142: Don't Wait Until 65: Medicare Planning For Gen X And Beyond with Danielle Kunkle Roberts

"Everything government touches is complicated." - Danielle Kunkle Roberts Our hosts, Stephanie McCullough and Kevin Gaines, bring on Danielle Kunkle Roberts of Boomer Benefits, and author of 10 Costly Medicare Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make. As the title of her book suggests, Medicare isn't free. Believing otherwise is mistake number one! Premiums, deductibles, and coverage gaps are real costs that blindside retirees, especially anyone who leaves the workforce before 65 and needs an ACA bridge plan to survive the gap. The trickiest wrinkle is the size-of-employer rule. If you work for a company with 20-plus employees past 65, your group plan stays primary while Medicare waits in the wings. Work for a smaller one, and Medicare becomes primary whether you enrolled or not, leaving a surprise medical bill for anyone who assumed their coverage worked the way a friend's did. Never assume your neighbor's, cousin's, or friend's Medicare situation applies to yours, because age, employer size, and state all rewrite the rules. Danielle also talks about "Ugly IRMAA". As the income-based surcharge calculated off your tax return from two years back, the Medicare IRMAA can ambush anyone who thought retirement meant no more "earnings." Then there's the annual Advantage plan and Part D notices of change, proof that even after enrollment, nothing about Medicare is truly "set it and forget it." Danielle's fix isn't memorizing every rule, but finding a broker paid by commission rather than out-of-pocket, who revisits your plan every single year.   Key Topics: Medicare Isn't Free: Premiums and Coverage Gaps (05:30) Late Enrollment Penalties That Last Forever (11:39) Meet "Ugly IRMAA": Income-Based Premium Surcharges (18:31) Keep Your Creditable Coverage Paperwork (25:26) Medigap vs. Advantage: The One-Way Door (31:28) How Brokers Actually Get Paid (33:11) Why Advantage and Part D Are Never "Set It and Forget It" (40:34) Key Takeaways (45:38)   Resources: Boomer Benefits: https://boomerbenefits.com Medicare Q&A with Boomer Benefits Free FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BoomerBenefits/ 10 Costly Medicare Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make (book): https://a.co/d/09YBATz5   "Danielle Kunkle Roberts, and Boomer Benefits  are not affiliated with or endorsed by Private Advisor Group, American Financial Management Group, or Sofia Financial." This episode or article may contain affiliate links.   If you like what you've been hearing, we invite you to subscribe on your favorite platform and leave us a review. Tell us what you love about this episode! Or better yet, tell us what you want to hear more of in the future. [email protected]   You can find the transcript and more information about this episode at www.takebackretirement.com.   Follow Stephanie on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.  Follow Kevin on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.