Medicare Open Enrollment Is Coming

The vast majority of Americans over 65 take advantage of Medicare to help with their health care costs. Yet as helpful as Medicare is, it does involve some key choices, and every year, Medicare participants get a chance to consider changes to aspects of their coverage during the annual open enrollment period. With open enrollment coming up, let’s take a closer look at when it starts and what you need to know to make smart decisions about your Medicare coverage. Open enrollment starts every year on Oct. 15, and it runs through Dec. 7. The choices that you make during open enrollment don’t take effect immediately, but they set you up well in advance for the beginning of 2016. Medicare open enrollment can be complicated. Different plan options can have entirely different coverage, and your total costs can vary greatly. Since you can’t predict your future health care needs, it’s impossible to come up with a choice that’s guaranteed to work out to be the best one you could have made. It’s vital to look beyond simple premium costs and consider instead the total costs of your care. In some cases, a Medicare Advantage Plan with a higher premium will have lower deductibles and co-pays, leaving you with a lower net cost. For others, the lower-premium plan will be the smartest choice, especially if you’re relatively healthy and need little in the way of health care services.

Source/more: Motley Fool
Related: Choosing the Right Medicare Plan

David Wingate is an elder law attorney at the Elder Law Office of David Wingate, LLC. The elder law office services clients with powers of attorneys, living wills, Wills, Trusts, Medicaid and asset protection. The Elder Law office has locations in Frederick and Montgomery Counties, Maryland.