Announcer:
It’s time now on KROS for Financial Focus, brought to you by NelsonCorp Wealth Management. The opinions voiced in this show are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representatives securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research Inc. a broker-dealer member, FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisor representative Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc. a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and NelsonCorp Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice. Now, here’s today’s Financial Focus program.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Good morning and welcome to this week’s Financial Focus brought to you each and every Wednesday morning right here on KROS. Well, this is Nate Kreinbrink. I got Mike VanZuiden here with me. What a crazy week of weather. 100 and whatever, storms, back to school, whatever. You can throw it on in one week, right?
Mike VanZuiden:
Yep. You wanted it, you got it, right? I think everybody’s kind of like, what is going on here? Right.
Nate Kreinbrink:
They say, just if you don’t like the weather in the Midwest, just wait a day or in this case, wait an hour or two and it’s going to change and be in. But again, that time of the year where it’s hard telling what we’re going to get, and obviously football season, back to school, kind of everyone I think is now kind of transitioning to fall and wanting it to get to that time of the year. So football season, college football had week zero last week, but officially kicks off this week.
Mike VanZuiden:
Full slate of games this week, right?
Nate Kreinbrink:
Full slate of games this week. And I think a lot of excitement about that kind of coming back. High school sports, volleyball, cross country, football obviously kicks off this Friday. It’s kind of a fun time.
Mike VanZuiden:
It is a fun time. Lots of things going on. Lots of things to do. If you’re looking for something to do, the Friday Night Lights will be on.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Yeah.
Mike VanZuiden:
It’s always an exciting time of year. It’s a sure sign that the seasons are changing, right? Summer’s on its way out. If you’re like me, fall, yeah.
Nate Kreinbrink:
We like it. I think there’s not a lot of, I think Major League Baseball fans around here, they’re going to have to watch any baseball past the end of the regular season. White Sox aren’t going to make it. Cubs probably aren’t going to make it. I guess if you’re a Brewers fan, I guess.
Mike VanZuiden:
Yeah, they’re around. Yeah.
Nate Kreinbrink:
But my Reds aren’t going to make it. It’s just,-
Mike VanZuiden:
It’s painful.
Nate Kreinbrink:
It is.
Mike VanZuiden:
Thank God for football.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Getting into today’s program, I know last week we had Andy on. We talked a little taxes with that. Mike coming on today, obviously taxes is his forte. But again, another big part of that where we’re basically kind of adding onto our repertoire of kind of additional services to provide to people is Medicare. And I think a lot of times people hear that term and as they get closer to 65, they just start cringing up because they don’t know what the heck. They get bombarded with information. It’s overwhelming and I don’t know what to do. And it is complicated. I mean, it’s with the parts and the letters and all this stuff that kind gets thrown out to you. What do you do? And I think it’s important when you’re getting closer to that is you start to kind of just break it down and start having some understanding of the different parts of it.
And obviously the most basic part is when do you need to file for Medicare? So you become eligible for basic Medicare when you turn 65. So again, there’s a seven-month window that goes around your age 65, that’s the three months prior, the month of, and then the three months following you turning 65, that’s your seven-month initial window. Okay. If you are not covered by any other plan, you have got to turn on your Medicare during that seven month window. If you don’t, you are going to be accessed a nice little penalty and that penalty will be with you for the rest of your life on every premium, on anything that you pay, you’re going to do that.
So again, looking at that part, and again, understanding that when you turn 65, you want to turn on your part A. If you are not covered by any other insurance, you want to add part B, and then you want to go to the actual Medicare part, whether we go supplement or we go Advantage, which is another show completely in and of itself. But again, looking at that. We do have a nice little time period coming up here that I think Mike’s going to talk about a little bit here and that’s open enrollment period.
Mike VanZuiden:
Yep. So the annual enrollment period is coming up in the middle of October. So that runs from October 15th to December 7th. So in addition to all the political ads that you see on television that we all know and love, you’re going to start seeing a lot of advertising from the companies that offer plans related to Medicare supplements and Advantage plans. And what the annual enrollment period affords you the opportunity to do is you can enroll in, change, or disenroll from a Medicare Advantage plan. So if you’re already in a plan, you have the opportunity to change if you wish, and you can do the same thing. You can make changes, you can enroll, disenroll, change your Part D plan as well. So part D would be your prescription drug coverage. So those two things are definitely in play for that annual enrollment period. And you can switch from the Advantage back to the original Medicare if that’s something that you choose to do.
So you have a lot of things going on there, a lot of options that you can grab a hold of during that period if you’re dissatisfied with where you’re sitting now. So we talk about all these part A, part B, Medicare Advantage plans are quite often referred to as Medicare Part C. And then part D, is the prescription drug coverage. There are some changes coming up for 2025 as it relates to part D. Specifically there’s a cap on out-of-pocket expenses. That should be a huge benefit to people that use their part D. $2000 is the maximum out-of-pocket that you’ll pay for your prescription drugs. It doesn’t include any premium that you might be paying for your part D policy, but from there, anything you have to pay out-of-pocket, deductible, and then any other expenses for prescription drugs in part D, that’s capped at $2,000 starting for 2025. So that’s going to be, there used to be a coverage gap. That’s being eliminated. So it’s a big deal for consumers of the part D.
