Last week we hosted a live call in to help get answers to some of your questions about enrolling in Medicare, a federal health insurance program for Americans aged 65 and older.

Questions continue to come in.

Medicare enrollment open enrollment begins tomorrow.

So today, we're answering more of your questions with the help of Justin Ault, an agent with Kentucky Health Solutions.

It's part of Katie's Next Chapter initiative, which focuses on the rewards and challenges of aging.

Yeah, so part A and part B is what we call original Medicare.

So that's kind of your base is the way I look at it.

And then we add on top of that with your secondary things like Part D, Part C or those Medigap slash Medicare supplement plans.

Right?

And so part A is usually your hospital and skilled nursing care.

Part B is your outpatient medical.

So doctor's visits, air ambulance, things like that.

And then your part D is prescription drugs and then the C and supplement.

Those generally will help cover some of the other cost depending on what you need.

And you do enroll in each part individually, not always.

So it kind of depends.

So part C includes AB and D, which is kind of confusing.

With the other option, you could also just have original Medicare with the Medigap or Medicare supplement and then a standalone part B, So it's kind of like you have your AB base and then you have option one, which is the Medigap Medicare supplement with a standalone Part D, And then as option two, you could do an advantage instead.

So you choose option one or option two based off your base.

That makes really good sense.

Okay.

Here are some some viewer questions that we've gotten in the day since our call in program.

Can you talk about the $2,000 cap on medication costs?

Will that all come at once or will it be spread out over the 12 months of the year?

Yeah.

So it will it could potentially come all at once.

It depends on someone's specific medications.

So the way that we usually will do that is we'll sit down with our clients, grab their last, we plug it all in and it'll kind of tell us when are they going to hit that $2,000 cap.

So it kind of breaks it down.

Some people that take very expensive brand name medications will probably hit that cap within the first couple of months of the year potentially.

And so what Medicare did, the reason you have that part of the question of can we spread it out is they brought out a payment program so you can call your drug plan company, whether it's a part C advantage or if it's a standalone drug plan.

And you can ask them, I'd like to be part of the payment program and they can take your medication cost and spread it over the course of the 12 months.

So it would be zero at the pharmacy.

You just pay the company that set payment over the course of the 12.

Sounds good.

Okay, next question.

What is the latest?

My hubs are.

Yeah.

When is the latest?

My husband can enroll in Medicare.

He has his regular insurance paid up until August, but he turns 65 in February.

So that'll kind of depend on the type of coverage that this person has.

So because when you first turn 65, that's what we call your initial enrollment period.

So three months before the month of in the three months after your 65th birthday, as long as you enroll in your Part D or your part C plan during this period, you won't have a penalty on it.

Mm hmm.

So with this person, if it's employer coverage that they have, as long as it's considered credible, they can stay on the employer coverage through the end of August.

And then they would have a 60 day window to sign up.

It's called a special enrollment period to sign up for anything for Medicare.

If it's individual coverage such as through the Connect Marketplace, those plans, once you turn 65, if you're eligible for Medicare, you have to sign up for Medicare.

You cannot stay on that individual coverage.

Right.

But you cannot sign up for Medicare on the exchange, correct?

Yes.

So that exchange is completely separate.

So once you turn 65, if you're eligible for part A and B or even just part A, you are no longer eligible for the marketplace, or at least not marketplace savings.

Right.

You could still pay full costs, but that gets pretty pricey at that age.

So we understand there is a medicare open enrollment period that is from October the 15th through sometime in December.

Yeah.

So October 15th through December 7th, that's the annual enrollment period is the specific term that you use, because that's where you can make changes to the advantage and the drug plans for the following year.

Any changes made during this period?

The last change you make is the one locked in that starts January 1st.

All right, last question.

I turned 65 in June of this year.

I tried enroll in Medicare Part A because their website says most people qualify for it.

I haven't heard yet if it was approved, will I ever be able to get Medicare Part B?

Yeah.

So with that, it's that question with Part A, Most people qualify for part A for no premium because you as long as you've worked at least ten years or 40 quarters and paid your Medicare taxes, Part A is free for part B, That part has a monthly premium.

So you can apply for just part A if you have other coverage set up.

But if you want to apply for both at the same time, you usually do that at the same time.

So if you missed applying for that part B, you could still try to apply for it if you're within that initial enrollment period.

If not, there's a medicare general enrollment period that starts at the beginning of the year usually.

Yeah.

Well, Justin, thank you for taking these questions.

We really appreciate.

It.

No pro And you can learn more about Medicare enrollment and the plans offered by logging on to Medicare dot gov.

And you can see our full one hour call in program that we did last Monday to hear answers to other commonly asked questions that is available online on demand at Katy dot org.