Welcome to Medicare School Daily, where we help you understand Medicare, save money,
avoid mistakes, and above all else, get the most out of your Medicare benefits. Now, today's
topic is disability and Medicare. Now, folks, there’s actually three different ways in
which we qualify for Medicare benefits. The most common way is for those people that are
turning 65, as long as someone is paid into the Medicare tax system for at least 40 quarters
or you've worked 10 years and you paid into Medicare, you automatically qualify for Medicare
at 65. Now, the second way people qualify for, is certain health issues. If you've been
diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease or with permanent kidney failure, you're eligible
to enroll into Medicare at any age because of those two health issues. And then the last
way are people that have been receiving Social Security disability benefits for 24 months.
So as long as we've been receiving those checks for 24 months, what happens on the 25th month,
we are automatically enrolled into Medicare. And this is why you'll meet many people there
on Medicare that are 52 or 61 or 59 different ages because they came to the Medicare system
on the 25th month of their Social Security disability. Now, when you came in to Medicare
because of disability, you were issued a Medicare card and that card, no doubt, has an A and
B date that was some years ago.
Could be two years ago or 20 years ago, but you came in on the 25th month and you have
this Medicare card that was issued. Now you're turning 65. And so they're not going to issue
you a new card, but you do have this great opportunity to be able to make changes to
your plan because you're approaching 65 and they give you a second open enrollment period.
So when you first went on Medicare because of disability, you made some decisions. Either
you went with a supplemental plan or you went with an advantage plan. But now that you're
turning 65, you have the ability to change those plans. So I’m going to explain your
options to you. So if you start on Medicare because of disability and you started with
an advantage plan, here are your options. Number one, you can actually switch advantage
plans. So if there's something about the plan that you're not happy with any longer, you
can switch the plans. Listen, everything is gonna be tied to your birth month. So if you're
turning 65 in the month of July, what happens is you have three months before and you have
three months after where you can switch advantage plans if that is in your best interest to
do that.
The other thing you can do is you can actually switch supplemental plans. Those are also
called Medigap policies. Now, if you decide to move off the advantage to the supplemental
plan and you get a Medigap policy, what this seven month period does is it gives you the
ability to switch that plan with no health questions asked whatsoever. In other words,
if you have any preexisting conditions, regardless of your health status, regardless of your
medications, the insurance company that offers that Medigap policy has to issue that policy.
You'll be guaranteed to get that policy with no health questions asked whatsoever during
this particular 7 month period. Now, if you do decide to go with a Medigap policy, you
also have the ability to add a drug plan to that because with your advantage plan, the
drug plan was part of it. So if we go with a Medigap policy, we're gonna have a separate
drug plan. And again, you have this seven month window to make that decision. Now, for
those of you that were on Medicare because of disability, if you chose to go with the
supplemental plan, again, you have this open enrollment period where you can make some
decisions. You can switch from the supplemental plan to an advantage plan. And again, everything
is going to be tied to your 65th birth month.
So, again, in my example, let's say we're turning 65 in July. We have three months before
and we have three months after where we have to make that decision. But you get off the
supplemental plan, and any advantage company is going to take you. The other thing you
have is you can actually switch to a new supplemental plan. More than likely, if you have a supplemental
plan and you got that through disability, you're probably paying higher rates. And so
now what happened? Now you're going to be rated just as someone who's coming in at 65.
So that wrote that rate will probably go down substantially. And during this seven month
period, again, there will be no health questions asked whatsoever. So again, you're able to
get that Medigap policy. You're able to add that prescription drug plan to your coverage
as well. No health questions asked. All pre-existing conditions will be accepted regardless of
your health status, so those insurance companies have to take you. And this will give the opportunity
to be able to switch plans, probably lower your premiums substantially. So these are
your options if you went onto Medicare because of disability. Now you're turning 65. You
have the second opportunity to make any switches that would be in your best interest.