Medicare Supplements

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Finishing well today on finishing well was on child actually really excited as I'm fixed life actually titled the show discerning Medicare supplements so you may went well. Robbie were to come up about well Hans, you know, according to Proverbs 1013 wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning, but a rod for the back of one lacking sense and you know that that's that's pretty black and white rail very well. That is still but honestly, you know knowing what I've learned over the last 18 months about Medicare supplements. I'm really looking forward to it. That wow I get to go look at all these different plans.

In all these different prices and it's it's been set by the government so that essentially you can compare apples to apples to eat oranges to oranges. And it's all about. With this offer for the best price but will it is and unfortunately people are told that too often it's all buried in the literature 6800 pages long and you know it's obviously in my books.

But the common consumer of a Medicare set up a policy usually very happy with it. By the way, which is a good thing they're unaware that there's 39 other companies besides the one they have that cell exactly the same thing is really sad when I think about my dad who you know whatever point time somebody showed up on his door when he was 65 and sold him a Medicare supplement and by the time we got a chance to look at it you know it. It was almost too late, but he was paying $300 a month over three it out over 300 4G plan was an F plan skews me for that plan. That really he could've been paying half had he chose a different way back when he had a chance even when he was 83, 84, 85, we could cut the premium in half just with the stroke right but that is it that I did not understand but the more I've had a chance to work with you.

I get to understand is that in a lot of these companies they send out a sales force that you know in order to try to get their plans sold in the right base and write your house while I want to think about for minute. If you are an insurance company in your urine a field where everybody's own apples to apples, and you've got high price stuff.

How are you going to go about selling it. I mean in in for me.

It didn't take long to discern the fact that will follow the sale stuff that's at a higher price for the exact same product. Everybody else my salesman wouldn't be able to sell anybody else's stuff. What they would never bring home the bacon so when you're sold in the cold captive agents right at and so you know why these insurance companies. I think about Humana error bankers life is one yes and and so when they come: at your door and physicians mutual and United American AARP United healthcare and has a bunch of how many options can I have many different companies you represent is a big question that ought to be on your lips beef for everyone. Or if you if you want to go to your person that you go to for this you want to ask that question. You can also go right to our website Cardinal guy.com it's public. It's free information. You don't have to tell us who you are, you can figure out what Leonard plan you have.

This can be either an F or G or and and or some other letter but you have to tell him that you tell your ZIP Code and you tell him to gender. Whether you smoke or not and you can hit a button and it'll give you the price for the exact same policy from 40 different companies now and it's it's almost mind-boggling that there could be such a difference in price but you can't help it. CA so let's get back to your story. So if you are this insurance company and you didn't look favorable on that list because of your high costs which you were living in your sitting here I mean I have too much experience in the business to be relating like what I would do with Poirier getting started here. You are talking to me this is Circle one with the story. Yeah, I mean I would need you do I would hotter salespeople that only represented my product and I would send them to people's houses to try to sell it because you know you well know about these reports that have all these different prices would you tell your salespeople about the now, I would educate if I would educate them other words, I would be teach them how to drink the Kool-Aid that you know Humana or whatever. This is the only way to go that you know this is this is the plan to sell and and this is where we know will benefit the customer the most. In other words there trained on the one plan idea and not the idea of giving anybody options because if they start looking for what I tell you what I'd be doing as well were trying to think like somebody that we don't think like.

Or maybe, maybe I used to think like I would figure out a way to change the conversation and I would want to get away from this comparison. These policies are identical.

