T65, IRMAA, COBRA, and more fun things.

[sshafran]

Thanks!

 

[WCMason]

COBRA is not primary insurance when someone is eligible for Medicare. If he takes COBRA but not Part B he has no primary insurance. The employer plan can exclude the 80% Medicare should have paid. COBRA may be cheaper than IRMAA but he’ll have very little coverage.

 

[LostDollar]

For the presented situation, the first thing I would look into is a combination of three things:
Would he be willing to wait until Jan 4 to retire?
Would the company allow him to wait until Jan 4 to retire?
If he waited to retire until Jan 4, would the company allow him to have active employment health coverage for the entire month of January?

Ok, I'll admit, I'm lost on the Jan 4 significance.

Part of my concern involves extending the wife's coverage as much as possible.

If working a few days in January would give him group coverage for him and his wife for the full month of January, he could in essence extend his wife's coverage under the group from 18 months to 19 months at the price of a few additional days at the office.

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Removed personal information
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The medicare restrictions for Cobra apply only to health insurance. A person can have Cobra Dental and Vision coverage as primary coverage-worthwhile for your guy to check out.

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Any other things I should consider when talking to him? Will having Medicare Part A (w/o B) + COBRA affect him at all - negatively

I would expect that if the employer does allow a Medicare eligible to have COBRA, that it will be written to pay secondary to the actual or ESTIMATED medicare reimbursement for the procedure-so if he doesn't have part B, he wont get much back on a given claim.

Careful checking needed there.

 

[LostDollar]

Before tnagent stopped speaking to me a couple of years ago,he was the only agent on the board that would post an answer to a question I had. He gave me these two DOL links. I found them very helpful when trying to work out some questions regarding my wife's cobra coverage:

https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/fi...yees-guide-to-health-benefits-under-cobra.pdf

https://www.dol.gov/sites/default/f...-health-continuation-coverage-under-cobra.pdf

 

[LostDollar]

I don't believe that Cobra insurance counts as insurance from active employment for Part B eligibilty. I think if you go 18 months on Cobra, you are guaranteed to have a Part B LEP.

 

[BeeSelective]

Yes, a penalty

 

[T Sparks]

Gosh Shatfran, I assumed you knew everything! BTW, I have yet to receive my nice parting gifts !

 

[LostDollar]

There is one other possibility you could consider presenting IF he wants to gamble on relatively good health. Something that occurred to me back whenever those discussions were happening.

That would be an MSA plan. That would make a package of Part A, Part B, MSA, PDP and Cobra Dental and Vision.

You could put a little different spin on the presentation. You could say that the up front deposit could be viewed as a way to get your pound of flesh back-ie get back the money (or whatever the right percent number is) you are paying for the IRMAA penalties.

It's sorta like Menard's rebates, it comes in the form of "store credit" (ie restricted medical expense money) but at least you are getting it back.

If you conceptually apply the MSA deposit to IRMAA, then he could potentially be out the full deductible (whichever of the 3 applies) in the event of serious medical expense. And he also runs the risk of being trapped in Medicare Advantage Land if he has a serious health event. Might or might not be a useful option to consider.

 

[kstein]

You have 8 months from the loss of employment/beginning of cobra to grab part B without a penalty.

You are dangerous to the public LD!

 

[LostDollar]

I don't believe that Cobra insurance counts as insurance from active employment for Part B eligibilty. I think if you go 18 months on Cobra, you are guaranteed to have a Part B LEP.

You have 8 months from the loss of employment/beginning of cobra to grab part B without a penalty.

You are dangerous to the public LD!

I said 18 months, not 8. And the plan presented by op called for retirement on 12/31/2018.

If client should then take cobra for all of 2019 and the first half of 2020, client would have been eligible for medicare in all of 2019 and subject to a penalty for not taking it.
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Actually I think this would generate a minimum of 2 years penalties.
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If client waits until 01/04/2019 to retire and that gets him insurance from active employment for January 2019 and client would then take cobra from Feb 2019 to Jul 2020, client may not have a penalty. (Not prepared to state that absolutely at this point.)
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Actually I think this would generate a minimum of 1 years penalties.
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I do hope that you, as a licensed agent, are not suggesting that another licensed agent tell his client he can safely go without Part B for 8 months.