10 Costly Medicare Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make

Description

NEW UPDATED MEDICARE INFORMATION! Don't make decisions about your Medicare coverage without reading this book! #1 Best-Selling Book in Less than 48 Hours with More than 65,000 Copies Sold After Reading This Book, You Will: Know what Medicare pitfalls exist and how to expertly avoid them Be ready to make the major Medicare decisions Be knowledgeable about the costly penalties and how to steer clear Who This Book is For: New to Medicare - This book will help anyone approaching Medicare eligibility at age 65 who needs to learn the basics and is afraid of making a mistake that will result in penalties or inadequate healthcare coverage Retiring after 65 - Perhaps you have worked past age 65 and maintained employer coverage but now you are retiring and want to successfully transition from group health insurance coverage to Medicare as your primary coverage. This book will show you the exact steps to take while also sidestepping unexpected (and often undeserved) late enrollment penalties. Beneficiaries Facing Indecision - Get this book if It's time for you to make a choice between a Medigap plan (Medicare supplement) and Medicare Advantage but you find yourself torn and aren't sure which route would be a better fit for you. Confused by Election Periods - Are all the various Medicare election periods making your head spin? This book carefully explains what changes and plan selections you can make during the various election periods and more importantly, what those election periods WON'T give you that you probably expect. Adult Children and Caregivers - If you find yourself in a situation where you need to help your parents make Medicare coverage decisions but have no idea how Medicare works, this book will be immensely helpful to you. Every year thousands of seniors make big mistakes during their Medicare enrollment that can result in expensive penalties and untold hours of hassle and headaches. While some of these mistakes are fixable, others can affect you for the rest of your life. In 10 Costly Medicare Mistakes, Medicare expert Danielle K. Roberts exposes the most common pitfalls that new to Medicare beneficiaries unwittingly make and shares how to expertly avoid them. As a Medicare expert and co-founder at Boomer Benefits, Danielle has spent the last 15 years helping thousands of Medicare beneficiaries learn how to navigate their entry into Medicare. Her goal has always been to make the entry into Medicare and the enrollment process easier for ordinary Americans. This is no small task as most Americans spend their entire working lives having their healthcare plans chosen for them by their employers. Now suddenly they have to try to make sense of a huge national healthcare program that has 4 parts, 10 supplements, and thousands of plan options. To make matters worse, Medicare beneficiaries who get it wrong upfront can find themselves paying penalties they don't deserve and being trapped in plans that don't fit their needs, lifestyle, or budget. In 10 Costly Medicare Mistakes, Danielle guides new beneficiaries through the key decisions they'll need to make at the beginning of their journey while also helping them expertly avoid the most common and costly mistakes that new beneficiaries often make. Readers can also get a free copy of helpful Medicare guides, charts, PDFs, and custom calendars that will help you to manage your Medicare. Order Your Copy Today! Steer clear of the bank-breaking Medicare mistakes. Review: Reading this Book is Like Watching the Fog Blow Away - Update: Wow. Was this book and the guidance from Boomer Benefits a godsend. I was relatively healthy when I started Medicare 2 years ago; and, against the urging of family, I took my Boomer Benefits advisor’s recommendation and passed on Medicare Advantage, getting a Medicare Supplement instead. Last Fall, I had a freak accident that resulted in emergency surgery, multiple hospitalizations, and numerous doctor visits, labs, and tests. My Supplement coverage has been incredible and well worth the monthly premium. I know this because I have a family member on Medicare Advantage who underwent chemotherapy at the same time as my accident. She had issues with hospitals, doctors and what would be approved, then got a bill for her portion not covered by her plan that was eye popping. If you are researching Medicare, get this book. ************************** I am turning 65 in a couple of months. I thought signing up for Medicare would be a simple process, like creating an account on a blog. Boy, was I mistaken. Even worse, is that it became more and more confusing; every person I talked to had different advice that I had better follow or regret it the rest of my life. I was close to "shut down and do nothing" mode, but knew that really wasn't an option. I googled "Best Books on Medicare" and one title I saw favorably referenced in a couple of places was "10 Costly Medicare Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make" by