October 1, 2025 • 34 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time. Time time, time, Luck and load. The
Michael Vari Show is on the air. Several years ago,
(00:41):
I was looking for an expert on Medicare and some
issues related to aging, because I came to learn once
I dug in and took over my parents' finances, I mean,
paying their bills and figuring out medical expenses and all
(01:05):
this sort of stuff that when you get to a
certain age, for most people, your medical care not the provider,
but the system behind the financing is Medicare, and that's
going to drive everything you do. And I noticed something
(01:28):
kept happening. Every time I would say to the doctors
who I know that these were his Golden Triangle doctors.
I have him with all Houston doctors. Now, these are
people who wanted the best for him as I do.
And I would say, hey, you know this, this insulin
pump is not working. I need him, I need you
(01:49):
to switch him over to this. And they would say, well,
we can't do that because Medicare won't allow it. Can't
do this because Medicare won't allow it. And I would say, well,
I don't care, I'll pay for it. I want the best.
And Medicare was making the decisions for my dad, and
I wondered how many people really understand this, because you're
chugging along in life, and all of a sudden you
(02:13):
hit about sixty and you start winding things down, And
whether you realize it or not, it's like when a
woman knows it's time to have a child, or when
a man knows it's time to settle down and get married.
It's like the body starts accepting what's going on around
them so that it's almost unconscious this process. And at
(02:37):
least in the past, people are working much later. Now
you get into those early sixties, you get towards the
mid sixties, and all of a sudden, sixty two used
to be social security. Him in sixty two, you were
an old person sitting at home waiting to die. And
then all of a sudden, this process starts and folks
start winding down At the office, succession plans have been
(02:58):
put into a fact, and I think in many cases
it almost takes on a life of its own. And
people wake up one day and they don't have a
place to go to work, and all of a sudden,
they get this barrage of robocalls and junk mail and
all these things about medicare and medicare and medicare, and
they're thinking, what in the hell is medicare and why
is what does this have to do with me? So
(03:22):
we teamed up with a fellow named Justin White Senior
Health Services, and it took me a year of him
being a partner of the show, and I would simply say,
if you need if you were on Medicare about to
be on Medicare, you need to call him or go
to his website Senior Health Services dot com and lo
(03:45):
and behold. As I did that, I started getting a
lot of emails back from people saying, Hey, your guy
was able to help me a lot. Thank you. So
I would keep sending them emails. But it might be
late at night, or it might be in the middle
of a break, and I never could focus on exactly
what he did and why it was important. But I
could tell this was affecting our listeners. It was it
(04:08):
was they were delighted. There's a combination of relieved and delighted,
because it's sort of like when your kid. If your
kids thinking about college, somewhere around eighth or ninth grade,
the school starts talking about it. They start talking about it.
Everybody starts talking about it, and you start into this
(04:29):
whole process of college admissions and the portal and all
this stuff. And you didn't know this whole industry existed.
Or your wife gets pregnant and all of a sudden,
where y'all gonna have the baby? I don't know, and
all wait, you needed this this women They have a
(04:51):
women's wing over here, and they have a thing, and
this one has a has an apartment. You can stay
there overnight, and this one over here they'll give you
foot massages, and this one over here, And you didn't
know there's a whole industry behind us, and now you're
swept up in it and you're just a debris being
pushed around. You don't know what the hell is going on.
(05:12):
And it turns out that medicare is like that for people,
and this isn't if you're thinking if you're under if
you're under sixty five, and you're thinking, oh, this is
for poor people. No, no, this is for almost everyone.
And all of a sudden, something so near and dear
to you as healthcare is related to Medicare, which you
(05:35):
didn't know much about. You've just heard medicare and Medicaid
talked about in a sentence like flora and fauna, and
you're not sure what fauna is, but you've used it,
and now all of a sudden, not only is it
going to be a part of your life, but it's
going to be a part of your life for what's
going to be one of the most important parts of
your life, which is your healthcare at the very moment
(05:58):
that you all of a sudden start needing healthcare. If
you look at the expenditure of funds on healthcare in
this country, take cosmetic out of it, of actual health
care for chronic conditions in this country, almost all of it,
(06:18):
a staggeringly high amount of it is spent on people
who are sixty five plus. So now you're getting old,
you need healthcare all the time Medicare has come into
your life, you have no idea what the hell's going on.
So I have been trying to get Justin White, our
show sponsor, on the show. We just haven't been able
to coordinate the time because he slammed and then with
(06:41):
the big beautiful bill that made some changes, and today
was the first day we could do this. But I
needed to get this done because I'm getting the questions
and all I can do is send them to him,
which I'll continue to do. But I thought that that
sort of.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Like with.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Aw Davis on menopause and Mohit Kara on testosterone, it
was time. So Justin White, welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Hey man, thanks his the way tour of the forest.
I'm not even sure I need to say anything.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, you know, I can tee it up, but I
don't have the swing. So to start with, I understand
that folks are moving around. You're coming, you're going, you're arriving,
you're delivering, you're picking up your everything else. You can
find him at Senior Health Services dot com. But as
is always the case, if you're ever unsure as to
(07:34):
a show sponsor of ours, not only is it not
a bother, I enjoy it if you email me and
you tell me, hey, I can't remember the guy's name
I remember you were talking about. I will respond to
your email and copy that person, not just Justin White,
but any of our show sponsors, and I will happily
(07:54):
connect you. And I love it when that situation, that
relationship works, and I love it even more when you
come back and tell me how that experience went. You know,
I use the person you recommended, or you connect a
lot of people to use that same email. So we're
going to answer all your questions. If you have a
(08:15):
question related to medicare because you're on it or about
to be emailed me through the website Michael Berry Show
dot com, and I'll ask him while we're talking. Now
we come join us.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It'll be like old times. Michael Berry.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I don't understand he pursue him his face, his hands,
his face, his hands, not his face on people. Here
we go. I'm a good old boy. You know my
mama loves me. I couldn't think of it. I believe
it's the musical interlude. Is this are you?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Is this you?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Your? You're nod to folks old enough to be on medicare?
Is that they would have been in the poor demo
for Dukes? Hasn't I liked that? Very clever romm Oh
here we turn it up.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Turn up.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Let's don't understand that. Keep showing the girl. That's why
I need to monitor because he misses that. He misses
Martin Justin White. Justin White is our is our guest.
He's also a show sponsor. Is called Senior Health Services
I send him a lot of emails. I send him
a lot of questions myself related to my dad, but
(09:52):
I send him a lot of listeners who have questions
about medicare. Justin there was a jeopardy question last night.
I have aim I have them logged for years, so
it might be two years old. But do you know
what color is the most common last name of with
a color in the United States.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Well, if you're implying anything, would that maybe be white?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
It is not.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I've been Oh, I guess I don't.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's brown, which surprised me.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Holy moly. Yeah, I'm actually the first word that came in.
