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 the two Medicare options for veterans, meaning you're approaching 65
and you served in the military and you have VA benefits, or you are beyond 65, but you're
getting ready to retire and you also have those VA benefits, so you're eligible for VA benefits. And
so let's look at these two options and give you some of the details surrounding them. Number one,
VA is not Tricare for Life. If you served in our country, you more than likely are eligible for
some type of benefits through the Veterans Administration. So this means you served in
the military. It may have been four or six years, eight years or whatever period of time it was,
but you served in the military. And by the way, we're grateful you did that. Thank you for your
service to our country. Now, that's VA benefits. Anyone who has Tricare for Life or Champ's VA,
what does this mean? This means that you retired from the military. You actually
retired. You put in your 20 years or 25 or 30 years, however long you served our country.
Again, we're grateful that you did. And the government gives you this Tricare. And then once
you're Medicare eligible, it's called Tricare for Life Chance. Chance VA would be for those that are
the spouses of retired or even deceased veterans. All right. So I want to make sure you're clear
that when I talk about VA benefits today, I'm not talking about Tricare for Life or Champs VA.
And those of you that may be watching this, that are eligible for Tricare for Life or Champ's VA,
my encouragement to you is this: I would, if I were you, I would enroll in A and B only.
And then what's going to happen is Medicare A and B is going to pay first, and your Champs or
your Tricare for life will fill in all the gaps Medicare pays. Champs VA or Tricare for Life will
fill in all the remaining gaps. You'll have pretty much 100 percent coverage, and they will also
include a prescription drug plan. So as you hear talk about supplemental plans, advantage plans, or
prescription drug plans, my advice to you is don't get any of those because you don't need them.
There's no reason to pay a premium for those. You really, truly have the best situation here as long
as you enroll in A and B and let them pay second, including a drug plan, you have great coverage.
All right? So that's for Tricare for Life and Champs VA. But anyone else that is eligible for
VA, you served our country. Now, let's go to the second aspect here. Do you know your VA benefits
and eligibility for those benefits? Which means what? Have you filled out the application, the
paperwork that's necessary? Had you have you had your interview? And have they determined what kind
of eligibility you have? Meet lots of veterans who served our country in the military, but they
really have never jumped through the hoops that are necessary to determine exactly what their
benefits and eligibility would be. Now, for some, it's wonderful. In fact, sometimes you get one
hundred percent, other times it's not that much. And so you want to be sure, don't assume that
you're eligible for VA benefits until you've done the process and the paperwork that's necessary for
them to establish that. So we are assuming, then, that you've gone through the necessary paperwork
and the process to determine what those are and now you've been even using some of those benefits.
That takes us to question number three. Are you actually pleased with that VA coverage?
In other words, you've been in that system for a while and you say, yes, I really am pleased.
And if you are pleased with that, my advice to you is this: I would enroll in Medicare A and B.
Now there will be some within the VA system to say, oh, don't worry about getting B. Listen,
I think that's a huge mistake. And the reason is for this, because if you get B now, you do
have to pay a premium for that, but you have a lot of insurance for $144.60 a month. And so I
would encourage you to get A and B, and then what I would do instead of getting like a supplemental
plan, because again we're saying you are pleased with the VA coverage. What I would do then is I
would just get an advantage plan. These are called C plans. C plans or replacement plans. And the
reason I would do this, number one, is because you can get these for zero premium. So you have a lot
of insurance by having just B premium and there's zero-premium on most advantage plans. And so now
what you have is you have two options. You can use the VA when you want, if you want to, and then you
can use your civilian option, which would be your advantage plan. Because we have VA, because we
served in the military, but we have an advantage plan because we paid into the Medicare system.
We have our 40 quarters that's paid in. And so we can use this whenever we want. So you
can kind of pick and choose; you have the best of both worlds. You may want a second opinion,
and you may want to go to a civilian doctor for that second opinion. A lot of people that are on
VA have their meds covered at either eight or nine dollar copay, whether they're expensive or cheap,
eight or nine dollars. You may have a couple of very inexpensive meds on the advantage plan
that will be a zero premium. And so, again, you have the benefits of that. Advantage plans throw
in some gym membership, a little dental vision that may not be covered by VA. So, again, you
just kind of pick and choose when you want to use this. And as long as we have B, we can get that
advantage plan at no cost. So that's for those of you who are pleased with the VA. I just wouldn't
get a supplemental plan in this instance, because to me, it's just a little bit too much insurance,
you're kind of overinsured. If you're not pleased with the VA, then what I would recommend you do
is I'd get A and B. Again, we got to pay that premium of $144.60. Right? They deduct out of our
Social Security checks, or they bill us for this quarterly. Right? Times three here, and then we
get a supplemental plan. Those supplemental plans are like a Plan F plan or a G plan, or an N plan.
And those are a little bit different in plan options. But the point is this, your supplemental
plan is going to fill in the gaps. So Medicare pays first, and that supplemental plan depending
on what you buy, is going to fill in those gaps in full or almost in full. All right?
And the reason I would do this is because once you've started your A and B, something else has
started that's very, very important. You have what is called a Medigap open enrollment period.
So once we start B, we have six months and that's it, where we can actually have any Medicare
supplemental plan of our choosing. Anyone that's sold in our area, and during this six months,
we don't have to medically qualify. So let's say I start my Medicare B 1/1/2021, and that's
my B date, January 1, 2021. For six months I can have anything I want. Which means what? January,
February, March, April, May, June. I have six months where the insurance companies have to issue
that supplemental plan. No health questions asked. But after six months, in my example now 7/1/2021
for the rest of my life, if I ever want to get a supplemental plan, I have to medically qualify
to do that. Twenty-five health questions. Check your meds to see what you're being treated for.
Get a statement from your doctor. And that process is necessary after our six month
open enrollment period has expired. So from this example from July 2021 on now, I have to medically
qualify. And so if you have any health issues, I mean some just a few minor ones and certainly
any major health issues, you would never be able to get that supplemental plan truly for
the rest of your life. And so it's in your best interest if you especially have health problems,
and you are not happy with the VA, we get A and B, we get a supplemental plan to fill in those gaps.
All right. So those are the two options that you have if you have VA eligibility.