We recently received a question from a business owner named Mark. He told us that he was turning 65 early next year and he’s trying to decide if he should join Medicare or stay on his company’s health insurance plan.
This is a very common question we receive at Medicare Coach because this tends to be a bit of gray area when it comes to what makes the most sense for you.
I want to make it clearer for you today.
If you’re a business owner and trying to make your Medicare decision, the first question you will want to answer is can you stay on your company plan?
If your company has fewer than 20 employees, Medicare requires you to join Medicare. (Note: If you’re disabled, it has to be 100 employees otherwise you have join Medicare)
The next question is, “if you stay on your company plan how much will it not only cost you, but how also how much will it also cost you as the business owner?”
As a business owner, your health insurance company should help you understand how the premiums will change next year when you turn 65. This is a critical factor to decide what makes the most sense for you.
We had another client by the name of Ben, he was turning 65 and as a result he realized that both his individual as well as the company health expenses were going to go up dramatically if he stayed on the company plan.
In order to save himself and his company money, we recommended he join Medicare.
It’s not a completely black and white answer and it ultimately depends on the price of the health insurance to you and your company, but also other factors including family members on your company health insurance.
Some people end up staying on their employer plan.
The people who stay in their company health plan usually either
- Have any other family members on their plan,
- Have extremely low health insurance if they stay on the plan, or
- Have a high income. Medicare has a rule where it charges people with higher incomes more money to get their coverage. Many times these fees are so high they are better off staying on the company health insurance plan.
Again, Medicare is complicated for everyone, but even more complicated for business owners.
Make sure you look at all the factors I mentioned above before finalizing your Medicare decision. The wrong decision can be very costly.
