Your Health and Wellness Options with Retirement Insurance

You may not have come across the phrase retirement insurance before. You probably do know what it is, and you’re probably pretty well versed in it if you’re of retirement age. Retirement insurance refers to retiree insurance, the name that the Medicare program uses to refer to its medical coverage.

Medicare Basics

You gain the option to sign up for retirement insurance, aka Medicare, at the age of 65 years. You can sign up for it earlier than that if you develop Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS), permanent kidney failure, or have been diagnosed with certain disabilities. This type of medical insurance provides coverage that’s free for your hospitalization costs.

You can add to your Medicare coverage if you want to do so, directly from the government or from Columbia SC’s Michael Taylor Agency. You automatically qualify for Part A coverage for hospitalization, and it remains free. You have to pay a monthly premium for Parts B, C, and/or D though. Part B covers doctors’ visits and preventative services. You could choose Part C, which includes parts A, B, and D. Part D covers your prescriptions. You might also want Medigap insurance, which covers copays, coinsurance, and deductibles.

Stop-Loss Coverage

You might still have insurance coverage from your employer after you retire. The company policy might only provide stop-loss coverage, which means the employer insurance only starts paying your out-of-pocket costs once they reach the maximum amount. Essentially, the employer-provided insurance includes a pre-determined amount of money that, once you’ve paid, the insurance policy it provides takes care of. That means that your Medicare A covers all of your hospitalizations, but you might cover all of your medical visits and your at-home care up to $10,000, the point at which your employer’s stop-loss plan triggers and pays the rest of the medical costs.

While you can only obtain Medicare A from the US government, you can obtain the other types of coverage from Michael Taylor Agency, serving Columbia, SC. Contact us today to obtain your retirement coverage.