Get 10 options. So I would want to train my salespeople have them change the conversation right and so you you actually had that experience with your interview and some agents are possibly to come to work for you and Charlotte you had a couple agents come by for what we used to work for the company that you did and it is kinda shocking when I was just a me first of all, I haven't considered buying a D plan like ABC DEF GME we've pretty much limit our sales to F plan F plan G or plan in my book known actually in the original book is on page 82 and 83 that really has an example of one of the ports that compares all the different plants. So our whole philosophy is we want to bring to the consumer. Every choice that they could possibly have but were only going to do it on the plan after the plan G in the plan and because of restorable tandem and there's really no need to do that mean having three options is where is 65% of the people that have a Medicare supplement in the United States have plan F okay me. Just think about that and then the next most popular one is plan G. I don't have the exact number in there and then the next most popular one is plan in and then it's just a small little teeny percentage of people that have all the rest of so but eating out with these folks are coming in and were just talking and they're looking at possibly coming to work with me in. You know were talking about this thing. All of a sudden they got me talk about plan D and I'm thinking I haven't talked about a planned and you thought about plan D in years and one of the reasons is is is just lacking some stuff you can get on the G this is no reason to. Okay, unless you're a new sales through this before new salespeople and anyhow is when I got the chart out and I start some for so I was new information they hadn't seen anything like these price comparison sheet and get them right on my book, you go to our website Cardinal guy.com. Good time to break in and say yeah your your listing to finishing well certified financial planner Hans Shaw and is brought to you by Cardinal guy can serve you go to Cardinal guy.com then we have the seven worries tabs in one of those worries is Medicare and so on the Medicare you can download a free PDF get exactly all this information, those very charts that what Hans is describing right now with all those prices or while you're there. Cardinal guy you can put in your own information in get the price can. You can absolute and you can put in a plan D2 if you want to. The essence of their calling on you and you may be thinking was this have to do with me I'm under 65 on telling.

It has everything to do because you can get there sooner than you think.

So you need to start researching this and furthermore, if your parents or your in-laws are still alive they've been service by pretty much these one company people and they turn over a lots of different people every year to and that this is pretty much your options 1015 20 years ago now you got a whole bunch options like you can do business over the phone rescission unit we work in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. If your parents live in another state we can get rates for. There were license there and you know as long as they're willing to give up a face-to-face meeting in their will and to conduct business over the phone. Perhaps he read my book to build some trust or they can do that over a phone conversation there and open up the whole world of options. So I want to give back to the story. Mrs. just so they just change the conversation and then when when I was showing him all this they want talk about some mouse that the fascinating thing is elves. I heard you describe it. Is there part D plan which is obviously the in of the bare-bones you hardly get anything was almost as expensive as what you are Selma G plan for what the G was less with the least expensive companies in their plan D and I showed him other plan D's if you want to talk D's. I showed him several other there were $20 a month less. If you really want to talk D's but I would recommend you buy that plan when you can buy a plan G which is really the most comprehensive one now the F is the most comprehensive but there are some changes coming up to that. So how about an end. It sounds like it would be witnesses further in the alphabet what's what's at the end is the least expensive plan. And so in you you you you then have copayments each time you see the doctor. You have a $20 copayment was you wouldn't have that on the G and you can save about 20 bucks a month so and there are people that buy ends and there we sell them to them and their sometimes we recommend just too much detail that took it's a fine plan and it also has it is missing the excess coverage. So if a doctor doesn't work within the rules of Medicare and he balance bills you charge as you you she charges you excess charges. The G plan is going to pick those up and so ZF in the end isn't certainly the deism and so were in the alphabet soup today on finishing well so you muscle get a natural box alphabet because if you looking at Medicare understanding the A's and B's. Since we don't want to explain all the plans on the air that's really not the purposes I want people to get the concepts that they have lettered names because when you take the same letter and you compare it against 40 other companies they sell exactly the same thing so you can do genuine price shopping in the stuff and I would just suggest that you do it, and for yourself and perhaps you had a stick your nose into which parent is one day you're gonna be in charge them you were in charge your dad stuff. I have a thing is actually kind of exciting to me was that some of the lower-priced options were some really well-known companies like Mutual of Omaha in places like that that I will assure that Aetna, Cigna.

There are several highly rated that the they're the most competitive alright so you know him and got in the Medicare advantage and other things that were not talk about today of discerning Medicare supplements today on finishing well certified financial planner Hans Shaw again brought you by Cardinal guy.com you put in the Cardinal don't forget the guide.com download the whole chapter on Medicare.

