End of Year Health Insurance Reminders

For many of you, September is still marked as the beginning of the school year—but creeping upon us will soon be the time of year that many will need to review and/or change their Medicare coverage, or Individual Health Insurance plan.

• If you’re “Medicare-Eligible”, that is, you’re over age 65 (or eligible for Medicare due to disability and therefore under age 65), then there are some deadlines you DON’T want to miss this year as we expect some changes for 2018 coverage:
  • Medicare Annual Enrollment Period: this window runs from October 15-December 7^th this year, and will be the ONLY time to change either your Medicare Part D (prescription) plan OR your Medicare Advantage (Part C) plan.
  • Submit your most current list of medications and preferred pharmacy to your Agent so that they can review your current plan or a new one for 2018.
• If you’re an individual or family under age 65, and not eligible for Medicare, then pay special attention to the UPDATED Open Enrollment info:
  • Open Enrollment for coverage to begin on January 1, 2018 will run this year from November 1^st through December 15^th—this is a CHANGE from the first three years of the Affordable Care Act enrollment times, and has been shortened in length significantly. With many changes to current insurance providers available locally, you will WANT to talk or meet with your Agent between these dates to ensure coverage will continue to next year, but call NOW!
  • Be prepared for significant changes in premium for next year—we PROMISE to help find a solution that will work with your budget, but you’ll need to meet with us with a few things prepared in advance:
    • Estimated 2018 household income: this will typically be your adjusted gross income
    • Names, dates of birth and social security numbers of all of those in the household needing coverage

You may feel it’s a bit early, but we LOVE to be over-prepared, and with shortened enrollment windows, the days are simply not long enough to meet with as many individuals as we can, so please call soon to get an appointment with your Agent today!

Leah Callahan