Medicare Made Simple Webinar

Thank you guys for joining us today. It’s great to be here with all of you guys. We appreciate you spending this time with us today.

We are covering a really important topic. We call this Medicare one zero one.

For those of you who have been Mercer clients for some time, that we do this every year around this time to really kind of reinstill some of the basics as it relates to Medicare and some of the decisions that are important to be making around this topic. Our our friends in compliance always like us to to show these disclosures here, but I think importantly here, we will also be hosting a follow-up to this in the fall as we head into open enrollment, which gives a little bit more detail about what to expect as you’re changing existing coverage, what are some of the other considerations. So

kind of consider this one zero one, the other one sort of like one zero two, but we’re happy to have you join us here today. It’s, my pleasure to be able to introduce to you Ari Parker. My name is Josh DeForest. I am the Executive Managing Partner here and Head of Client Delivery at Mercer Advisors, partner to Mercer and to our clients for a long time.

He holds a degree from Stanford Law School and is the best selling author of the book “It’s Not That Complicated.” His approach to Medicare has been put in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes. He’s very well spoken and well written, and we’re very excited to he have him be able to speak with you guys today.

So, Ari, first of all, welcome, and thank you for joining us again today.

Thank you so much for having me, Josh. It’s great to get the band together for another run. It’s a lot of fun.

I’ll just share that for many years, I served in as an advisor, and it was really difficult to be able to help clients. I had clients in many different states with many different needs, and it was very hard to find somebody who could literally peruse all of the twenty thousand plus plans that are out there. It’s can be very complicated for a lot of people. But Ari and his approach helps to make it much more simple.

The book is called “It’s Not That Complicated” for a reason. It’s really breaking it down. And that’s what we we really aim to do today is to help you understand both where can you go when you have additional questions, but to help you just get a better foothold, a greater foundation into what we’re talking about here, today. So, as we move forward, as I mentioned, Chapter has been helping Mercer Advisors clients for a long time.

So if you are turning sixty five soon, if you’re over sixty five and are going to be retired and need help transitioning from existing coverage or your spouse’s coverage, or you’re already on Medicare, this conversation will be for you. But, importantly, our goal today is to just give you information so that you can make better decisions as it relates to Medicare. This next point is a really good one. So if we advance one, the there’s a team of people here to help answer questions.

You can click on this link, askchapter.org/mercer. And there’s also a group of people if you want to use the q and a to be able to answer questions that you have, and they will answer those live. Note that they won’t be able to answer any personal questions here. So if you do wanna get personal help, use this link, and the team would be more than happy to try and help get those questions answered for you.

So I’m gonna get into our agenda here. We’re gonna cover three main things today. Medicare’s key parts and really breaking it down.

Then there’s some bite sized decisions that you can make and then next steps on how to actually take action in your financial plan. So, Ari, I’m gonna hand it over to you. Can you kick us off and help us understand the key components as it relates to Medicare?

Picture Medicare as a three legged stool.

The first leg is your hospital coverage.

The second leg is your outpatient coverage, everything outside the hospital. And then the third leg of the stool is your drug coverage.

Each of these legs corresponds to a part. Hospital, that’s Part A. Outpatient, Part B. And finally, drug coverage, Part D. Now the first two legs of the stool are printed right on your red, white, and blue card.

So let me dig into these a bit further.

Medicare Part A is your inpatient hospital insurance. This also covers you when you’re receiving inpatient mental health care, skilled nursing facility care, home health care, and even hospice.

Now you or your spouse have prepaid for your Medicare Part A. Over ninety nine percent of people owe a zero dollar premium for Medicare Part A. So let’s turn to Medicare Part B. This is your outpatient coverage. Visits to the doctor, visits to your primary care physician, your specialist, lab work, x rays, MRIs, even durable medical equipment that is billed to Medicare Part B or an outpatient surgery.

Most Americans owe approximately two hundred dollars per month for Medicare Part B, and there’s no family plan. So if you and your spouse are both on Medicare, then you each owe approximately two hundred dollars per month. If you’re a high earner, many of you are, we’ll have some resources at the end of the presentation. But you should know that the government considers you a high earner once you and your spouse earn two hundred and eighteen thousand dollars or more based on your tax return from two years ago.

