I was recently asked a question by a man named Jay. He said, “how can I navigate Medicare if I don’t have a job right now, but plan on getting one?”
Due to COVID-19, Jay had lost his job. However, he had planned on getting a job soon but was about to turn 65.
In this blog post, I want to clarify this for those of you going in and out of roles due to chaos in the world or for whatever reason.
My question to you is, how do you think about Medicare, and how does that impact your Medicare decision?
A lot of people assume that you have to stay on Medicare once you join Medicare. And that’s not the case, and assuming that can lead to some mistakes. So let’s go through the rules.
Medicare says that by the time you turn 65, you must either be on Medicare or have an employer plan that meets Medicare rules.
The critical thing is to know is that you have to have some type of health insurance at 65 to avoid penalties. So in Jay’s situation, he had lost his job, and since he was turning 65 next few weeks, he will need to join Medicare to start on his 65th birthday month to avoid penalties. You technically have a few more months of wiggle room, but to be safe, I’m recommending that he does join Medicare on the first day of the 65th birthday month now.
The thing is, Jay doesn’t know if he will get a job, and if he does, then he can unenroll from Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B and everything else as long as his new employer insurance meets the Medicare specific rules. So there’s no problem in going into and coming out of Medicare for those reasons.
What I don’t want Jay to do, though, is that when he gets his new job and is paying for health insurance (that meets Medicare rules), I don’t want him to be double paying for both his employer plan and for Medicare unless there is a good reason as to why he pays for both.
Again, as people are getting jobs or losing jobs, please know that you can go in and out of Medicare as necessary.
Also, know that if you are over 65 and losing your job, when you leave that company, you’re going to have your employer fill out a form confirming that you’ve been on that plan since 65.
You can then give that form to Medicare. And with that, they’ll give you a period where you can join Medicare after 65.
I hope that clears up any confusion.
To easily make the right Medicare decision you can CLICK HERE to sign up for our Medicare Enrollment Concierge.
