Medicare Part D Premium Payment Program Enrollment: Fill & Download for Free

Medicare is the health insurance system that the US government has set in place for people over 65 years of age and those who are permanently disabled. Unlike Medicaid, is not a means-tested system. When a person turns 65, or after two years of receiving SS disability benefits, they can apply for Medicare coverage. This consists of the following:Medicare Part A: Hospital insurance. This includes medication, surgery, medical support that a recipient receives while hospitalized. This coverage has no cost to the insured.Medicare Part B: Medical insurance. This includes all doctor’s visits and appointments made on an outpatient basis. This insurance is not free. It costs $134.00/month, or more with higher income/earnings, which is billed to the insured, or if you are already receiving SS retirement or disability benefits, they would be deducted from your check.This is what is called the Original Medicare.This insurance does not over everything though. For Medicare part A, you may be required to pay some steep co-payments if you are hospitalized for long periods of time. For Medicare part B, it covers 80% of the bill, without an annual out-of-pocket maximum. So if you have a stroke and incur in a massive health insurance bill, you may be required to pony up a significant amount of money for both your hospitalization and rehabilitation afterwards.Enter the Medicare supplemental plans. These are programs run by private insurers, such as Aetna, Anthem, Prudential and all major insurers. They offer to cover up the gap in Medicare payments. They have different tiers of programs. In some you pay small copayments or have a small deductible, and therefore you pay a smaller premium. In others, you pay absolutely nothing - but pay a higher monthly premium. We have one of such policies for my husband - who had to entered Medicare due to disability-. His premium is higher because of this, but for a policy that covers 100% of his medical costs, without deductibles and copayments, we pay only $260/month.However, these programs do not cover prescription medication. Under the last Bush administration, a third program was created. Enter Medicare Part D: This is insurance for prescription medication. This insurance subsidizes the cost of medication for Medicare recipients. Under this program, you can buy a policy with a private insurer (Humana, Anthem for example) and based of the medications you are in your premium will vary. For a program that covers pretty much 100% of my husband’s medication (which are not particularly expensive) we pay $15/month.So the monthly insurance cost for my husband is $379.9/month for a plan in which he has zero out of pocket costs. When he was waiting for Medicare enrollment, a Gold plan under Obamacare was over $500/month, which had a 20% coinsurance. Given the high cost of his disabilities out of pocket medical costs were about 10k/year. However, this was preferable to the cost of his medical coverage through COBRA - which was close to $800/month. See why old people don’t want you to mess with their Medicare?

Why does social security take your SSDI payment away if you refuse to accept Medicare?As I understand the rules if you refuse Medicare coverage, it can be used as evidence you are no longer disabled. HI 00801.002 - Waiver of HI Entitlement by Monthly Beneficiary - 06/29/2010 Medicare A is free and required. If you cannot afford B, C, or D, there are Extra Help programs for the premiums.Extra Help basics - Medicare InteractiveIs there help for me if I can’t afford Medicare’s premiums?Once you become eligible for premium-free Medicare Part A, you either have to enroll in Medicare Part A or you forfeit your Social Security benefits. Most individuals are unwilling to forfeit their Social Security benefits, and thus accept the enrollment into Medicare . . .SOURCE: Most Americans Switch to MedicareContact SSDI +1-800-772-1213 to see if you can still enroll and get your benefits reinstated.SOURCE: Medicare Annual Enrollment Period Dates 2020 - HealthPartnersCan I apply for Medicare if I am Already Receiving Disability? - Disability Benefits CenterMedicare Part A is provided at no cost for qualifying recipients. Failure to enroll in Medicare Part A when it is offered to you can result in you having to pay back Social Security Disability benefits, therefore making it necessary to sign up . . . If you have been approved for any Social Security Disability benefits due to your disability, you will be eligible for Medicare after you have been on Social Security Disability for two years. Depending on your income level, you may have to pay premiums for Medicare Parts B, C, and D. The amount you will need to pay is income based.

Your fate depends upon your income. Period. It’s all too easy to say Social Security or Medicare can take care of you when you’re old, poor and unable to care for yourself any longer. The truth is, Social Security and Medicare are generally not enough for any decent kind of living for average people lacking other assets unless they live in a state that has generous social programs of its own. The average retired person gets $1,360 per month in Social Security. Check it out at https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/colafacts2017.pdf (That average doesn’t tell the whole story, since men get larger average payments than women. See https://www.fool.com/.../2017/.../how-big-is-the-average-persons-social-security-che.a...)Basic mandatory Medicare premiums bite into that retirement check, so the entire amount is not available to pay for a retirement home. The average Social Security recipient pays $109 in Medicare premiums. Medicare, however, does not cover all medical costs. Only the first 60 days of hospitalization and first 20 days in a skilled nursing facility are covered in full. Thereafter the patient is responsible for large daily coinsurance payments. Check it out at https://medicare.com/about-medicare/medicare-premiums-deductibles-2017/ e.com An insurance policy from the private sector must be purchased to cover the costs not paid by Medicare. One must enroll in and pay for a Medicare Part D policy to get assistance with the cost of prescription drugs. Medicare does not apply to hearing aids, eyeglasses, dental care or orthotics - the very services utilized most heavily by the elderly. Here again, some coverage might be available through a private policy for a cost. Assuming you get only the average Social Security check, paying for this additional insurance may not be feasible without other financial assistance.Social Security is set up so that everyone who qualifies for Social Security gets at least $735 per month ($1,103 for a couple). These minimum payments’ people are lucky (!?) to qualify for Medicaid, which provides free medical care. (Again some exceptions: There are states where Medicaid won’t pay for adult diapers.)Hence if you need housing in a retirement home of any sort - assisted living if not actual nursing care - you have a problem if you have no assets (even though you may have been able to live adequately on your own with a combination of subsidized housing, food stamps, state supplements, various charities, etc.).There are homes that will house people in return for their Social Security checks. Assuming you don’t fall into one of those horrific places occasionally in the news where the inmates are undernourished and without medical care, you may be in a retirement home subsisting on Social Security checks with a very limited budget. Unless private patients or those with much larger checks make up a good part of the residents, life there may be very limited in many respects despite the best efforts of the owners. Worse, should Social Security for some reason cease sending your monthly check (happens sometimes without fault on the part of the recipient), you might be evicted and left out on the street to fend for yourself if you have no one to help you. (Note: Having worked at Legal Aid for some years, I’ve seen this happen in real life. Not pretty.)Some states have generous programs to care for their poor elderly unable to live on their own, but not all or even most. Even those with good programs tend to have limited resources, and people can fall through the cracks in any system for one reason or another. It pays to have assets.