But I thought you were being cute with my last name.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
No, no, I was a little surprised by that. All Right,
so let's start with this. If someone is let's say,
early sixties, they're starting to hear about medicare or their
fifties early sixties, and their parents are on medicare, set
the stage of exactly what that is For somebody that's
just moved here and doesn't know what's going on and
(10:48):
wants to understand the framework we're going to be talking about.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Well, you know that it's that second scenario that's the most.
For somebody that's in their late fifties and early sixties
and they're getting ready, there's really not a whole lot
they can particularly do for themselves because Medicare doesn't want
anybody to sign up until about three months before the
month they turned sixty five. That doesn't mean they if
they call and ask for information, we're going to send
it to them. But where that's really relevant is for
(11:13):
their parents. If these kiddos are assuming that their parents
have got it all under control, don't because a lot
of times the parents don't want to ask for help,
or they're embarrassed to ask for help, or they're being
kind of stubborn don't want to. But we find some
pretty bad things going on with parents that are sitting
in plans that are not sufficient for what they want.
(11:34):
And a lot of times the kids are completely unaware
of what's going on, And so I would just say
for them to get involved asking questions about it. And
we love when parents join and invite their kids on
the phone calls and invite them onto appointments. That's the
best type of appointment right there.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
I like to think I'm pretty well informed, but I
must admit you and I have had this conversation a
number of times. I will up one day shot at
how immersed Medicare was into my parents' health care. How
does that happen?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I think the need that grew through the years as
as seniors became seniors, and the insurance companies started looking
at the costs that were going they found that as
we get older, we need more health care. And so
eventually they started seeing that this was going to be
a real problem as seniors got older with keeping health
(12:34):
care affordable at all, and so they end up pitching
the government and Medicare came in to where they're like, look,
you guys have got to come in here and help
us cover our life expectancies getting longer, and you guys
need to come in here and help us with this
because we cannot we cannot sustain this. We've got to
put something in place to help our seniors with their
(12:56):
health care expenses, much like Social Security. And so they did,
and so you know, that's where Medicare came in. I
was passed in nineteen sixty five, went into effect in
nineteen sixty six dur An lbj's administration, and it's really
just to subsidize what everybody knows is going to happen
as we get older and we just disproportionately need more care.
(13:16):
And so they've gotten in there, and they collect a
lot of taxes, and so they need very deep and
wide participation in the workforce and the tax base to
make sure there's enough money funding into that program to
continue paying those ever escalating costs.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
What is the number one question you get related to medicare?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
The number one question is really it's kind of a
little bit overarching. They're like, you know, I don't even
know if it's a question. They make a statement, they'll say,
I can't make heads or tails of any of this.
We have architects and engineers and doctors and brick layers
and people come in and some of them, the more educated,
are actually annoyed when they call because they're like, oh
(13:58):
my gosh, I've been looking at this for two weeks
and I'm less sure of what I'm looking at them before.
Can you sort this out for us? And I'm like, absolutely,
we can't. So it's just the utter information, the other
amount of information and confusion that gets on all these
folks that they're trying to navigate the system is just
it's just brutal. And I don't know. I stare at
(14:18):
it all day, so I understand totally where they're coming from.
And I don't know anybody understands it. With all the
changes and things coming down the pike.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I was in DC in maybe August. I think that's
when the Big Beautiful Book came down, and I asked
you to come on the show because I was getting
frantic emails. I forwarded those to you, and I don't
know if you remember this conversation, but I said, you
come on and talk about this. And this one woman
was horrified. She was scared, and I hate that because
(14:49):
it's a natural thing. This isn't being scared about something,
you know, eight countries away. It's your life. And you said,
we're not allowed to talk about that until X date
and it's not certain yet. Not it was in the bill.
Let's talk about how the Big Beautiful Bill changed. Are
the big changes in medicare that affect people the most?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Absolutely? And yes, I remember that conversation. It was with
a young lady named Jill, and I actually called her
Michael to just kind of chat with her a little
bit off offline. So the changes and I don't want
to sound like a broken record, but the changes are
still being driven by the Inflation Reduction Act that Biden
bill from twenty twenty two. That the carriers are beside
(15:34):
themselves trying to figure out what to do with it.
And just as a reminder to everyone, what that deal
did is Medicare made massive cuts to Medicare Part D,
which is where all the drugs are, and they fluffed
them off onto the carriers and then brought a twenty
percent coupon from the pharmaceuticals. So basically the carrier's liability
(15:55):
for the cost of all the prescription drugs. Once it
got into you know, into the phase where it really
starts getting expenses, the carrier responsibility tripled from twenty percent
to sixty and Medicare just went on vacation. They just said, yeah,
we're done with that, and the carriers are trying to
figure out how in the world they're going to pay
for it, and that is still they're beside themselves trying
(16:16):
to figure out what they're going to do.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Your calls are coming in justin White Senior Health Services
dot Com. Your emails. I'm sorry, I will be asking
your questions coming up. Do you know, this triggers me
and when sets me back right. Senior Health Services dot
com founder and medicare expert Justin White is our guest. Justin,
(16:41):
I think I had to cut you off. I've got
a number of questions coming in from listeners, but I
wasn't sure where you were on explaining what healthcare is.
Why do why does everybody end up having to be
on Medicare? I didn't see that coming. Can you explain that?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, it's well, it's just because they're so much subsidy
that's needed to cover the senior's health care. You know, again,
that was passed at the behest of everybody. Everybody sawry
by living longer and realizing how much the senior healthcare
was going to cost. So the public system was formed
obviously called Medicare, and so they need people to be
(17:18):
in the system so that it is supported financially. That's
I mean, that's just the long and short of it,
because as we get older, we need more of it,
and the insurance companies cannot share, you know, they just
can't shoulder at all themselves. So that's the reason it's
got to be subsidized federally.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I wanted this to be something that helps our listeners,
whether they end up calling you or not. But I
want this to be something that helps our listeners. But
I also want to take a moment and talk about policy.
And if someone says I don't want any assistance with
all of that, they can opt out of ever using Medicare, right.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
They can, They sure can. The easiest way to opt
out of having to use Medicare is to continue working
and stay on your group insurance through your employer, especially
if there's more than twenty employees, they can work. I
helped a couple of folks that were turning eighty that
were coming off group insurance for the previous fifteen years
and not a problem. There were no fines, there was nothing,
(18:18):
and they didn't have A or B. So it was
just a process that we went through and all those
fines that they would otherwise want a levy were waived
because they had what's called creditable coverage. If you don't
get Medicare and you don't have creditable coverage in place, yes,
it's your prerogative to not be in there if you
don't want to pay for it. But if and when
(18:38):
you do decide later, oh that was a mistake. I
want to get in there. They are going to find
you at the wazoo. If you have no insurance at all,
or you've got a plan that they don't like, that
could be a problem. So I would just encourage anybody
before you make that decision to call someone about it.