So for this year, the government is looking at your twenty twenty twenty four tax return. So that’s the first two legs of the stool, Medicare Part A and Part B. In unison, this is referred to as original Medicare. And if you need any help activating your Medicare, then you can just click on that link askchapter.org/mercer.

We’d be more than happy to help you get your red, white, and blue card. It takes less than five minutes in order to do it.

Now let’s turn to the third leg of the stool, Medicare Part D. This is coverage for your prescriptions. And even if you don’t take any medications, it’s still important to obtain Part D so that way you have insurance throughout the year and so you avoid lifetime late enrollment penalties. These are really thorny and you don’t want to owe a lifetime late enrollment penalty.

So if you haven’t had Medicare Part D coverage yet or you’re unsure, then the best time to do something about it is today. You don’t want that penalty to continue to come down compound. And there are two ways to get it, but each of these options is through a private insurance company. So unlike original Medicare, which comes directly from uncle Sam, Medicare Part D is obtained through a private insurance company.

So there are some big improvements that happened to Medicare Part D. They started in twenty twenty five and they continued into this year, so I want to review them with you.

The first is that there’s now a maximum out of pocket cap on your prescription costs. So for last year, the out of pocket maximum was two thousand dollars, and for this year, it’s only twenty one hundred dollars.

That is once you once your covered prescriptions reach twenty one hundred dollars in out of pocket expenses, then you’ve hit your cap for the year. But it’s important that each of your prescriptions are covered by the Medicare Part D plan of your choosing. So this is where Chapter helps you every single year in making sure that your prescriptions are covered and that you’re on the most affordable plan.

Second improvement is that now if you’re on very expensive prescriptions, you can actually smooth out those costs over the course of the year. It’s easy to opt into, and it’s something that our member advocate team is expert on. So you’re not just supported by the Medicare advisor that you work with at Chapter, you’re also supported by a member advocate, which is your first line of defense for any hiccups that come up along the way with your coverage.

And then the third improvement, which was quite newsworthy, you may have heard of it, is that for ten prescriptions, the government is actually negotiating the costs on your behalf. So there’s a list of ten expensive prescriptions that the government has already negotiated for this year, and they’re going to add another subset of medications for next year, and it’s going to continue all the way through twenty twenty nine. So that’s more good news on the horizon.

With that, I want to take you through the three Medicare decision steps.

The first is signing up for original Medicare.

The second is how will you cover the twenty percent that original Medicare doesn’t cover. And then the third and final step is taking action.

So when can you first sign up for Medicare?

Well, for someone who’s turning sixty five, you have a seven month initial enrollment period that begins three months before your sixty fifth birthday and it extends to your birth month and three months after your sixty fifth birthday. So, for example, if Josh were turning sixty five on December twenty third, then the earliest that Josh could sign up for Medicare would be September first. And as long as Josh signs up in September, October, or November, Josh’s Medicare is starting December first. It always goes to the first of the month.

But let’s say Josh delays. Let’s say he waits until mid December in order to apply. Well, then even though Josh hasn’t hit his birthday yet, his Medicare is going to be delayed by a month. And this really surprises people.

There’s actually affirmative things that you need to do in order to activate your Medicare. The only exception is if you’re already taking Social Security. If you’re already taking Social Security, the government automatically opts you into Medicare and sends you your right and your red, white, and blue card. Most of you are waiting to take Social Security, so that means you need to activate your Medicare, and it’s something the Chapter team is here to help you with.

And we’re really one of the only advisories that will help you go through your online Social Security account portal and activate your Medicare.

If you call Social Security, you’re going to wait on hold for a long time. They’re not going to help you immediately over the phone. It’s not a very good experience. So we highly recommend going through your online Social Security account in order to activate your Medicare. It’s quick, safe, and secure.

You might be wondering, well, do I need to sign up for Medicare at sixty five? The answer is probably yes.

The only people who have an exception to delay starting Medicare are those who work for an employer with twenty or more employees or your spouse works for an employer with twenty or more employees. That’s the only exception to delay starting Medicare. So that’s a big surprise to people. They assume that they can remain on their COBRA. No. COBRA is only secondary to Medicare. You may assume that you can remain on your individual coverage, your Affordable Care Act plan.

