If you have a health plan through the Health Insurance Marketplace and will soon have Medicare eligibility, it’s not too soon to start planning for your coverage to switch.
If you have a Marketplace plan now, you can keep it until your Medicare coverage starts. Then, you can cancel the Marketplace plan without penalty.
When to apply for Medicare
Once Medicare eligibility begins, you’ll have a 7 month Initial Enrollment Period to sign up. For most people, this is 3 months before, the month of, and 3 months after their 65th birthday.
It’s important to sign up for Medicare when you’re first eligible because once your Medicare Part A coverage starts, you’ll have to pay full price for a Marketplace plan. This means you’ll no longer be eligible to use any premium tax credit or help with costs you might have been getting with your Marketplace plan.
Also, if you enroll in Medicare after your Initial Enrollment Period, you may have to pay a late enrollment penalty. It’s important to coordinate the date your Marketplace coverage ends with the effective date of your Medicare enrollment, to make sure you don’t have a break in coverage.
Getting Help
Our insurance agency works with people all across the state of Texas to help transition people into Medicare coverage, as well as insuring people of all ages in this state for their health insurance options. If you are a resident of Texas, we want to help you! Please call Jim Lindeneau, at 832-445-0211, ext. 2# for more information.