Call Seeing Health Services, and we will give you some
(19:00):
alternative options where you don't have to worry about coming
in and having a big old fine that never goes away.
There's ways to avoid some of those costs if you're
not really using it that much, and we're happy to
talk about that with anybody that's insted.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I am a big believer in full disclosure. It makes
some people very uncomfortable. I ask people what they make,
ask them what their company makes, what your profit margin
is on an item. And I know these are things
that make people, you know, very uncomfortable, like asking a
woman her age or wait or whatever else. But I
think these things should be very clear and very upfront.
You always explain how y'all get paid, and I think
(19:35):
people want to know that because your service to our
listeners is free to the listener.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yes, yes, and they all ask that you know, in fact,
a lot and by the way, the Michael Berry Listener,
not that you don't already know, this is the freaking
greatest client ever. I love watching them walk in the
door because I just love them. They're the best. And
you know, one of the things for that is they're
so conscientious. And this is across the board. I mean,
somebody comes in we'll sit here for and go through this,
(20:00):
or one of my agents that's working with a Barry Listener,
maybe somewhere a little further away from the office, and
they all pull out a check book and say what
I owe you, even though we say it's free, and
say you put that back in your purse or get
your wallet away from me. You don't owe us anything.
And they're like, well, you spend an hour with us,
And I'm like, look, we will let the insurance carriers.
We will let the insurance carriers pay us. So I'll
(20:22):
just tell everybody that's listening on here. We get paid,
but we get paid by the insurance companies and we
get paid just fine, and we are not going to
ever get paid by somebody that comes and sits with us.
They're folks in town that do that. They should they
charge consultation fees, and I mean whatever, I just don't
like that. We don't do it. So their services are
free when they're working with us, and we're paid just fine.
(20:45):
And you know, the commissions and stuff that we get
are standardized by the FIBs, and that's and they're sufficient.
That's all that I can say, you know, to help people,
we are happy to do it and pass on that
services and what not to people for free.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Sure Island Joe writes Zorro. I'm turning sixty five next October.
Next October, so a year from now. Anything I should
do leading up to having to sign up? How close
to sixty five should I sign up? Should I keep
my insurance through work? What is the biggest scam I
should be aware of?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Great questions?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Holy on away, Let's start with how how close to
sixty five should someone sign up?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
They, generally, and by they, I mean medicare they want
somebody to go ahead and start that process about three
months out. Say that's three months before the month you
turn sixty five. So if he turns in October, you
count back three months, and so that would be September
August July, starting on the first of July twenty twenty six.
(21:47):
He can. He could call in here and we'll tell
him exactly what to do, or we'll help him do
it if he wants to come in, but July is
usually what he wants to do. His effective date will
be on the first of October, because it's always on
the first day of the months you turn. And then
once we get all that stuff in place, we can
pick another plan that will help to offset what Medicare
(22:07):
doesn't cover. But yes, generally three months out when you're
turning sixty five and aging in.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
And should I keep my insurance through work?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
If he is planning, you know at that point I'm
assuming he means once he turns sixty five, so obviously yes,
until he turns sixty five. Once he gets there. The
question that I ask is how long are you going
to continue working? And if they say just you know,
until I drop or whatever, the answer is. Sometimes people
say I'm not going to retire ever, or I'm going
(22:38):
to retire at seventy or sixty seven or whatever. I'm like,
do you like your plan?
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Because those are creditable. I'll say, you know, you work
for a company with more than twenty employees. Oh yeah,
it's an oil and gas firm. Great, and do you
like your plan? Oh, it's wonderful, fantastic. I say, it's
completely up to you. If you want to stay in
that plan, fabulous. If you want to go into let's
see which one's the best financial deal for you and
make a decision that's driven by dollars. And if their
(23:07):
group insurance plan through their job is a better deal,
it's really obvious, and we're going to tell them to
stay there. And I had some guy come in the
other day that his plan through his company was for
free and he was in because he thought he was
going to be fined. It was a big company and
the plan and the company was very generous and giving
him the insurance for nothing. And I looked at him.
I said, Dennis, if you drop that plan, you're getting
(23:28):
it for free and you go into medicare, you have
lost your mind. You go away and you figure out
when you're going to retire. And I was, obviously I'm
saying this tongue in cheek, will happen. But I said,
you go away and you come back when you're going
to retire, and we'll do it there. But as long
as they're giving you insurance for free and you continue working.
That's the key. It's got to be through your current
employment or that of a spouse. Then you do whatever
(23:50):
it is that you want to do. And you know,
if we can save them some money by going into medicare,
which happens a lot, then we'll let them know. But
I would say just review it. But absolutely he can
stay in that, especially he's going to continue working for
a while and he likes it.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Next question, what is the biggest scam I should be
aware of? And I will add to that in case
there's not a pure scam, pitfalls, things that most people
make a mistake on.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So the biggest thing right now that we're having to
unload and unwind a lot of are these dead gum
phone calls. We get called all the time, somebody saying
I was moved plans and I have no idea how
that happened. And I said, when was your phone calls?
What are you talking about? You took a phone calls?
He goes, yeah, but I didn't do anything. I said, well,
they put you somewhere else, and so we have to
(24:39):
go in and unwind that. I had a lady named
Elaine that came in and they literally put her in
a plan with no drug coverage, getting up her up
for fines and all that stuff. We had to call
Medicare to help her get that stuff unwound. So that's
a huge thing. Be really really careful when you get
an unsolicited phone call. It's probably illegal. And then the
other thing for people already on that care one of
(25:00):
the biggest.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Problem that thought. Hold that thought justin senior health services,
justin white. So I guess your Medicare questions coming on.
Another thing left lifeless eyes, black eyes. It's like a dollars.
Have you ever seen a video to this? I saw
(25:22):
a video on how this video was made and it
was basically just this dude just sort of riffing on
his dance, but his jacket keeps coming on and off.
You notice that he can't make his mind up on
it whether the jackets on or off.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
It just.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Was He dated Courtney Cox and Jennifer Andison. Which one
is Courtney Cox? Oh, she's in Friends. I never watched Friends. Okay,
I know who Jennifer Aniston is. Can I say something
and you want hold it against me and not judge
me for this? No, don't say do it? Say you.