There is Hans and I would love to take our show on the road to your church, Sunday school, Christian or civic group. Here's a chance for you to advance the kingdom through financial resources and leveraging Hans expertise and qualified charitable contributions veterans aid and attendance IRA Social Security care and long-term care. Just go to Cardinal guy.com and contact Tom to schedule a live recording of finishing well your church Christian or civic group contact Tomczyk Cardinal guy.com that's Cardinal guide.com welcome back to finishing well today's show we are discerning, discerning Medicare supplements at at and so you know when I'm 64 fix to be 65 next October, have a lot of people hit my door and it's time to be discerning right Hans, what is is you need to educate yourself. You know were always promoting my book. This is the show is is really based upon the book in one of the seven worries that are Cardinal guy.com's Medicare and not just Medicare supplement gets into Medicare advantage and with the differences are prescription drug plans and Medicare itself in people in different situations, how they need to handle it but were talking about today is just fundamental stuff within the Medicare supplement business in this month marks my 43rd anniversary of Sally starts on Medicare supplements in 1976 from July 1976 and we were the people turning 65 that I first list. I called on were October night teen 11 birthdays. Okay, so I've been doing this a while and the way this stuff was sold for most of my career is the people would come out to the house.

Just, you know, we either call beforehand. A lot of times we just go see the people he's going knock on her door back in the 70s and 80s.

We still did some of that 15 years, and dad don't do that anymore, but some companies are still doing and so it's almost like you got a bounty on your head when you're now a Medicare eligible person you can get real popular okay and so what I'm wanting to get across to consumers on the show is you need to educate yourself and you can do that cautioned nothing go to our website, you can hit the button, you know it you can go through the Medicare rate calculator and you can put in your age, but in a plan after a plan G in my books.

It tells y'all how to do that but this thing is pretty self-explanatory and you can see a printout or a PDF download of every single company that offers that in your ZIP Code and with the prices and so you can do your comparison-shopping without even talking to anybody and then I would suggest if you got somebody coming out to see you or you exist, have a policy that I'd suggest you go do that or you give us a call will fix it for you and email it to your mail it to your whatever and then you can sit down with the price sheet in your hand and you can, look at what your company's charge and and then what some other options are 40 and my whole point is is this stuff was all sold and continues to be sold in a lot of cases by one company.

People in the modern era you don't have to limit yourself to that mean you used to be able to talk to two or three people on receipt of two or three people come over to the house and then you'd listen to all three of them and you can make a decision ultimately people did that, they tend to end up buying from whoever calls on what I'm saying now is we do this stuff on the phone all over the United States and we know we rated people have email we can do screen share and we can talk people through it just like we did at the kitchen table, but we can do that from sitting in a chair at a computer and we represent all 40 companies on she except the captive companies that don't let people sell further sessions at all. I said most companies on the sheet so I have been just I want to make that point is these policies are identical during the same letter. There is no difference. Sure the companies are different in the financial rating so you know you need to look at that a little bit so you don't necessarily need to buy the least expensive one but any time you're buying this stuff, or if you're just continuing to buy on something you have for a while. You need to take a look at one of these price comparison sheet it's it's it's not necessarily hard but the other thing that really shocked me and I didn't understand it all, but now I do understand is you know there are Medicare supplements, but if Yorty hooked up on Medicare advantage than Medicare supplements are an option for correct if you buy a Medicare advantage or you get hooked up in one of those which are really doing is you're leaving original Medicare in your Medicare is getting outsourced where you're now going to receive Medicare by your election from a private insurance, like you man are at in our United healthcare. Several others and so now you can get your Medicare from them in his can be different getting of their doctors and hospitals and is advantages to this to his advantage is an advantage you'd like that other thing that scared me is because that turns out that's what my mother's Medicare advantage in a course we needed some treatment for her and oh my goodness, there were no doctors anywhere that within 400 miles that you know that they would cover and so you know it had to be in your County had to be this that the other and you literally couldn't get the treatment you know. Based on that Medicare advantage and she had no understanding of why that was, or you know and then you gotta wait till the open enrollment period comes around again before you can change where I'm at something that we could've done for her. We could still do is you can open a special enrollment. When you move.

So now what were talking about is somebody that's not on original Medicare and Medicare supplement were talking about somebody that has a Medicare advantage plan and Rob is correct and that is that you can only change those start in October and you gotta get done by December 1 week in December so there's a limited window and we can help you with that too. We represent all those we can give you the advice on it again asked me to stop using the word all most would be better. Some Medicare advantage plans.