So that’s a good thing for sure. One thing I’ll note is any changes that you make during the annual enrollment period that’s coming up here, October 15th to December 7th, changes made there, whatever that change might be, those will become effective January 1st. So it’s not an immediate change. It’s something that goes into effect for the 2025 plan year. So it’s never a bad idea, I think to take a look at where you’re at and what you have. Is it still fitting your needs from when you enrolled in it, that sort of thing. So that window is coming up for people to take advantage of that. So I’d encourage you to do so if you’re in that boat.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Right. And I think, like you said, it doesn’t hurt to look, right? And I think the thing that people I think forget a lot of times, is that once you sign up for Medicare, whichever route you go, you’re not locked into that for the rest of your life. Plans change, coverage changes, rates change. Again, if you’re already on it, that annual enrollment period, that open enrollment period here coming up is your time to basically shopping around to see if there’s any better options out there.
Mike VanZuiden:
Yeah.
Nate Kreinbrink:
And that’s really what you need to start looking at doing. And again, as Mike said, plans change, drug plans change. Maybe you keep your same Medicare coverage, but you’re going to switch drug plans carriers because of they cover something different. Or you went on a new prescription that again, doesn’t cover it under your new plan. Well, I need to switch it during that time period to get it so it is covered for starting January one. And that’s the time I think that people really need to look at it. And again, sometimes it feels like it’s like your bank. I mean, you don’t switch banks or credit unions very often because it’s a hassle.
Mike VanZuiden:
Exactly.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Right. And Medicare sometimes is that same way where you’re like, I don’t want to go through the hassle of having to do that again, but now is your time to do it because rates do change.
Mike VanZuiden:
And I think the whole Medicare process is so intimidating right from the beginning, knowing what you have to do when and that sort of thing. I think you can establish a mindset, well, I’m on it. I’m done with it. I can leave it alone and just walk away. And there’s some truth to that, but there’s really no cost to going and having somebody take a look at what do I have? Does it still meet my needs? Is there something better out there that’s more affordable? That sort of thing. And that’s something I would throw it out there that we would offer to you and love to just take a look and make sure what you’re doing is still meeting all your needs, so.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Right. Because I think it is. I mean, looking at the different types. Again, if you have a med stuff, let’s just say for example, you have a plan G, and you’re paying X amount of dollars this year for it. I mean, your pricing more than likely is going to go up next year. Right. It’s just a lot. And different companies do it different ways, whether it’s age-based, whether it’s community-base, whether, there’s different ways that they do it, but more than likely, your premium is probably going to go up that following year. Okay. Some more than others. So again, if plan G coverage with one company is the same plan G coverage with a different company, and I can maybe look to get my same coverage, keep my plan G policy just with a different company, but save $50, save 60, save $70 a month in some extreme cases, it’s definitely worth looking at.
Mike VanZuiden:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Nate Kreinbrink:
And then that’s really where it comes down to with this. And again, if you have questions with that, again, if you’re turning 65 within the next 12 months, you definitely need to talk to somebody too to come in and just understand the different options. Supplement versus Advantage, part A, part B, part C, part D, plan A, BCDFG, like it’s an alphabet soup out there sometimes.
Mike VanZuiden:
It is. And there’s absolutely, there’s no cost to come in and having it looked at. The only cost to someone would be the time that you invest in sitting there and having somebody take a peek. That’s it, so.
Nate Kreinbrink:
So again, we’ve got all this. Again, if you have questions on this, give Mike a call, give our office a call, be happy to kind of just sit down and just hopefully start simplifying some of these things. So again, the biggest thing is just understanding your options, understanding what is out there. And what is best for your neighbor, what is best for your cousin, your best friend may be not the best thing for you because just like everything else that we go through, everything’s individual, everything’s specific, and what the best plan is? Well, it depends. It depends on what your situation is.
Mike VanZuiden:
Absolutely.
Nate Kreinbrink:
So let us help you out. I did want to mention here real quick before we run out of time, that every Friday, NelsonCorp Wealth Management and NelsonCorp Tax Solutions are wearing jeans for charity. Money raised in the month of August will be donated to the Skyline Center here in Clinton. Mike, appreciate you joining me today.
Mike VanZuiden:
Thanks for having me.
Nate Kreinbrink:
This is a monthly Medicare Day.
Mike VanZuiden:
Yep. Yep.
Nate Kreinbrink:
Can’t wait. Mike VanZuiden, Nate Kreinbrink, bringing you this week’s Financial Focus. Thanks for tuning in and have a great rest of your week.
Announcer:
Financial Focus is a production of NelsonCorp Wealth Management in Clinton and Davenport. The opinions voiced in the show are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Any indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Registered representative securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research Inc. a broker-dealer member FINRA, SIPC, investment advisor representative Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc. a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and NelsonCorp Wealth Management are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice. For more information, visit our website at www.NelsonCorp.com.