Danielle Kunkle Roberts. To make a long story short, Danielle's book has been a godsend. Her explanations of the different parts of Medicare are straightforward and clear. She does a great job of detailing the pros and cons of Medigap (Supplement) plans and Medicare Advantage plans. She also does a terrific job of flagging "landmines", mistakes that are easy to make due to bad advice or inertia that could end up costing you $$ for the rest of your life. If you are in a situation like mine, where you didn't even know how little you knew about Medicare, then you really owe it to yourself to get this book. Review: Are you going to turn 65 in the near future? Must read!!!! - I really wish I could give this book a ten star review. I am still a year and a half away from being eligible for Medicare but thought I'd start to educate myself on the ends and outs of Medicare, and boy I'm glad I did and very glad I bought this book. First, don't let the title of the book put you off. I first thought it focused just on mistakes and while it does organize its chapters that way, it really is a "Medicare 101" type of book too. In other words, if you know next to nothing about how Medicare works (which was my situation) this book will educate you from the ground up. Key takeaways: 1. Medicare is NOT free. Get that out of your head now. While Part A (hospitalization) is free for most people, Part B has a premium of $164.90 (as of this review in 2023). 2. For most people you get a ONCE IN A LIFETIME CHANCE to enroll in Medicare without the worry of underwriting. Yes, that's right! If you're not careful, you can and will be subject to medical underwriting if you don't enroll during your "Golden Ticket" time which is the 3 months before your birthday, the month of your birthday, or within the 3 months after your birthday. Exception: Medicare Advantage programs don't require underwriting, but original Medicare can if you're not careful. 3. Medicare Advantage. Not to say they are all bad plans, but I do kind of conclude the author of this book is a bit biased towards sticking with Original Medicare and choosing a Medicare Supplement such as Plan G or Plan N. Another pitfall is if you start with Medicare Advantage and later want to enroll back into Original Medicare with a supplement, you may face medical underwriting. Further, the author says to be very careful about those Medicare Advantage TV commercials promising free gym memberships, 0 premiums, and grocery allowances. Oh yeah? Okay, but what if I have to stay in the hospital? How much do I still have to pay per day out of pocket for a hospital stay? What!!!??? 500.00 per day?? You mean to tell me if I had just done my research and chose Plan G instead, I would have paid a total of 226.00 out of pocket for the entire year and my hospital bill would've been nothing? What??!! This is just an example. That free grocery money or gym membership may not seem so great then. Another thing the author points out is if you really want a Medicare Advantage plan, be sure to carefully study its network. Is your current doctor in its network? Which hospital(s) are in the network? And so on. Finally, for me at least, the more research I do, the more inclined I am to stick with Original Medicare and not enrolling into an Advantage Plan. 4. Plan D. This is your Pharmacy insurance. You may think to yourself, okay but I don't take any medications so why should I even enroll in any Plan D insurance. The author strongly recommends in this case to at least enroll in the cheapest Plan D you can find. Why? For every month you're not enrolled, you face a permanent penalty FOR LIFE if you later find yourself needing medications and thus wanting a Plan D prescription plan. This is because Medicare will impose lifetime premium penalties and they really add up for delaying enrolling in Plan D. By the way, this goes for Plan B too. Some of the cheapest Plan D's can cost just a few dollars a month (and thus protect you a few years later from a huge penalty in case you develop a serious illness and need expensive meds). I knew next to nothing about Medicare before I read this book other than something about a "Part A or Part B." In addition to this book, I'm reading another and listening to free podcast. I'm finding by saturating my brain with Medicare education from different sources, its really starting to fall into place for me so I'll avoid the dangers and pitfalls when I'm ready and eligible to enroll. I strongly urge you to get this book, I know for me, its one of the best (roughly ten bucks) I've ever invested. If you're a year away, and more so if you're 6 months away from enrolling in Medicare, do yourself a favor and get this book, listen to podcast, and educate yourself. Enrolling in Medicare is one of the most important life decisions you'll make and you want to do it right. For me, after all the research I've done, I'm pretty sure I'm going to take Medicare Part A, Part B, Plan G (this is one of the most popular supplements now) and a Plan D drug coverage.