Community Chat

[KailaS]

LI retired in 2013 because I was/ am seriously ill.  With Medicare, RX plan premiums, and CSI supplemental (Plan F), I pay $375 a month for my own coverage.  Unfortunately, my drugs cost about $1700 a month (I am already out of the donut hole),  so I must use savings to cover drugs in addition to cost of premiums.

i checked with an insurannce agent when Inretired to find the best plan.  He reviews my plans each year.

[CelticCrafter]

@wagirl , you need to get in touch with Medicare ASAP.

Whether or not you want Part B, you need the card for the Part A of it.

I am Medicare eligible August 1 and I've already received my card.

When my husband was eligible, he received his card at least 3 months ahead of time.

[wagirl]

@CelticCrafter — yes, I will do that tomorrow—my hubs who is 67 never got any Medicare info either. He is still working and prob will for a few more years. Makes me wonder why we were both neglected. Thx!

[Eileen in Virginia]

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@lmt wrote:

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@Eileen in Virginia wrote:

@lmt  President Reagan folded all civilian Federal Employees into Medicare around 1983 to shore up the program. I don’t remember the rate, but he added over 1.5 million contributors at that time. DH and I are both CSRS retirees, but not eligible for Social Security benefits. We’re both eligible for Medicare because we paid into the system during our careers.

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@Eileen in Virginia  I remember when FERS first started. We (at least in my office) never got much information about switching over from CSRS to FERS. I would say that the majority of the people I knew stayed with CSRS. I'm really shocked that we weren't all forced into switching to FERS. When I retired 5 years ago, there weren't many CSRS employees still around - the vast majority had retired.

I know I'm eligible for Medicare; someone upthread mentioned that some retired CSRS employees weren't eligible. I never heard of that as I know several friends under CSRS who retired and picked up Medicare Part B.

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@lmt  I remember that time, too. They did everything short of forcing those of us in CSRS to transfer to FERS, really playing it up and extending the transfer period several times. I only knew a few folks who transferred. One lady in my office who was eligible to retire under CSRS transferred to FERS and then retired a couple of months later and got the best of both worlds. Her annuity consisted of 30+ years of a CSRS component and a couple of months of the FERS component. Plus, she received a lump sum payment of the retirement  contributions she paid into CSRS (7%) over what she would have paid into FERS (1.3%). Not bad! Most of the other transfers were people who had worked in the private sector and were going to be eligible for Social Security, or who knew they’d work in the private sector after retiring from the Government. They also received a refund of the excess contributions. 

[lmt]

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@Eileen in Virginia wrote:

@lmt  Ihelped my friend complete the forms to make her direct premium payments and I could swear they said she had to pay both portions. I was surprised, too, but I didn’t want to interfere beyond getting her set up. 

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@lmt wrote:

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@Eileen in Virginia wrote:

@I am still oxox  If your head isn’t spinning yet, let me add one more item for your consideration. Your husband may elect, with your notarized written consent, to provide you with less than a full survivor annuity should he die before you. Sometimes the retiree’s spouse has their own retirement income, but they don’t have health insurance coverage comparable to FEHB, so the Federal retiree will elect a lower survivor annuity in an amount that seems sufficient to cover the survivor’s monthly FEHB premiums. If you and your husband are considering this when he retires, please be sure to factor inflation over several decades into the calculation. While Federal annuitants and survivor annuitants don’t always get Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) every year, our FEHB premiums have increased almost every year. At some point, the survivor annuity will no longer cover the FEHB premiums.

Two of my friends are the widows of Federal retirees who elected this type of survivor benefit for them. One of them currently receives a little more than $100 per month over the cost of her FEHB premiums. The other’s survivor annuity fell short of the amount she needed to cover her premiums 2 years ago (shortly after her husband died). If/when this happens, OPM notifies the survivor and gives them the option of transferring to an FEHB plan they can afford or making direct payments for their current FEHB plan to the Government. In the latter case, the survivor must pay both the employee share and the Government share of the premiums. I’m sure both of these gentlemen felt confident that they were providing adequately for their wives. But they didn’t consider how long they would live after retiring or how long their wives would live after the husbands died. Hindsight is 20/20. 

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@Eileen in Virginia  The survivor has to also pay the government's share of the premium? 

If the annuity isn't enough to cover the deceased employee's share of the health insurance, wouldn't the surviving spouse just have to pay the difference?

I've researched and can't find any information that says they'd also be responsible for paying the government's share.

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@Eileen in Virginia  I called OPM and asked about this. The ONLY way that a surviving spouse would have to pay both their premium AND the government's share is if there were NO annuity involved. So if a retired employee dies and there was no annuity for their spouse, the surviving spouse could continue with FEHB but they would then have to pay the entire amount. 