No.

You lose your subsidies for the Affordable Care Act exchange once you hit sixty five if you’re eligible for premium free Part A. And, again, over ninety nine percent of you likely are, if not all of you.

So it is very important to know your Medicare timing decisions. So to reiterate, the only people who have an exception to delay starting Medicare are those who work for an employer with twenty or more employees, rule of twenty, or your spouse works for an employer with twenty or more employees, rule of twenty.

Now if this applies to you, if this pertains, then instead you will receive a special enrollment period to activate your Medicare once you or your spouse are ready to retire. So your action window will be when you or your spouse are ready to retire. That might be at seventy, seventy five. And by the way, if you want an apples to apples comparison, let’s say you’re not in love with your work provided coverage, then we’re more than happy to do that comparison for you. It’s something we do all the time. So if you just want a second opinion on your coverage, go to askchapter.org/mercer. We’d be more than happy to make sure that you’re getting good value from your health insurance.

Ari, this has been super helpful. You’ve covered a lot about what Medicare does cover, and it was a really good overview of the different parts. But I think it’s equally important to talk about what Medicare doesn’t cover and what we do about it. So could you talk a little bit about that?

Absolutely. That brings us to our second step, which is how will you cover the twenty percent that Medicare doesn’t cover?

In exchange for that approximately two hundred dollars that many of you pay to the government, you get eighty twenty coinsurance.

So the government picks up eighty percent of your medical expenses. You owe twenty percent out of pocket. My mom is on Medicare. Last year, she had a knee replacement.

It’s almost a fifty thousand dollar procedure in the Chicagoland area. Had my mom not had any type of additional coverage, she would have owed ten thousand dollars for her knee. The very next month, she slipped and broke her elbow. She’s bionic at this point.

She would have owed twenty percent for everything related to her elbow as well had she not had some type of additional coverage.

This is where it makes sense to work with a licensed Medicare advisor. There’s no charge to work with a Medicare advisor. Make sure that you’re working with someone independent, though, who can help you review all your plan options. Because as Josh mentioned, there are over twenty four thousand different options nationwide, and they vary county by county across the United States. So let’s help you understand what your options are to get coverage for that twenty percent you otherwise owe out of pocket.

You, broadly speaking, have two options. The first is to keep original Medicare and add a Medicare supplement plan, which is also known as Medigap. This sits on top of your original Medicare, and it covers the twenty percent you’d you’d otherwise owe out of pocket. So that’s what my mom has.

In order to make that coverage comprehensive, you just need to add a standalone prescription drug plan. So that’s option one. This is what the vast majority of Mercer advisor clients choose. Option one, Medigap.

Then there’s option two. Option two is what you see advertised on television. Joe Namath, William Shatner, Jimmy Walker, what are they talking about? What they’re talking about is Medicare Advantage.

This is a replacement for original Medicare administered by a private insurance company. This is where we’re in the world of managed care, network restrictions. We gotta go doctor by doctor and make sure that each of them accepts Medicare. Excuse me.

Accepts your plan, unlike original Medicare, which is network-less.

What’s more, Medicare Advantage is subject to prior authorization. And in twenty twenty three alone, there were over fifty million prior authorization claims. So if you value comprehensiveness, flexibility, then option one is for you. And these are mutually exclusive. It’s one or the other. You can’t have both.

Now what you see on those Medicare Advantage commercials is that they’re advertising a low premium. You still owe your Part B premium to the government, but the Medicare Advantage plan may have a zero dollar premium. In fact, sixty five percent of Medicare Advantage plans do. What they also advertise is dental, vision, and hearing, which are things that original Medicare doesn’t cover.

However, the trade off is that it’s managed care subject to a private insurance company’s terms and conditions, and it I’m a lawyer by training. There are hundreds of pages of terms and conditions.

And it really there there are real trade offs involved. And so that’s something we will will review with you in a one on one consultation, the difference between option one and option two, and we’ll see which is right for you.

So why do most Mercer Advisors clients choose Medigap?

First, they appreciate not having to worry about whether their doctor is in or out of network. It’s better than a PPO. It’s network-less.

Second, you appreciate the freedom to see any specialist you want nationwide.

