4. Remain on employer group health coverage (20 + employees) and delay your enrollment into Medicare without a penalty for late enrollment.
You may have been told that no matter what, you must sign up for Medicare when you are eligible or face a lifetime of penalties. While this is true in many cases, if you are covered your you or your spouses’ current employer group health plan (20+ employees), you are able to delay enrollment into Medicare without a penalty for late enrollment. You can wait until you are ready to leave the employer group health coverage and apply through a special enrollment period.
You may decide to enroll in Medicare Part A only, since for most people (worked at least 10 years and paid into Medicare) pay zero premium for Part A. If you do not have an HSA that your are currently contributing to (or anyone is making contributions to in your name) you should NOT get Part A. This is because you would lose eligibility for those pre-tax HSA payments. Medicare doesn’t have a high enough deductible and HSA plans can only be contributed to when you are on a high deductible plan.
I always get asked, “Who should I tell if I decide to remain on my employer plan?” The answer may surprise you. You tell no one and do nothing as long as your employer has 20+ employees. If you are not contributing to an HSA, it is a great idea to go ahead and get Part A not only for the extra hospital coverage, but also so you can go ahead and get your Medicare number. This makes it much easier to add Part B through the special enrollment period due to leaving employer group health coverage in the future.
I actually had a client contact me at age 80. He had never signed up for Medicare. None of it. Luckily, he was still employed by his current employer group health plan (20+ employees) and finally decided to retire. Guess what? He had no penalty. You can remain on that qualifying current employer group health plan as long as you want.
Note: this is ONLY for current employer group health plans.
Plans that would NOT qualify:
- Marketplace plans
- Retirement plans
- Healthshare Plans
- VA insurance
- Tricare
If you have any of these plans, you should enroll in Medicare Parts A & B when eligible to avoid a lifetime penalty.
Here is more information:
Keep in Mind
Many people will benefit by still working but dropping the employer group health plan and enrolling in Medicare instead. That is your choice. The only way to know what would work best for you is to find out what Medicare costs/benefits would look like for you and compare to your employer group health plan. That is where we come int. There will be absolutely no pressure ever. We will give you the info and you will decide for yourself what works best for you.
When you are ready to retire or leave your employer group health plan, contact us for information on how to enroll in Medicare Parts A & B or Part B only.
This information obtained from www.medicare.gov
By contacting the phone number on this website you will be directed to a licensed agent.