This is my mom. Usually just I said, Mom, I'm
(26:00):
gonna tell you something, but this you cannot repeat this
to anyone. She'd say, who am I gonna tell That's
not a commitment. I need a commitment here. I don't
understand all the fuss about Jennifer Aniston. I wouldn't kick
her out of bed, but I don't know she's I mean,
she's not rock your world gorgeous. I think she's She's
(26:22):
kind of got the girl next door thing that people like,
but she never like. You know, if I'm making my
top ten, she ain't on it. I'm gonna tell you
that right now. She know my top twenty five. It's
not Elton John. I'm just telling you if I don't
find her that attractive, I don't find her that attractive.
Justin White as our guest of Senior Health Services dot Com.
(26:45):
He happens to be a show sponsor. He's also a
guy send a lot of personal questions too. And I
get a lot of listeners who ask medicare related questions
and I forward them to them, including friends who know
that I have a contact. And sometimes you don't want
to be the guy who knows the DWI attorney, the
criminal defense attorney, the person who can get a stop
(27:05):
sign put on your street corner, because then you become
the one that everybody calls on that issue. Good news
is I punt him off to Justin and he seems
to enjoy helping people. Let's talk Justin about like inside information.
In August, you said there will be a time come October,
(27:31):
and you know you agreed that by October first we
could have these conversations because there were restrictions on what
could couldn't be talked about. What is we'll use it
as a season, use a sporting term. What does this
season hold for folks?
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Great question? Yeah, and the key is there a season
where I can talk? Yeah, there's no accident. It's today
because we can start chatting more in detail today. So
right now, the carriers are they're freeing out because of
the Inflation Reduction Act. They're trying to find money, and
when you talk to the heads of these things, they're like,
we've just got to get through this year. I will
(28:08):
look at these guys and say, what is the biggest
cause of this? Cause you can tell they don't ever
act like this, and they say it's the inflation Reduction Act.
We're trying to figure out how to cover all these
meds and what we're going to do. So what people
can expect is it's going to be a little chaotic.
It's not all bad news, but like for example, this morning,
we can finally see our computer programs and look and
(28:30):
see what's going on inside the plans and things in
real time. And we've noticed I'm getting texts constantly from
my agents saying, oh my gosh, the formularies have changed,
meaning what drugs are covered and how they're covered. So
we're going to have to go through and figure out.
We've got two weeks October first through the fourteenth to
kind of test everything and see what's going on, and
(28:52):
so that we can start enrolling on the fifteenth of October.
So you can think of the first through the fourteenth
like a soft opening, like at a casino, and so
we're going to be getting in there. We can talk
to people about their plans, so the people that are
sending stuff in now we can help them. We can
talk and visit and then if there's any changes after
the fifteenth of October, we can do it. But here's
what I want to tell people, and D I can't
(29:14):
ever use absolutes because there's never any room for absolutes.
But generally speaking, the larger carriers are the ones that
seem to be under pressure right now. They seem to
be under pressure because they've got millions of beneficiaries and
when there's a hole that opens up in their finances,
you times at times millions of beneficiaries and there you go.
So the adjustments, you're going to see adjustments come through
(29:36):
higher copays, hire maximount of pockets. Doctors are shifting around
all over the place, and that's the thing that's causing
some you know, causing some issues with that. And people
just need to look at their plans and figure out
can you stand what your plans turning into for next year?
And if you don't know what I'm talking about, call somebody.
If you got a trust an agent, call them, or
(29:58):
call Senior Health Services or send us an email and
we will certainly help you. We got agents all over
the area. But the other thing I want to make
sure everybody knows to give them some to give them
some hope, is that the smaller carriers seem to be
surging back in Okay. So there are glimmers of hope
out there for folks that got benefits that were cut
(30:19):
back last year. If they you may find that the
company you had to leave last year is all of
a sudden slamming back into the picture this year with
benefits that may be similar or better. You might need
to make a doctor adjustment here and there, but there
are good benefits that were out there, but it's impossible
for them to know unless they look. And that was
(30:39):
going to say that the biggest thing I see's mistakes
is people sit out there and they settle in a
plan and stay there for years, because those plans are
not as aggressively updated as the brand new ones are.
And when somebody comes in and says my plan is terrible,
I'm like, how long have you been in this thing?
Six years? Says well, that's why it's terrible. You know
you have not looked at it. And are their agents gone?
(30:59):
You know you had that kind of stuff happen. So
just have them look and if they have any questions,
my gosh, call and ask somebody. Jill, who you sent
that deal? Back in October she was worried, but that
she thought her plan was being canceled. And here's one
of these inexplicable, ridiculous things. Her company, they just renamed everything,
so her plans not being canceled at all, but she
(31:22):
doesn't recognize it anymore because it has a new name.
And I don't know why they do that. They've got
ridiculous reasons for it, and I guess they make sense
on one level, but they do that from time to time.
A couple of years ago a company did that. They
took off their reasonable names and identified all the plans
with this random serial number. It's like, oh, great, that's
real helpful. And nobody, including the agents, we had to
(31:43):
sit there and stare at it, so we even knew
what they were. So it's with little things like that
that caused so much confusion. And I just tell people,
don't do that. Don't settle, ask questions, get out there
and just inquire and be aggressive so that you can
be in a plan that's going to be most relevant
to the stuff that you've got going on in the future.
(32:04):
Winn out reach out.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Scott writes, I've been paying for Medicare through auto deposit
three month payment and I will begin receiving so security
payments beginning this month. And notice the Medicare payment will
be deducted from the gross amount. How should I handle
the ending of the auto day debit so I do
not double dip?
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Man? That is that is such a great question, and
I'm going to be and I'm going to be useless
on that. What I say, what I would say is
for them, And I'm sorry that he says his named Scott.
I'm sorry, Scott. I would call Medicare and ask them
that question. Just rest assured that one thing they're really
good at is returning any overpayments. It might take them
(32:49):
a couple of weeks, but they will return them. What
you don't want to do is have your be Medicare
Part B lapse. But yeah, that's you're exactly right. Once
that SOI security starts within a month or two, they'll
have it deducted. The Part B print payment will come
out automatically from the Social Security But that little dovetail thing,
man's that's kind of a minefield. And I would give
(33:10):
them a call and do exactly what they tell you
to do, and if you overpay, they'll get it back
to you.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Catherine asks ask him about metagap versus Medicare advantage. I've
heard Medicare plus metagap is far better and cuts out
the barriers that med or rarely refused a treatment. Is
this true? I think we're up against great We are
(33:36):
hold with me. We'll hold Justin White over for a bit.
Their website is Senior Health Services dot com. And if
you can at any point not remember the name of
a show sponsor, or, who was that guy you were
talking to the other day about so and so, and
you email me, I will be delighted to connect you myself.
(33:58):
Justin gets a lot of emails from me from listeners.
Trust me, there's a pipeline of steady flow of folks
who have questions. This is scary stuff. You or your
parents are entering that age, and this is your healthcare
and it matters.