So if you have a home in a different state, if your grandchildren live in California, but you’re located in New York, if you want to go to an institution like the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, MD Anderson, or Sloan Kettering, you name it, there’s no HMO like features to these plans, so it allows you choice.

There are no bills or copays to deal with under Medigap so long as you meet your Part B annual deductible, which for this year is two hundred and eighty three dollars. I can’t wait to be on Medicare. My deductible is six thousand dollars for my wife, toddler, and I. So I can’t wait to have a deductible that’s only two hundred eighty three dollars.

Under Medigap, you are done once you hit that annual deductible. And then your insurance company is on the hook for the remainder. And then let me add, Medigap is designed to last a lifetime. So the way we train our team here at Chapter is marry your Medigap, date your drug plan, which is something I talk about in the book. The Medigap plan you choose when you first start Medicare is probably the plan that you’re going to have for the long haul. And if you’re turning sixty five today, you have over a fifty fifty shot of living to a hundred.

Every year, we want to review your prescription drug plan, though, And that’s something that our team will help you with year in and year out. And on average, we help you save eleven hundred dollars by taking the time to review your prescriptions every year.

So for Medigap, it is standardized under federal law. And so you may have heard of different Medigap plan letter types. For example, Medigap Plan letter G. This is the most comprehensive and flexible coverage for someone who recently turned sixty five. So if you turn sixty five after January first twenty twenty, then Medigap Plan G is the most comprehensive plan that you can choose.

Under Medigap Plan letter G, you don’t have network restrictions, You don’t need a referral in order to see a specialist. You won’t see any additional bills or co pays once you hit your deductible, which for this year is two hundred and eighty three dollars.

It works nationwide. So Josh and I, we live in Arizona. But if we wanted to get a second opinion in Texas, it would be no issue.

And then Medigap Plan letter G includes eighty percent international coverage when you travel abroad. This went a long way for our Mercer Advisors client that we were helping a couple years ago. They were vacationing in Paris. They suffered a heart condition, and they racked up thirty thousand dollars in hospitalization expenses.

Because they were on Medigap Plan letter G, our member advocate team was able to help them get twenty four thousand dollars in reimbursement. So it didn’t ruin their trip.

Ari, I think this is really helpful because there’s, I I like to call it the alphabet soup. You know, you’ve talked about parts A and B and D. We add in letter G, but there’s a whole host of other ones.

I think a common question that we often get is, you know, well, why do I see all these ads? You mentioned several of them on TV.

Why not just make it simple? Why not go with original Medicare or Medicare Advantage rather and, like, just make it all clean and easy? Why do so many people end up going, as you said, with getting Medigap, getting Plan letter G in particular?

So the reason why is because Mercer Advisors clients tend to value choice of doctor and flexibility, and they can afford the premium for Medigap. For some, though, Medicare Advantage has its use. And that would be if you don’t go to the doctor very often and perhaps you only see your primary care physician and you value dental, vision, and hearing, let’s say, then that might be a use case for Medicare Advantage. What you should know, though, is that in forty six states you have a one time opportunity to choose Medigap, option one.

Once you’re outside that six month window, you are subject to an insurance company’s questions about your health conditions. That is, they get to ask you about chronic conditions, preexisting conditions. And if you have something as common as Type 2 Diabetes and hypertension, which is very common to see those two together, then many Medigap insurer insurers would decline you. So it is highly consequential to choose between option one and option two when you first start Medicare.

With these Medicare Advantage commercials, you might be under the impression that you can just change your mind later on.

However, in forty six states, it is a one time window to choose between option one or option two unless you’re in great health. And so that’s why it’s so important to go over the difference upfront. And a huge kudos to Mercer Advisors and to you specifically, Josh, for giving your clients, empowering them with the education they need to know to make an informed Medicare selection.

Yeah. I think it’s really important, and we even have seen a couple of those questions come in about how do you switch or change later on. I think you nailed it on just, you know, the the key things to consider there. So, I mean, at this point, we’ve talked about how do you sign up for original Medicare, when do you do it. We talked about how to cover the gap that exists, that that twenty percent that you talked about, most people going with that plan letter G.

Now a lot of this has been information. So talk to me about how do clients take action? What should they be thinking about as far as next steps? What are your thoughts there?

