Medicare 101: New book explains what most of us don't know about healthcare in retirement

Making consciousness of Medicare is nary casual task.

A caller publication aptly titled “Medicare 101” by fiscal writer Kimberly Lankford is simply a applicable roadmap to assistance you marque the champion decisions astir your coverage.

The alphabet of choices ranges from Part A (hospital attraction and services) to Part B (medical care, including preventive services), to Part C (Medicare Advantage), to Part D (prescription cause coverage). Plus Medicare Supplement (Medigap).

It’s head-spinning and frankly stressful to comparison sum options and prime a plan. Lankford’s publication works arsenic a usher successful the process.

Here are edited excerpts of our caller conversation:

Kerry Hannon: What are immoderate of the costly pitfalls that folks person erstwhile it comes to signing up for Medicare?

Kim Lankford: They don’t recognize that they person to motion up. Unless you’ve already enrolled successful Social Security, you’re not automatically enrolled successful Medicare.

It's elemental to enroll successful Medicare. You spell to the Social Security Administration website during your archetypal enrollment period, astir property 65. It is simply a seven-month window: 3 months earlier your 65th birthday, the period of your birthday, and 3 months after. If you miss that, it tin pb to higher monthly premiums owed to precocious penalties for Part B and Part D for the remainder of your life.

Those who are inactive moving request to speech with their HR section to corroborate their employer's wellness program covers them.

If you enactment for an leader that has less than 20 employees, you mostly person to motion up for Parts A and B. If you person wellness security sum from a ample employer, that tin proceed to beryllium your superior coverage.

What a batch of radical bash is motion up for Part A due to the fact that they don't person to wage premiums for that, but not motion up for Part B portion they're working.

If you missed your archetypal window, you tin motion up aboriginal if you were covered by an progressive leader radical wellness program (yours oregon your spouse's).

If you are moving and contributing to a Health Savings Account (HSA), is it good to motion up for Medicare?

You mightiness not privation to motion up for Part A yet. Once you enroll successful Medicare, you’re nary longer eligible to lend to an HSA. But you tin pat your HSA funds tax-free for qualified aesculapian expenses, including Medicare premiums, deductibles, copays, and coinsurance.

What’s the biggest misconception radical person astir Medicare successful general?

They deliberation it's free. You person monthly premiums for Medicare Part B, which are $202.90 per period now.

Another misconception is that everyone pays the aforesaid for Medicare. Not so.

If you person higher income, that's not conscionable higher income from a job, but it's besides higher income if you are taking withdrawals from tax-deferred status savings, which counts successful the income calculations. If you’re making a Roth conversion from a accepted IRA, that wealth is taxable and is included successful the calculation for the high-income surcharge.