Medicare from Soup to Nuts
To the uninitiated, medicare is an alphabet soup of parts and plans. Do you want your basic Medicare—parts A and B—with a dollop of Part D and a medigap side order of Plan G, or go for an all-in-one Medicare Advantage plan instead?
As if those choices aren’t cryptic and confusing enough, thanks to Medicare’s byzantine rules and draconian penalties, the decisions that newcomers make early on, including when they first enroll in the program, can have lasting effects in the form of higher premiums or coverage restrictions down the road.
“People have to make some of the most consequential decisions about Medicare right when they know the least about Medicare,” says David Lipschutz, associate director at the Center for Medicare Advocacy.
Throw in a pandemic, a struggling economy and some big changes to the program in 2020, and even seasoned Medicare beneficiaries have plenty to chew on. Rates for 2021 have yet to be announced, but over the summer, Republicans called for freezing 2021 premiums at 2020 levels in their economic stimulus bill. The freeze is no freebie; beneficiaries must repay any shortfall from the premium freeze with monthly surcharges averaging $3.
annual cost of living adjustments (or the lack of them) are another piece of the premium puzzle. Some, are too meager to keep up with rising premiums.
