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 can
Medicare drop you? You know, there's nothing that would bring more fear into your lives than the
thought of losing our insurance, especially your health insurance. Why? Because if we go without
health insurance, it could be very costly. There's some drastic financial consequences
if we were to lose our health insurance. But the question is, can Medicare drop us? Can we lose
our Medicare coverage? Can we ever be canceled? And so I want to address the issues of Medicare
today and the possibility of losing your Medicare coverage. Now, Medicare has four different parts
as you probably know, original Medicare is called A and B. Now, the only way that Medicare A and B
can be dropped is if you don't pay your premiums. Now, for most people, Medicare A is free,
right? As long as you have 40 quarters paid into the Medicare tax system, 10 years worth of work,
Medicare A is free. So the likelihood of you losing A is like nil. But B does have a premium;
this year it’s $144.60. And the only way that you can ever lose your Part B premium is if you
don't pay your premium. They'll never cancel you on A and B because you move, they can’t
cancel you because of your age, they cannot cancel because of your claims, none of those issues will
ever bring about cancellation. But if you don't pay your Part B premium, you could be canceled.
Now, most of you are on Social Security or at least many of you are, and that Part B premium
is coming out of your check. So the likelihood of you not paying that is like nil. But you do have
to pay the premium. Those of you that are not on Social Security, you're paying that on a quarterly
basis or they're withdrawing it from a bank account on a monthly basis. But you're responsible
to make sure those premiums are covered for your part B. So the only way A and B can be canceled
is by lack of premium. Now, many of you that have chosen to stay in original Medicare A and B, have
a supplemental plan. Medicare pays well, but it does not pay all the expenses. You still have some
responsibilities with expenses, and so many of you will buy a supplemental plan to fill in the gaps
of the Medicare A and B. And again, supplemental plans have a premium, right? You've got to pay a
monthly premium for these plans. Now, again, I'm just going to talk about an average. Most people
today or on plans that are costing them somewhere between maybe $100 - $150 on a monthly basis,
and so you must pay those premiums. Can they ever cancel the supplemental plan because of your age?
How about because you move away? No. Why? Because supplemental plans are written for life,
and they are totally portable. If you move away from one state to another, one city to another,
you'll take the supplemental plan with you. It goes with you. It is written for life. Now,
they do have the right, if you move to an area where rates are going to be a little bit higher,
they do have the right to raise your rates. Some it's usually minimal if they do raise it. But the
plan is yours as long as you pay your premium. So not because of age, not because of claims,
not because you move. That plan is yours for life. Just pay the premium. That's the only way
they can cancel you is nonpayment of premiums. Now also, I want to mention that most people
today are paying these premiums through a bank draft. So you're going to be sure that you keep
your bank records up to date with the insurance company, the right routing number and account
number. So when they go into draft, that monthly premium, that money is there. If you move away,
be sure if you change banks to let them know what your new routing number and account number
is because those premiums are going to have to continue to be paid to them to keep that coverage.
It’s the only way it can be canceled. It truly is yours for the rest of your life, just like
A and B is. Now, some of you have chosen to do an advantage plans. These are called C plans or
replacement plans. Now, advantage plans, the way you qualify for them is you do have to be enrolled
in A and B, which means what? You got to pay your B premiums. So if you don't pay your B premium,
you can be canceled off the advantage plan. Now, some advantage plans carry an additional premium,
some are $0 premium, but others have an additional cost usually somewhere
between maybe 20 to 50 dollars a month. And so you obviously would have to pay that premium as well.
But there is another way in which advantage plans can be dropped, and that is the company itself can
withdraw the plan. Now, they cannot withdraw the plan midyear unless, of course, they go
out of business. Very rare that that happens, but they can withdraw the plan effective December 31.
These are written for one year at a time, January 1 to December 31. So if the plan is not doing well
or the company is not happy with the plan for whatever reason, they actually can withdraw
the plan, and then you would have to get a new advantage plan for the following year.
Another way in which you can lose advantage plans is if you move. Advantage plans are written
for a specific service area. A service area is typically the metro area or maybe an area where
there's a lot of counties. The point is there is service area, and so if I move out of that
service area and I move to another service area, a different metropolitan area, then I'm going to
probably have to get a different advantage plan. And so those advantage plans in that area may be
totally different. They could be similar. But you do have to change advantage companies when you
move from one area to another. Now, when it comes to drug plans, again, drug plans have a premium.
Now, in this scenario, if you have an advantage plan, they've included the drug plan, so those two
really go together that is embedded. But if you have chosen A and B with the supplemental plan,
then your drug plan is separate. We call those stand-alone drug plans. And so, again,
these supplemental plans do carry a premium. So you have to pay your premium. And those are very
low use, anywhere from about 13 dollars, maybe upwards to 70 or 80 dollars on a monthly basis.
So we got to pay our premium. We have to be enrolled in A or B to pay that premium. We pay our
drug plan whatever premium that they're charging. And then just like advantage plans, drug plans can
be withdrawn from the market. A company can pull a plan, again not midyear, but they can cancel
that plan at the end of the year and it would not be available for the following year. You'd
have to get a new plan if they indeed withdrew that particular plan and canceled it that way,
or if you move out of the plan service area. So service areas apply to advantage plans as well
as drug plans. So if you leave one area, move to another area, you'll have to get another
prescription drug plan. They may have different plans. They may have similar plans where you're
moving to. But we’ve got to get a separate plan because that plan will be dropped once
we've moved. All right. So those are the rules for how Medicare can actually cancel or drop
plans depending upon what kind of coverage you have, you have to live by these particular rules.