premium for the advantage plan. The more popular plan, I think
is the plan offered by United Healthcare, and it's called the aa ARP Medicare
Complete Plan. Now it's titled aaARP Medicare Complete Plan, but the insurance

(18:14):
company is really United Healthcare. AARPis not an insurance company aarpre aa ARP
merely sells their logo to United Healthcare, and United Healthcare has an exclusivity has
an exclusive use of the aa rP logo so they put that AARP logo

(18:37):
on some of their Medicare advantage plans, but that plan I believe, and
we are independent insurance agents, sowe represent the United Healthcare plans and we
represent all other Medicare plans that aremost all the other plans that are available

(19:00):
in these Medicare regions. What's theMedicare region. Medicare region is usually a
county or a county and surrounding counties. So the Medicare region that we are
in in Iowa is the Scott CountyMedicare Region, and it is a Medicare
region, and it has surrounding countiesthat also participate in that same Medicare advantage

(19:26):
plan. The Rock Island County isa Medicare region and they participate also in
the United Healthcare Medicare Advantage Plan.Rock Island County and surrounding counties make up
that Medicare region, and they offerthat plan in both the state of Illinois

(19:49):
and the state of Iowa and thoseMedicare region. So I encourage you to
take a look at that. Iencourage you to give me a call or
drop me an email note, andwe'll be happy to talk with you about
your situation and the advantages and disadvantage, the pros and cons of these alternatives

(20:14):
to original original medicare. During themonth of November, we continue hosting our
Medicare community meetings or virtual community meetings. We have these community meetings once a
month or several times a month.And it used to be that we would
have these meetings in a meeting roomsomeplace. We'd runt a meeting room at

(20:37):
a hotel or a meeting room,and we have our prospects come in and
we make a formal presentation in person. Now, with the COVID outbreak,
we stop doing that, and insteadof having group meetings, we have meetings
online. We call them virtual communitymeetings, and we are finding out that

(21:00):
those virtual community meetings are really moreadvantageous to the person and more advantageous to
us as well. And we simplyyou give us a call when you want
to participate in these meetings. Callus at five sixty three three three two
twenty two hundred or drop me anemail message. Go to my website dickshillig

(21:26):
dot com, scroll over to thecontact drop down for my email address,
and send me an email to thateffect. We'll be continuing to host these
meetings. The next one is comingup on November fourteenth and November sixteenth.

(21:47):
November fourteenth is a Tuesday, andwe have the We cover on that meeting
the basics of original Medicare and thenwe focus on the Medicare supplements are available,
So that is on November fourteenth.Then two days later on Thursday,

(22:08):
November sixteenth, again we focus onthe basics of Medicare and then concentrate on
the Medicare Advantage plan, and inparticularly what we feel is the more competitive
of the advantage plans, and thatis the AARP Medicare Complete Plan offered by
United Healthcare. You know, MedicareAdvantage. Medicare Advantage members have fewer readmissions

(22:37):
to hospitals, free preventable hospitalizations,and lower rates of high risk medication use
than traditional Medicare. Now that isprovided by research done by Harvard Medical School,
so it's a very very interesting comparisonbetween those two choices or Medicare.

(23:03):
This study found that Medicare Advantage membersexperience better quality outcomes than the fee for
service with original Medicare do including fewerreadmissions to hospitals, fewer preventable hospitalizations,
and lower risk of high risk medicaluses. So there's certainly with any Medicare

(23:33):
plan that we talk about, thereare pros and cons to there are advantages
and disadvantages, just as there areadvantages and disadvantages to the advantage plans that
we talk about all the time.The biggest advantage of the alternative to original
Medicare, the biggest advantage is thepremium, where the premium is far less

(23:59):
than the cost of a Medicare supplementand prescription drug plan. Like I say,
I believe that the more competitive ofthe Medicare advantage plans in these Medicare
regions is the one offered by UnitedHealthcare, and that is called the AARP
Advantage Plan, the AARP Complete AdvantagePlan. The premium for that plan you

(24:23):
can choose between a zero dollar premiumor in twenty twenty four, the premium
for that plan will be thirty ninedollars a month for Iowa residents, and
it is a very very lower costthan having those premiums for a Medicare supplement

(24:45):
plan as well as a premium fora Medicare prescription drug plan. So I
encourage you to take a look atthose alternatives, and remember too that during
this month of November, enrollment beginsin most pre Medicare plans, most individual

(25:07):
major medical insurance policies, and forthose plans there is assistance with the premium.
I know what the premium for individualmajor medical insurance, especially if you're
insuring a family, a spouse andfamily members, then it is a very
very expensive premium for that. However, the healthcare dot gov website gives you

(25:33):
a premium subsidy that you may qualifyfor. And if you qualify for this
premium subsidy, boy, the totalnet premium cost to you would be minimal.
I have many people that come into see me and we go on
that website and we determine what thepremium subsidy is. And in determining what

(25:55):
that premium subsidy, sometimes the costof the insurance is the cost of major
medical insurance is sometimes zero dollars orminimal dollars compared to what the cost would
be without the subsidy. So it'swell worth looking into. It's well worth
looking into for the Medicare choices orfor the pre Medicare choices, and I

(26:22):
encourage you, encourage you to doso. We want to remind you again
that we are having a virtual communityor virtual community meetings during this month of
November, and they are scheduled forNovember fourteenth, which is a Tuesday,

(26:42):
in which Craig talks about the basicsof Medicare, and then he talks about
the Medicare supplements. Remember there areten Medicare supplements are available. We get
to choose one of those ten supplements. And then he also talks about the
prescription drug plans which are available,and there are many prescription drug plans available.

(27:04):
I think there's eighteen prescription drug plansavailable. We get to pick one
of those. So if you chooseoriginal Medicare, that's what we call a
three card system. The alternative isthe Medicare Advantage Plan. That's the one
card system. You continue to participatein Medicare Part B by paying that premium,

(27:26):
but then the premium ach you payfor the rest of the Medicare coverage
is minimum. So give me acall call me at five sixty three three
three to two twenty two hundred,or go to my website www. Dickshillig
dot com and scroll over to thecontact icon for my email address. That's

(27:49):
all I have for you today.Have a great great November weekend, good day