In

a one-on-one conversation, no strings attached.

It’s illegal for Medicare advisors to charge you.

Here’s what we’re going to review with you. Your three p’s. The three p’s are your providers, who are the doctors that you see, and what institutions do you want to go to.

The second p, your prescriptions. What medications do you take? Are they brand name or generic? What pharmacy do you like to go to?

Mom and pop or a national chain? And then the third P, your priorities. What’s most important to you? Choice of coverage, flexibility, or is it affordability instead?

Are you looking to get the lowest premium plan, which most of you aren’t. Most of you instead are valuing having the most robust coverage from what we’ve seen in thousands of consultations with Mercer Advisors clients. So that’s exactly what we go through in a one on one consultation.

And you should do this every year. The fall is a natural time to do it if you’re already on Medicare.

What changes every year with your prescription drug plan are the premium and costs associated with the plan, the drugs that it covers.

What changes every year with a Medicare Advantage plan are the physician networks, those can even change mid year, the benefits offered by the plan, and the terms and conditions under the plan. So it’s really important if you’re on Medicare Advantage, let’s see if that is the right plan for you. And the time to do that is in the fall. Though if you recently had a change in circumstance, there might be an opportunity to review your coverage now. Again, this is something a licensed independent advisor can really help with.

Ari, this is awesome. We have had dozens of questions come into the chat, so thank you to the folks who are behind the scenes answering all of those.

I do wanna get into a couple of the most frequently asked questions. We had actually a couple of hundred asked in advance. And so before we even get to to the the next slide, we get this question every time, so I like to just ask it right up front. Obviously, Chapter is not a nonprofit entity. You you said it’s illegal for Medicare advisors to charge clients, but how do you get paid? I think that’s an important one to to have people know.

We earn revenue from insurance companies, and it doesn’t matter which insurance company you choose. The revenue that each insurance company pays is standardized. But when you work with a local advisor, for example, they oftentimes are only going over the plans that they are contracted with. That isn’t the case at Chapter.

Here at Chapter, we have information on every insurance company and every Medicare plan available to you. And the only thing that matters to our advisors is your three p’s. What doctors do you see? What prescriptions do you take?

What are your priorities?

And regardless of whether it’s a plan we earn revenue from or not, we are going to recommend the single best fitting plan for you.

I think that’s really important. I always have told people, you know, you can you can do this completely on your own. You can take this information and do it by yourself. You can work with a company like Chapter, but you’re gonna pay the same amount, you might as well get the expert guidance. And you guys have done a good job of helping to make sure that you remove conflict of interest wherever possible.

The the next question that I wanna get into, we get this one a lot. I’m past age sixty five. I plan to continue working for another couple of years. Do I need to enroll in Medicare Part B?

The answer is no. As long as you or your spouse work for an employer with twenty or more employees. Rule of twenty. And just because you’re on work provided coverage doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good value for you.

Oftentimes, employers subsidize the working spouse’s coverage, but not the nonworking spouse, not the spousal premium. In fact, people owe several hundred dollars for their spousal premium, sometimes more, in which case Medicare might be advantageous for your nonworking spouse to switch to. We see it all the times where we give a split recommendation where we say, working spouse, remain on your work provided coverage. Nonworking spouse, let’s get you on Medicare because it’s a better value for you.

Excellent. The next question that we get often is, what if I have a preexisting condition? Can I be denied for Medigap, Medicare supplemental plans? How does that work?

The answer is yes in forty six states once you’re outside your six month Medigap open enrollment period, which coincides with when you start Medicare Part B. So when you start Medicare Part B, that is your golden ticket to sign up for the Medigap plan letter type of your choosing without any questions about your health history.

Now I said forty six states. There are four states that allow you to do this outside of that six month window. Those states are New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine. They’re all along the northern the northern Atlantic seaboard. If you don’t live in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, or Maine, and most of you don’t, I can see based on the attendance list, many of you, for example, are in the Sunbelt, then it is very important to choose between option one or option two when you first start Medicare. We don’t want to see you declined for option one because of a preexisting condition.