It's that time. Time time, time, Luck and load. The
Michael Vari Show is on the air. Several years ago,
(00:41):
I was looking for an expert on Medicare and some
issues related to aging, because I came to learn once
I dug in and took over my parents' finances, I mean,
paying their bills and figuring out medical expenses and all
(01:05):
this sort of stuff that when you get to a
certain age, for most people, your medical care not the provider,
but the system behind the financing is Medicare, and that's
going to drive everything you do. And I noticed something
(01:28):
kept happening. Every time I would say to the doctors
who I know that these were his Golden Triangle doctors.
I have him with all Houston doctors. Now, these are
people who wanted the best for him as I do.
And I would say, hey, you know this, this insulin
pump is not working. I need him, I need you
(01:49):
to switch him over to this. And they would say, well,
we can't do that because Medicare won't allow it. Can't
do this because Medicare won't allow it. And I would say, well,
I don't care, I'll pay for it. I want the best.
And Medicare was making the decisions for my dad, and
I wondered how many people really understand this, because you're
chugging along in life, and all of a sudden you
(02:13):
hit about sixty and you start winding things down, And
whether you realize it or not, it's like when a
woman knows it's time to have a child, or when
a man knows it's time to settle down and get married.
It's like the body starts accepting what's going on around
them so that it's almost unconscious this process. And at
(02:37):
least in the past, people are working much later. Now
you get into those early sixties, you get towards the
mid sixties, and all of a sudden, sixty two used
to be social security. Him in sixty two, you were
an old person sitting at home waiting to die. And
then all of a sudden, this process starts and folks
start winding down At the office, succession plans have been
(02:58):
put into a fact, and I think in many cases
it almost takes on a life of its own. And
people wake up one day and they don't have a
place to go to work, and all of a sudden,
they get this barrage of robocalls and junk mail and
all these things about medicare and medicare and medicare, and
they're thinking, what in the hell is medicare and why
is what does this have to do with me? So
(03:22):
we teamed up with a fellow named Justin White Senior
Health Services, and it took me a year of him
being a partner of the show, and I would simply say,
if you need if you were on Medicare about to
be on Medicare, you need to call him or go
to his website Senior Health Services dot com and lo
(03:45):
and behold. As I did that, I started getting a
lot of emails back from people saying, Hey, your guy
was able to help me a lot. Thank you. So
I would keep sending them emails. But it might be
late at night, or it might be in the middle
of a break, and I never could focus on exactly
what he did and why it was important. But I
could tell this was affecting our listeners. It was it
(04:08):
was they were delighted. There's a combination of relieved and delighted,
because it's sort of like when your kid. If your
kids thinking about college, somewhere around eighth or ninth grade,
the school starts talking about it. They start talking about it.
Everybody starts talking about it, and you start into this
(04:29):
whole process of college admissions and the portal and all
this stuff. And you didn't know this whole industry existed.
Or your wife gets pregnant and all of a sudden,
where y'all gonna have the baby? I don't know, and
all wait, you needed this this women They have a
(04:51):
women's wing over here, and they have a thing, and
this one has a has an apartment. You can stay
there overnight, and this one over here they'll give you
foot massages, and this one over here, And you didn't
know there's a whole industry behind us, and now you're
swept up in it and you're just a debris being
pushed around. You don't know what the hell is going on.
(05:12):
And it turns out that medicare is like that for people,
and this isn't if you're thinking if you're under if
you're under sixty five, and you're thinking, oh, this is
for poor people. No, no, this is for almost everyone.
And all of a sudden, something so near and dear
to you as healthcare is related to Medicare, which you
(05:35):
didn't know much about. You've just heard medicare and Medicaid
talked about in a sentence like flora and fauna, and
you're not sure what fauna is, but you've used it,
and now all of a sudden, not only is it
going to be a part of your life, but it's
going to be a part of your life for what's
going to be one of the most important parts of
your life, which is your healthcare at the very moment
(05:58):
that you all of a sudden start needing healthcare. If
you look at the expenditure of funds on healthcare in
this country, take cosmetic out of it, of actual health
care for chronic conditions in this country, almost all of it,
(06:18):
a staggeringly high amount of it is spent on people
who are sixty five plus. So now you're getting old,
you need healthcare all the time Medicare has come into
your life, you have no idea what the hell's going on.
So I have been trying to get Justin White, our
show sponsor, on the show. We just haven't been able
to coordinate the time because he slammed and then with
(06:41):
the big beautiful bill that made some changes, and today
was the first day we could do this. But I
needed to get this done because I'm getting the questions
and all I can do is send them to him,
which I'll continue to do. But I thought that that
sort of.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Like with.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Aw Davis on menopause and Mohit Kara on testosterone, it
was time. So Justin White, welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Hey man, thanks his the way tour of the forest.
I'm not even sure I need to say anything.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, you know, I can tee it up, but I
don't have the swing. So to start with, I understand
that folks are moving around. You're coming, you're going, you're arriving,
you're delivering, you're picking up your everything else. You can
find him at Senior Health Services dot com. But as
is always the case, if you're ever unsure as to
(07:34):
a show sponsor of ours, not only is it not
a bother, I enjoy it if you email me and
you tell me, hey, I can't remember the guy's name
I remember you were talking about. I will respond to
your email and copy that person, not just Justin White,
but any of our show sponsors, and I will happily
(07:54):
connect you. And I love it when that situation, that
relationship works, and I love it even more when you
come back and tell me how that experience went. You know,
I use the person you recommended, or you connect a
lot of people to use that same email. So we're
going to answer all your questions. If you have a
(08:15):
question related to medicare because you're on it or about
to be emailed me through the website Michael Berry Show
dot com, and I'll ask him while we're talking. Now
we come join us.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It'll be like old times. Michael Berry.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I don't understand he pursue him his face, his hands,
his face, his hands, not his face on people. Here
we go. I'm a good old boy. You know my
mama loves me. I couldn't think of it. I believe
it's the musical interlude. Is this are you?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Is this you?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Your? You're nod to folks old enough to be on medicare?
Is that they would have been in the poor demo
for Dukes? Hasn't I liked that? Very clever romm Oh
here we turn it up.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Turn up.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Let's don't understand that. Keep showing the girl. That's why
I need to monitor because he misses that. He misses
Martin Justin White. Justin White is our is our guest.
He's also a show sponsor. Is called Senior Health Services
I send him a lot of emails. I send him
a lot of questions myself related to my dad, but
(09:52):
I send him a lot of listeners who have questions
about medicare. Justin there was a jeopardy question last night.
I have aim I have them logged for years, so
it might be two years old. But do you know
what color is the most common last name of with
a color in the United States.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Well, if you're implying anything, would that maybe be white?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
It is not.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I've been Oh, I guess I don't.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It's brown, which surprised me.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Holy moly. Yeah, I'm actually the first word that came in.