As long as you have an annuity in any amount, the surviving spouse is covered. If the amount of the annuity doesn't cover the premium, you have to pay the difference.

Between my husband's social security and a private pension from his work, he didn't need my annuity. When I retired I took a very low annuity just so he could continue to receive our health insurance. I triple checked everything before I retired, but you never know how things can change. I'm glad I made the call just to be certain.

[Eileen in Virginia]

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@lmt wrote:

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@Eileen in Virginia wrote:

@lmt  Ihelped my friend complete the forms to make her direct premium payments and I could swear they said she had to pay both portions. I was surprised, too, but I didn’t want to interfere beyond getting her set up. 

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@lmt wrote:

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@Eileen in Virginia wrote:

@I am still oxox  If your head isn’t spinning yet, let me add one more item for your consideration. Your husband may elect, with your notarized written consent, to provide you with less than a full survivor annuity should he die before you. Sometimes the retiree’s spouse has their own retirement income, but they don’t have health insurance coverage comparable to FEHB, so the Federal retiree will elect a lower survivor annuity in an amount that seems sufficient to cover the survivor’s monthly FEHB premiums. If you and your husband are considering this when he retires, please be sure to factor inflation over several decades into the calculation. While Federal annuitants and survivor annuitants don’t always get Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) every year, our FEHB premiums have increased almost every year. At some point, the survivor annuity will no longer cover the FEHB premiums.

Two of my friends are the widows of Federal retirees who elected this type of survivor benefit for them. One of them currently receives a little more than $100 per month over the cost of her FEHB premiums. The other’s survivor annuity fell short of the amount she needed to cover her premiums 2 years ago (shortly after her husband died). If/when this happens, OPM notifies the survivor and gives them the option of transferring to an FEHB plan they can afford or making direct payments for their current FEHB plan to the Government. In the latter case, the survivor must pay both the employee share and the Government share of the premiums. I’m sure both of these gentlemen felt confident that they were providing adequately for their wives. But they didn’t consider how long they would live after retiring or how long their wives would live after the husbands died. Hindsight is 20/20. 

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@Eileen in Virginia  The survivor has to also pay the government's share of the premium? 

If the annuity isn't enough to cover the deceased employee's share of the health insurance, wouldn't the surviving spouse just have to pay the difference?

I've researched and can't find any information that says they'd also be responsible for paying the government's share.

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@Eileen in Virginia  I called OPM and asked about this. The ONLY way that a surviving spouse would have to pay both their premium AND the government's share is if their were NO annuity involved. So if a retired employee dies and there was no annuity for their spouse, the surviving spouse could continue with FEHB but they would then have to pay the entire amount. 

As long as you have an annuity in any amount, the surviving spouse is covered. If the amount of the annuity doesn't cover the premium, you have to pay the difference.

Between my husband's social security and a private pension from his work, he didn't need my annuity. When I retired I took a very low annuity just so he could continue to receive our health insurance. I tripled checked everything before I retired, but you never know how things can change. I'm glad I made the call just to be certain.

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@lmt  Thanks for following up and clarifying that. It seemed awfully extreme, but this friend would have paid almost anything to keep her FEHB insurance (she has a very nice investment portfolio). 

[lmt]

@Eileen in Virginia  I remember when I was retiring and was in our personnel office. The girl who was working on my retirement papers said that one of the best benefits we had was our health insurance, especially that we were able to keep it after we retired. I completely agree with that!! 

[I am still oxox]

Thanks for all the information

It is a little to early to do much research since his retirement date is a year away. From what I understand I will be able to get more info in October when open season starts, I have read that  BC BC has a plan for Federal retirees that runs about $250 a month which is very reasonable 

[lovesrecess]

many doctors no longer accept Medicare at all...Advantage plan or not. Just learned that the urgent care clinic not far from me, which I have used several times over they years on holidays or other situations when I came down with pneumonia on a Friday evening...don't take Medicare at all.
It seems many treat Medicare patients like free-loaders or something....but in reality they are reimbursed so little by Medicare for services they perform, they lose money each time they treat Medicare patients. Such an unfair system. Pray we don't ever get Medicare for all!

[proudlyfromNJ]

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@lovesrecess wrote:
many doctors no longer accept Medicare at all...Advantage plan or not. Just learned that the urgent care clinic not far from me, which I have used several times over they years on holidays or other situations when I came down with pneumonia on a Friday evening...don't take Medicare at all.
It seems many treat Medicare patients like free-loaders or something....but in reality they are reimbursed so little by Medicare for services they perform, they lose money each time they treat Medicare patients. Such an unfair system. Pray we don't ever get Medicare for all!

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@lovesrecess. I have an Advantage Plan. Opted out of Medicare. I haven’t had a problem at Urgent Care. They seem like the up and coming thing around here. New ones are opening all the time.