Medicare open enrollment: A chance to tune up your coverage
Through Dec. 7, you can make changes in your Part D or Advantage plan.
Fall is the time to give your Medicare coverage a checkup. This is a chore far too many seniors shy away from, but it can be a money-saving move that improves your access to healthcare.
Open enrollment began last weekend and runs through Dec. 7, but seven out of ten Medicare beneficiaries probably will not compare their coverage options, if the latest data from the Kaiser Family Foundation is any indication.
If you are enrolled in traditional Medicare with a Medigap supplemental plan, there is no need to re-evaluate or make changes. But anyone enrolled in a Medicare Advantage or Part D prescription drug plan should do a checkup annually. The terms of your Part D coverage can change from year to year in ways that affect not only your costs, but access to medications. The same is true for Advantage plans that wrap in drug coverage - and the healthcare providers included in these managed care networks also can change.
My latest Reuters column offers a look at why it’s important to do a check-up on your coverage. Also check out my recent Morningstar column on deceptive Medicare Advantage advertising practices that could lead to costly enrollment errors.
Coming in January: Retirement Reboot
Americans approaching retirement age today have experienced some particularly frightening economic waves. During the Great Recession in 2009 and the COVID-19 pandemic of the early 2020s, older Americans experienced higher rates of job loss than younger ones – and many never fully recovered. Today, the uncertainty caused by high inflation and the possibility of another recession has led to exceedingly difficult economic circumstances for millions.
My new book on retirement – which will be published in January – is titled Retirement Reboot: Commonsense Financial Strategies for Getting Back on Track. My aim is to take you through a short course of decisions that you can make now to improve your financial security in retirement —even if it’s just a few years away.
You’ll learn just how critical it is to make a retirement plan – and the critical importance of timing your retirement. How to optimize Social Security and Medicare benefits. How to build savings – even late in the game. I also explore ways to tap home equity, how older workers should approach career management and financing long-term care needs.
Learn more about my new book, Retirement Reboot: Commonsense Financial Strategies for Getting Back on Track. It’s available for pre-order now - reserve your copy at Bookshop.org, or Amazon.
More on the historic 8.7% Social Security COLA? Why not.
I reported last week for The New York Times on the historic 8.7% Social Security cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, which is en route to more than 70 million Americans for next year. Along with my story, the Times published several other informative articles about Social Security and the COLA last week that you may want to check out:
Why Social Security’s inflation protection is priceless. The 8.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security isn’t just a big benefit increase. It’s priceless. You can’t buy inflation-protected lifetime income like that on the open market, not from an entity as solid as the United States government.
The Social Security COLA will ease the sting of inflation. “That is breathing room,” said Gloria Hinojos, a 75-year-old retiree in Hacienda Heights, Calif., who stands to receive roughly $182 more each month, and relies largely on her benefit check to cover her monthly expenses. That includes rent of roughly $1,200 to $1,350 each month, which pays for the land her mobile home sits on, and includes utilities.
I’m young - why should I care about Social Security? To most young people, few topics are as dull as Social Security. Or, as one 36-year-old friend put it to me recently, “I assume it won’t be around by the time I’m retired. Why should I think about it?”
In case you missed it, the RR podcast featured a roundtable discussion last week on the COLA and Social Security adequacy, featuring three leading experts on the program and the issues facing older Americans today.
What I’m reading
Inflation may save you money on your taxes . . . How to boost your immune system during cold and flu season.