But I thought you were being cute with my last name.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
No, no, I was a little surprised by that. All Right,
so let's start with this. If someone is let's say,
early sixties, they're starting to hear about medicare or their
fifties early sixties, and their parents are on medicare, set
the stage of exactly what that is For somebody that's
just moved here and doesn't know what's going on and
(10:48):
wants to understand the framework we're going to be talking about.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Well, you know that it's that second scenario that's the most.
For somebody that's in their late fifties and early sixties
and they're getting ready, there's really not a whole lot
they can particularly do for themselves because Medicare doesn't want
anybody to sign up until about three months before the
month they turned sixty five. That doesn't mean they if
they call and ask for information, we're going to send
it to them. But where that's really relevant is for
(11:13):
their parents. If these kiddos are assuming that their parents
have got it all under control, don't because a lot
of times the parents don't want to ask for help,
or they're embarrassed to ask for help, or they're being
kind of stubborn don't want to. But we find some
pretty bad things going on with parents that are sitting
in plans that are not sufficient for what they want.
(11:34):
And a lot of times the kids are completely unaware
of what's going on, And so I would just say
for them to get involved asking questions about it. And
we love when parents join and invite their kids on
the phone calls and invite them onto appointments. That's the
best type of appointment right there.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
I like to think I'm pretty well informed, but I
must admit you and I have had this conversation a
number of times. I will up one day shot at
how immersed Medicare was into my parents' health care. How
does that happen?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I think the need that grew through the years as
as seniors became seniors, and the insurance companies started looking
at the costs that were going they found that as
we get older, we need more health care. And so
eventually they started seeing that this was going to be
a real problem as seniors got older with keeping health
(12:34):
care affordable at all, and so they end up pitching
the government and Medicare came in to where they're like, look,
you guys have got to come in here and help
us cover our life expectancies getting longer, and you guys
need to come in here and help us with this
because we cannot we cannot sustain this. We've got to
put something in place to help our seniors with their
(12:56):
health care expenses, much like Social Security. And so they did,
and so you know, that's where Medicare came in. I
was passed in nineteen sixty five, went into effect in
nineteen sixty six dur An lbj's administration, and it's really
just to subsidize what everybody knows is going to happen
as we get older and we just disproportionately need more care.
(13:16):
And so they've gotten in there, and they collect a
lot of taxes, and so they need very deep and
wide participation in the workforce and the tax base to
make sure there's enough money funding into that program to
continue paying those ever escalating costs.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
What is the number one question you get related to medicare?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
The number one question is really it's kind of a
little bit overarching. They're like, you know, I don't even
know if it's a question. They make a statement, they'll say,
I can't make heads or tails of any of this.
We have architects and engineers and doctors and brick layers
and people come in and some of them, the more educated,
are actually annoyed when they call because they're like, oh
(13:58):
my gosh, I've been looking at this for two weeks
and I'm less sure of what I'm looking at them before.
Can you sort this out for us? And I'm like, absolutely,
we can't. So it's just the utter information, the other
amount of information and confusion that gets on all these
folks that they're trying to navigate the system is just
it's just brutal. And I don't know. I stare at
(14:18):
it all day, so I understand totally where they're coming from.
And I don't know anybody understands it. With all the
changes and things coming down the pike.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I was in DC in maybe August. I think that's
when the Big Beautiful Book came down, and I asked
you to come on the show because I was getting
frantic emails. I forwarded those to you, and I don't
know if you remember this conversation, but I said, you
come on and talk about this. And this one woman
was horrified. She was scared, and I hate that because
(14:49):
it's a natural thing. This isn't being scared about something,
you know, eight countries away. It's your life. And you said,
we're not allowed to talk about that until X date
and it's not certain yet. Not it was in the bill.
Let's talk about how the Big Beautiful Bill changed. Are
the big changes in medicare that affect people the most?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Absolutely? And yes, I remember that conversation. It was with
a young lady named Jill, and I actually called her
Michael to just kind of chat with her a little
bit off offline. So the changes and I don't want
to sound like a broken record, but the changes are
still being driven by the Inflation Reduction Act that Biden
bill from twenty twenty two. That the carriers are beside
(15:34):
themselves trying to figure out what to do with it.
And just as a reminder to everyone, what that deal
did is Medicare made massive cuts to Medicare Part D,
which is where all the drugs are, and they fluffed
them off onto the carriers and then brought a twenty
percent coupon from the pharmaceuticals. So basically the carrier's liability
(15:55):
for the cost of all the prescription drugs. Once it
got into you know, into the phase where it really
starts getting expenses, the carrier responsibility tripled from twenty percent
to sixty and Medicare just went on vacation. They just said, yeah,
we're done with that, and the carriers are trying to
figure out how in the world they're going to pay
for it, and that is still they're beside themselves trying
(16:16):
to figure out what they're going to do.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Your calls are coming in justin White Senior Health Services
dot Com. Your emails. I'm sorry, I will be asking
your questions coming up. Do you know, this triggers me
and when sets me back right. Senior Health Services dot
com founder and medicare expert Justin White is our guest. Justin,
(16:41):
I think I had to cut you off. I've got
a number of questions coming in from listeners, but I
wasn't sure where you were on explaining what healthcare is.
Why do why does everybody end up having to be
on Medicare? I didn't see that coming. Can you explain that?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, it's well, it's just because they're so much subsidy
that's needed to cover the senior's health care. You know, again,
that was passed at the behest of everybody. Everybody sawry
by living longer and realizing how much the senior healthcare
was going to cost. So the public system was formed
obviously called Medicare, and so they need people to be
(17:18):
in the system so that it is supported financially. That's
I mean, that's just the long and short of it,
because as we get older, we need more of it,
and the insurance companies cannot share, you know, they just
can't shoulder at all themselves. So that's the reason it's
got to be subsidized federally.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I wanted this to be something that helps our listeners,
whether they end up calling you or not. But I
want this to be something that helps our listeners. But
I also want to take a moment and talk about policy.
And if someone says I don't want any assistance with
all of that, they can opt out of ever using Medicare, right.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
They can, They sure can. The easiest way to opt
out of having to use Medicare is to continue working
and stay on your group insurance through your employer, especially
if there's more than twenty employees, they can work. I
helped a couple of folks that were turning eighty that
were coming off group insurance for the previous fifteen years
and not a problem. There were no fines, there was nothing,
(18:18):
and they didn't have A or B. So it was
just a process that we went through and all those
fines that they would otherwise want a levy were waived
because they had what's called creditable coverage. If you don't
get Medicare and you don't have creditable coverage in place, yes,
it's your prerogative to not be in there if you
don't want to pay for it. But if and when
(18:38):
you do decide later, oh that was a mistake. I
want to get in there. They are going to find
you at the wazoo. If you have no insurance at all,
or you've got a plan that they don't like, that
could be a problem. So I would just encourage anybody
before you make that decision to call someone about it.
