Medicare ― A Practical Guide to Understanding Your Health Coverage in Retirement

Ah, Retirement. You think you have achieved the stage of life where all your hard work finally pays off. You are looking forward to enjoying the fruits of years of labor and saving ahead. It’s the time to travel, take it easy, and do the things that you put aside for the future when you have time. Ultimately, it is time for you.But, there is just one more thing to consider before you sit back and cruise for the remainder of your life. It’s time to plan for your health coverage.Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the regulations found in Social Security’s Program Operations Manual system (POMs) you are required to have health care coverage in order to maintain your quality of life, meet the federal guidelines and keep your Social Security benefit. During your retirement that health coverage is Medicare.Under ACA, credible health insurance is mandated for everyone. What you may not know is that once you are retired, are at least 65 years old and are receiving Social Security benefits you must accept Medicare when eligible. If you fail to accept Medicare you will forfeit all of your Social Security benefit. That’s right, since 1993, you have to have health insurance, that is Medicare…or else.So now that you know, what do you do about it? How do you plan for it? And how do you pay for it?When it comes to saving and investing for retirement, many Americans have done a pretty good job. The financial planners are more than willing to show us how to invest and how to save. But how many of you are planning for the mandatory expense, your health coverage? Additionally, the information is just not that easy to find. Instead of bombarding you with 300 pages of text on the subject of Medicare, this book is a crash course on everything Medicare.It covers: When and Why Medicare was created. It gives you an overview of the Parts of Medicare. You will find out how to enroll, when you will be eligible and what the coverage will cost you.We hope that this book can help you plan accordingly for the next phase of your life.