This next one is always a very high, audience interest. There’s this thing called IRMA. This is actually where the intersection of health and wealth, like, really play out. We do a lot of tax planning for clients, not just for minimizing how much, you know, taxes are gonna be paid and taking advantage of the tax code in whatever ways are possible, but also being highly cognizant of this thing called IRMA and how much people are going to pay for Medicare. Can you talk to us a little bit about what that is, how it works, what those, additional premiums can look like?

Absolutely.

Most Americans, almost ninety percent, pay approximately two hundred dollars per month for Medicare Part B. The attendees to this presentation are not like most Americans. Many of you are considered high earners. So this is what’s called the income related monthly adjustment amount.

This is a two year look back. So for twenty twenty six, the government’s looking at your twenty twenty four tax return. And if you and your spouse earn more than two hundred and eighteen thousand dollars, then you are considered a high earner. And you can see that it’s graduated.

It’s progressive. So the more that you earn above that two hundred and eighteen thousand threshold amount, the more you owe. And if you’re a solo filer, it actually begins at a hundred and nine thousand dollars.

This is based on your modified adjusted gross income. So it’s not just your w two income. It’s also your required minute your required minimum distributions and your long term cap gains.

And you have actually helped a lot of people be able to actually appeal this in certain situations. Can you talk about what are some of those conditions? How does that process work when you can kind of get an exception on a onetime basis?

There are eight life changing events that allow you to appeal your IRMA. They are spelled out on SSA form forty four, which is it’s an eight page document, but, really, there are only three pages to it.

And those eight life changing events, the two most common are work stoppage or work reduction. Sadly, the third most common is divorce. But if one of those eight life changing events applies to you or your spouse, then you are entitled to appeal. And all that you would then list is what was your income, what is your expected income, anticipated income based on the life changing event.

And you would you would actually put that figure, and you can even put a future year. So, for example, you can appeal for twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven using steps two and three on the form. It’s something that our team helps people do every single day, and it can save thousands of dollars. In fact, for a married couple who win their appeal, it can save ten to twelve thousand dollars if it knocks you down from the highest bracket back to the standard Part B premium of approximately two hundred dollars a month.

This surcharge, by the way, applies to both Medicare Part B and Part D. There are actually two surcharges under IRMA. And, Josh, I think your next question might be when do they let you know if if you’re subject to it.

Yeah. Go ahead.

It’s it’s it’s a little bit you gotta love our government. Here’s how they do it.

First, when you sign up for Medicare, they’re going to say, you owe two hundred and two dollars and ninety cents per month because that’s the standard Part B premium. A few weeks later, that’s when the scarlet letter is going to arrive in the mail, and they’re going to say, actually, we checked your checked tax return. The most recent one they have on file is from twenty twenty four even though April fifteenth has already come and gone. And based on your twenty twenty four tax return, you’re a high earner, and you actually are subject to the income related monthly adjustment amount. That is your cue to appeal if you have a life changing event.

Excellent. Thank you. I wanna put the, information up one more time. I actually saw this question come in the chat.

There’s a couple of things that you can do if you wanna get more information. If you’re a Mercer Advisors client, you can speak with your advisor. I actually highly recommend that you do. You can also book directly with the link.

This is the same link that we put up earlier in the presentation.

But we have found that a lot of these go really well when you have a communication with your advisor, speak with them, but this is the link to actually take that action. If you’re not a Mercer Advisors client, we would highly recommend that you go to merceradvisors.com. It’s really easy to set up some time with us. We can have a conversation about your your situation, what’s happening in in your life, including what’s going on with Medicare, but really trying to talk about how we can deliver this family office approach that includes this intersection of health and wealth.

I’m gonna leave this up here, but, Ari, we’ve gotten a lot of questions here. I’m gonna ask you a couple more here.

One of the questions is that and this I’ve been asked this by so many clients.

What happens if you’re receiving Social Security? Are you automatically enrolled in Medicare? There’s this confusion about Social Security and Medicare because they’re kind of related, but they’re kind of not. Can you help talk about that a little bit?