We don't represent but in her case she's moved so when you move addresses if you move far enough, you're entitled to what's called a special election. We could help with that.

And now you get to change either away from a Medicare advantage. Or you could change to another Medicare advantage during the year and so that would be an option, and for any of you listening most of you haven't moved or had some other event that created at 60 but if you do want to shop this stuff a bit. Or consider going back to original Medicare in a Medicare supplement. You can have to wait till October to do it, but it would be fine to get in touch with us now or if this is your parents are concerned about it.

We can give you advice on and so what would you say semigloss. I do away with my Medicare advantage when a manager about my drugs will yeah you can illusion drug plan, but then working a written role you in a part deeply standalone part deeply which there's 30 or 40 of those available and we represent most of them and that's actually how you cancel a Medicare advantage plans. Easiest way to do it if we write you a drug plan under a special election period or during the general enrollment period that automatically cancels your Medicare advantage plan okay so and then we would need to get you also have the legal automatically re-enroll in Medicare but then we need to get your Medicare supplement. So you'd want to make sure you qualify for one of those for you get out of Medicare advantage plan so again that's little confusing because we are talking about a D plan on the Medicare supplements in here you've got the D plan has to do with the party and so there's a big difference main part in the in the supplement. The totally different things. Okay the icing is the same as the name and that one is part D and the other one is plan D that didn't sound too different to me there vastly different than the they couldn't really be more different and they didn't intend to make it this confusing it just just they actually called in by letters to make it simpler but nobody ever thought about.

Do we need two sets letters over different things.

I had just they then asked me into that meeting. But you know in Medicare. My understanding is to get back to the ABCs of it. There is Medicare part a Medicare part B Medicare part C and part D correct and then there's plans ABCD and so on. Some of the letters are missing and they go as far as in there's 10 of and some of them sound like the parts of Medicare with their entirely different take me a long time to finally understand that okay so if I'm in Medicare advantage with a part D, part of Medicare advantage then that included my drug coverage, but now I'm I am Medicare is administered by that insurance company itself limits if I can simplify with Terry what most of our customers there signed up for Medicare part a which is the hospital there signed up and they pay for part B, which is your doctor in outpatient they don't have part C so the they don't want that because they get them pick the doctors phone and they have a separate part D prescription drug plan which they pay for and then they also purchase from us a Medicare supplement plan G and it's only call the G. It has nothing to do with those other letters because that's the best value in the plan G is going to cover most of the deductibles and copayments when they go to the doctor and they go to the hospital to just can be thrilled with the covered if there's anything that they can have some challenges with his can be the part D drug plan is just if there's any level of customer dissatisfaction seems to be with those in yet we try to make him as best as they can. But if that will actually got problems with. I got a question about that so somebody got a lot of different medications eat. Do you have the experience to sit Danica okay with you with this number medications you probably want this one, but we have a computer program that does so. We plug in all the medications divided once the service you just email me with your take this drug. This dosage this time times a day and it's for this and we plug it all and go tell me what pharmacy you want to go to her you don't care.

You'll take the best deal and which ZIP Code is in we plug it in and will print your report that shows the cost of all of them. But not only the premium that you pay the bigger cost is your deductibles and copayments in this computer program will rank them. So it'll fine the most cost-effective plan for and then weep Sonia while so it pays to know that the certified financial planner homicidal again. Cardinal don't forget the guide when you go to Cardinal guide.com. Of course there. Eunice yada contact Hans. Maybe ask him for the entire book or download today's chapter information there at the seven were established. Today's worries Medicare which were hoping you're not working and that you live another faith, not fear, and that through this information that Hans is shared today.

You're able to discern enough thank you. We hope you enjoyed finishing well brought you by Cardinal guide.com visit Cardinal.com for free downloads of the show previous shows on topics such as Social Security, Medicare and IRAs, long-term care and life insurance, investments and taxes as well as ponds best-selling book, the complete Cardinal guide to planning for and living in retirement and the workbook once again for dozens of free resources past shows get Hans book go to Cardinal.

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