Call Seeing Health Services, and we will give you some
(19:00):
alternative options where you don't have to worry about coming
in and having a big old fine that never goes away.
There's ways to avoid some of those costs if you're
not really using it that much, and we're happy to
talk about that with anybody that's insted.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I am a big believer in full disclosure. It makes
some people very uncomfortable. I ask people what they make,
ask them what their company makes, what your profit margin
is on an item. And I know these are things
that make people, you know, very uncomfortable, like asking a
woman her age or wait or whatever else. But I
think these things should be very clear and very upfront.
You always explain how y'all get paid, and I think
(19:35):
people want to know that because your service to our
listeners is free to the listener.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yes, yes, and they all ask that you know, in fact,
a lot and by the way, the Michael Berry Listener,
not that you don't already know, this is the freaking
greatest client ever. I love watching them walk in the
door because I just love them. They're the best. And
you know, one of the things for that is they're
so conscientious. And this is across the board. I mean,
somebody comes in we'll sit here for and go through this,
(20:00):
or one of my agents that's working with a Barry Listener,
maybe somewhere a little further away from the office, and
they all pull out a check book and say what
I owe you, even though we say it's free, and
say you put that back in your purse or get
your wallet away from me. You don't owe us anything.
And they're like, well, you spend an hour with us,
And I'm like, look, we will let the insurance carriers.
We will let the insurance carriers pay us. So I'll
(20:22):
just tell everybody that's listening on here. We get paid,
but we get paid by the insurance companies and we
get paid just fine, and we are not going to
ever get paid by somebody that comes and sits with us.
They're folks in town that do that. They should they
charge consultation fees, and I mean whatever, I just don't
like that. We don't do it. So their services are
free when they're working with us, and we're paid just fine.
(20:45):
And you know, the commissions and stuff that we get
are standardized by the FIBs, and that's and they're sufficient.
That's all that I can say, you know, to help people,
we are happy to do it and pass on that
services and what not to people for free.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Sure Island Joe writes Zorro. I'm turning sixty five next October.
Next October, so a year from now. Anything I should
do leading up to having to sign up? How close
to sixty five should I sign up? Should I keep
my insurance through work? What is the biggest scam I
should be aware of?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Great questions?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Holy on away, Let's start with how how close to
sixty five should someone sign up?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
They, generally, and by they, I mean medicare they want
somebody to go ahead and start that process about three
months out. Say that's three months before the month you
turn sixty five. So if he turns in October, you
count back three months, and so that would be September
August July, starting on the first of July twenty twenty six.
(21:47):
He can. He could call in here and we'll tell
him exactly what to do, or we'll help him do
it if he wants to come in, but July is
usually what he wants to do. His effective date will
be on the first of October, because it's always on
the first day of the months you turn. And then
once we get all that stuff in place, we can
pick another plan that will help to offset what Medicare
(22:07):
doesn't cover. But yes, generally three months out when you're
turning sixty five and aging in.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
And should I keep my insurance through work?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
If he is planning, you know at that point I'm
assuming he means once he turns sixty five, so obviously yes,
until he turns sixty five. Once he gets there. The
question that I ask is how long are you going
to continue working? And if they say just you know,
until I drop or whatever, the answer is. Sometimes people
say I'm not going to retire ever, or I'm going
(22:38):
to retire at seventy or sixty seven or whatever. I'm like,
do you like your plan?
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Because those are creditable. I'll say, you know, you work
for a company with more than twenty employees. Oh yeah,
it's an oil and gas firm. Great, and do you
like your plan? Oh, it's wonderful, fantastic. I say, it's
completely up to you. If you want to stay in
that plan, fabulous. If you want to go into let's
see which one's the best financial deal for you and
make a decision that's driven by dollars. And if their
(23:07):
group insurance plan through their job is a better deal,
it's really obvious, and we're going to tell them to
stay there. And I had some guy come in the
other day that his plan through his company was for
free and he was in because he thought he was
going to be fined. It was a big company and
the plan and the company was very generous and giving
him the insurance for nothing. And I looked at him.
I said, Dennis, if you drop that plan, you're getting
(23:28):
it for free and you go into medicare, you have
lost your mind. You go away and you figure out
when you're going to retire. And I was, obviously I'm
saying this tongue in cheek, will happen. But I said,
you go away and you come back when you're going
to retire, and we'll do it there. But as long
as they're giving you insurance for free and you continue working.
That's the key. It's got to be through your current
employment or that of a spouse. Then you do whatever
(23:50):
it is that you want to do. And you know,
if we can save them some money by going into medicare,
which happens a lot, then we'll let them know. But
I would say just review it. But absolutely he can
stay in that, especially he's going to continue working for
a while and he likes it.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Next question, what is the biggest scam I should be
aware of? And I will add to that in case
there's not a pure scam, pitfalls, things that most people
make a mistake on.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So the biggest thing right now that we're having to
unload and unwind a lot of are these dead gum
phone calls. We get called all the time, somebody saying
I was moved plans and I have no idea how
that happened. And I said, when was your phone calls?
What are you talking about? You took a phone calls?
He goes, yeah, but I didn't do anything. I said, well,
they put you somewhere else, and so we have to
(24:39):
go in and unwind that. I had a lady named
Elaine that came in and they literally put her in
a plan with no drug coverage, getting up her up
for fines and all that stuff. We had to call
Medicare to help her get that stuff unwound. So that's
a huge thing. Be really really careful when you get
an unsolicited phone call. It's probably illegal. And then the
other thing for people already on that care one of
(25:00):
the biggest.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Problem that thought. Hold that thought justin senior health services,
justin white. So I guess your Medicare questions coming on.
Another thing left lifeless eyes, black eyes. It's like a dollars.
Have you ever seen a video to this? I saw
(25:22):
a video on how this video was made and it
was basically just this dude just sort of riffing on
his dance, but his jacket keeps coming on and off.
You notice that he can't make his mind up on
it whether the jackets on or off.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
It just.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Was He dated Courtney Cox and Jennifer Andison. Which one
is Courtney Cox? Oh, she's in Friends. I never watched Friends. Okay,
I know who Jennifer Aniston is. Can I say something
and you want hold it against me and not judge
me for this? No, don't say do it? Say you.