There is confusion around Social Security and Medicare because when you go into your online Social Security account and you click start a benefit application, it asks you about Social Security and Medicare on that application. But many, many Mercer Advisor clients choose to delay Social Security but activate their Medicare. So on that benefit application, you would just check no to Social Security and then yes to Medicare Part B. And that’s something we send explicit instructions to you. So so that way, you can use it when filling out that five minute application. Now Josh asked about what if you’re already taking Social Security? Then the government mails you your red, white, and blue card three to four months before you turn sixty five.

Yeah. And I think a lot of the confusion comes that when you are on Medicare and you are claiming Social Security, the Medicare premiums get deducted out of your Social Security income, but the the decision to file for one or the other are actually independent of each other. It’s just that once you’re on both, then they kind of get mushed back together is the way I like to describe it. But it’s very important that you make separate decisions about what’s best for Social Security and what’s best for Medicare.

And then it’s just a matter of, like, really how you how you end up paying for it.

Can I say one more thing that

you just

Josh, mentioned that when you’re taking Social Security, the government deducts your Medicare Part B premium?

They even deduct your IRMA straight from your Social Security check. If you’re not yet taking Social Security, then you want to set up Medicare Easy Pay. So that way, your premiums that you owe to the government are deducted from your bank account. We oftentimes see so many of you love to travel. You have extensive travel plans. You plan to go abroad and enjoy your golden years.

Don’t miss a payment to the government. They will cancel your Medicare Part B. And so when you come back stateside, you’ll be without insurance. Don’t let that happen to you. Sign up for Medicare easy pay, and you do that by establishing your medicare.portal. And that’s something that our member advocate team would be more than happy to help you with.

Excellent. There is a question about, well, what happens if I move? What if I move states? What if I move abroad? What happens with my Medicare in those situations?

Medicare is nationwide. So if you move to a different state, you just update your address with, through your online Social Security account. Now I think what you’re asking about is what happens to your additional coverage.

Here, Medigap option one is portable. So if you move to a different state, you just take it with you. You don’t have to answer questions about preexisting conditions or anything. It it’s marry your Medigap, date your drug plan.

Medicare Advantage, that we need to review if you’re planning to move because we need to make sure that the plan that you have is going to work where you’re moving to. Oftentimes, it won’t, and the Medicare Advantage company will actually drop you. And so that is a window for you to select a new plan. It also might create a guaranteed issue, right, for you to move from Medicare Advantage to Medigap, which could be huge if you have a preexisting condition. So that is a situation. If you’re moving, please use the askchapter.org/mercer link. Let’s talk about what’s going on and make sure that the doctors in the location where you’re moving to accept the plan that you have.

Excellent. Well, Ari, this has been incredibly informative. We’ve answered over sixty questions in the chat, so a lot of great things coming through here.

I’ll just sort of say again, if if you work with a Mercer advisor, this is a conversation that we want to have with you. Again, you can book directly with Chapter, but also loop in your advisor. This is a really good conversation to have in large part because some of these decisions, like Ari talked about a second ago as it relates to IRMA and doing tax planning, even investment planning all plays into the same conversation. Increasingly, health and wealth are becoming very interconnected, and make as I always like to say, like, making integrated decisions, not isolated ones, is really important.

Importantly as well, and I’ve even had my own family members who have worked with Chapter in the past, that it’s it’s an ongoing decision. I think the important thing is to both give you education upfront, but it’s it isn’t just set it and forget it.

Ari, I think earlier you said say the line that you said again.

Marry your

Marry your Medigap.

Date your drug plan. Exactly.

And what he means by that is especially with the drug plans, like, you’ve gotta look at that every year because things can and do change over time and situations change. Just like in someone’s financial plan, it’s really important to both stay on top of it but be proactive in making sure that everybody has all of the things that we need. So, again, just thank you, Ari, to you. Thank you to Chapter. Thank you for all the great answers to all of the questions. It’s been amazing to see.

If you want more information, again, use the link here. I know we got to nearly all of the questions that were asked, but not certainly all of them. But also reach out to Mercer Advisors. Reach out to your advisor, and we’d be happy to, give you additional information as time goes on. So, Ari, huge thank you to you. Thank you for this presentation. We really appreciate your time today.

Thank you so much for having me, Josh, and thank you to my colleagues, Steven and Daniel. They were behind the scenes answering all of your questions.

Excellent. Thanks, everybody. We hope that you have a good afternoon or morning. Take care.