This is my mom. Usually just I said, Mom, I'm
(26:00):
gonna tell you something, but this you cannot repeat this
to anyone. She'd say, who am I gonna tell That's
not a commitment. I need a commitment here. I don't
understand all the fuss about Jennifer Aniston. I wouldn't kick
her out of bed, but I don't know she's I mean,
she's not rock your world gorgeous. I think she's She's
(26:22):
kind of got the girl next door thing that people like,
but she never like. You know, if I'm making my
top ten, she ain't on it. I'm gonna tell you
that right now. She know my top twenty five. It's
not Elton John. I'm just telling you if I don't
find her that attractive, I don't find her that attractive.
Justin White as our guest of Senior Health Services dot Com.
(26:45):
He happens to be a show sponsor. He's also a
guy send a lot of personal questions too. And I
get a lot of listeners who ask medicare related questions
and I forward them to them, including friends who know
that I have a contact. And sometimes you don't want
to be the guy who knows the DWI attorney, the
criminal defense attorney, the person who can get a stop
(27:05):
sign put on your street corner, because then you become
the one that everybody calls on that issue. Good news
is I punt him off to Justin and he seems
to enjoy helping people. Let's talk Justin about like inside information.
In August, you said there will be a time come October,
(27:31):
and you know you agreed that by October first we
could have these conversations because there were restrictions on what
could couldn't be talked about. What is we'll use it
as a season, use a sporting term. What does this
season hold for folks?
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Great question? Yeah, and the key is there a season
where I can talk? Yeah, there's no accident. It's today
because we can start chatting more in detail today. So
right now, the carriers are they're freeing out because of
the Inflation Reduction Act. They're trying to find money, and
when you talk to the heads of these things, they're like,
we've just got to get through this year. I will
(28:08):
look at these guys and say, what is the biggest
cause of this? Cause you can tell they don't ever
act like this, and they say it's the inflation Reduction Act.
We're trying to figure out how to cover all these
meds and what we're going to do. So what people
can expect is it's going to be a little chaotic.
It's not all bad news, but like for example, this morning,
we can finally see our computer programs and look and
(28:30):
see what's going on inside the plans and things in
real time. And we've noticed I'm getting texts constantly from
my agents saying, oh my gosh, the formularies have changed,
meaning what drugs are covered and how they're covered. So
we're going to have to go through and figure out.
We've got two weeks October first through the fourteenth to
kind of test everything and see what's going on, and
(28:52):
so that we can start enrolling on the fifteenth of October.
So you can think of the first through the fourteenth
like a soft opening, like at a casino, and so
we're going to be getting in there. We can talk
to people about their plans, so the people that are
sending stuff in now we can help them. We can
talk and visit and then if there's any changes after
the fifteenth of October, we can do it. But here's
what I want to tell people, and D I can't
(29:14):
ever use absolutes because there's never any room for absolutes.
But generally speaking, the larger carriers are the ones that
seem to be under pressure right now. They seem to
be under pressure because they've got millions of beneficiaries and
when there's a hole that opens up in their finances,
you times at times millions of beneficiaries and there you go.
So the adjustments, you're going to see adjustments come through
(29:36):
higher copays, hire maximount of pockets. Doctors are shifting around
all over the place, and that's the thing that's causing
some you know, causing some issues with that. And people
just need to look at their plans and figure out
can you stand what your plans turning into for next year?
And if you don't know what I'm talking about, call somebody.
If you got a trust an agent, call them, or
(29:58):
call Senior Health Services or send us an email and
we will certainly help you. We got agents all over
the area. But the other thing I want to make
sure everybody knows to give them some to give them
some hope, is that the smaller carriers seem to be
surging back in Okay. So there are glimmers of hope
out there for folks that got benefits that were cut
(30:19):
back last year. If they you may find that the
company you had to leave last year is all of
a sudden slamming back into the picture this year with
benefits that may be similar or better. You might need
to make a doctor adjustment here and there, but there
are good benefits that were out there, but it's impossible
for them to know unless they look. And that was
(30:39):
going to say that the biggest thing I see's mistakes
is people sit out there and they settle in a
plan and stay there for years, because those plans are
not as aggressively updated as the brand new ones are.
And when somebody comes in and says my plan is terrible,
I'm like, how long have you been in this thing?
Six years? Says well, that's why it's terrible. You know
you have not looked at it. And are their agents gone?
(30:59):
You know you had that kind of stuff happen. So
just have them look and if they have any questions,
my gosh, call and ask somebody. Jill, who you sent
that deal? Back in October she was worried, but that
she thought her plan was being canceled. And here's one
of these inexplicable, ridiculous things. Her company, they just renamed everything,
so her plans not being canceled at all, but she
(31:22):
doesn't recognize it anymore because it has a new name.
And I don't know why they do that. They've got
ridiculous reasons for it, and I guess they make sense
on one level, but they do that from time to time.
A couple of years ago a company did that. They
took off their reasonable names and identified all the plans
with this random serial number. It's like, oh, great, that's
real helpful. And nobody, including the agents, we had to
(31:43):
sit there and stare at it, so we even knew
what they were. So it's with little things like that
that caused so much confusion. And I just tell people,
don't do that. Don't settle, ask questions, get out there
and just inquire and be aggressive so that you can
be in a plan that's going to be most relevant
to the stuff that you've got going on in the future.
(32:04):
Winn out reach out.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Scott writes, I've been paying for Medicare through auto deposit
three month payment and I will begin receiving so security
payments beginning this month. And notice the Medicare payment will
be deducted from the gross amount. How should I handle
the ending of the auto day debit so I do
not double dip?
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Man? That is that is such a great question, and
I'm going to be and I'm going to be useless
on that. What I say, what I would say is
for them, And I'm sorry that he says his named Scott.
I'm sorry, Scott. I would call Medicare and ask them
that question. Just rest assured that one thing they're really
good at is returning any overpayments. It might take them
(32:49):
a couple of weeks, but they will return them. What
you don't want to do is have your be Medicare
Part B lapse. But yeah, that's you're exactly right. Once
that SOI security starts within a month or two, they'll
have it deducted. The Part B print payment will come
out automatically from the Social Security But that little dovetail thing,
man's that's kind of a minefield. And I would give
(33:10):
them a call and do exactly what they tell you
to do, and if you overpay, they'll get it back
to you.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Catherine asks ask him about metagap versus Medicare advantage. I've
heard Medicare plus metagap is far better and cuts out
the barriers that med or rarely refused a treatment. Is
this true? I think we're up against great We are
(33:36):
hold with me. We'll hold Justin White over for a bit.
Their website is Senior Health Services dot com. And if
you can at any point not remember the name of
a show sponsor, or, who was that guy you were
talking to the other day about so and so, and
you email me, I will be delighted to connect you myself.
(33:58):
Justin gets a lot of emails from me from listeners.
Trust me, there's a pipeline of steady flow of folks
who have questions. This is scary stuff. You or your
parents are entering that age, and this is your healthcare
and it matters.
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