If you're 65 or older, there's a good chance healthcare eats up a lot of your income. This holds true whether you are still working or retired and mostly living on Social Security. But if you're enrolled in Medicare, you have a prime opportunity to lower your healthcare costs -- that is, if you act quickly.
Each year, Medicare enrollees are given an opportunity to make changes to their existing coverage during the fall. And it pays to take advantage by reviewing your choices for coverage and seeing if there's a better Medicare plan out there for you.
But if you want to change your Medicare coverage for 2023, you'll need to act quickly. Medicare's open-enrollment period wraps up this year (and every year) on Dec. 7. That means you have less than a week to make some decisions that could result in a lot of savings -- and help you stretch your income or Social Security benefits further.
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It pays to look at different options
Getting stuck with a costly Medicare plan could really hurt you financially at a time when living expenses are up, due to inflation. That's why it's important to review your plan choices during open enrollment -- even if you're reasonably happy with your existing plan.
For one thing, your current plan might actually be changing in a way that makes it more expensive. If you're enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, you could see your costs go up for doctor visits or other services. Or your favorite doctor might move out of network, leaving you with higher bills if you choose to keep seeing them.
If you're enrolled in a Medicare Part D plan, you may find that the medications you take are grouped into a different tier for 2023. The result? Higher copays for you.
But even if your Medicare plan isn't changing, it still pays to see if there's a lower-cost alternative that offers comparable coverage. You may also want to run some numbers to see if it makes sense to move from original Medicare to Medicare Advantage or vice versa.
It especially pays to look at different coverage options if your personal health situation has changed this year. Maybe you just started taking a new medication. That's enough to warrant a look at different Part D plans.
Maybe you were just diagnosed with a new health condition. Some Medicare Advantage plans come with supplemental benefits that can make certain conditions easier and less costly to manage, so that would be a good thing to look into.
Don't delay
Choosing a Medicare plan isn't necessarily a quick process, so if you haven't gotten started already, consider this your wake-up call to prioritize open enrollment this week. The good news is that Medicare has a plan finder tool on its site that can help you narrow down your choices for coverage and compare different plans based on ratings. But you'll still need to carve out time to do that legwork, so the sooner you get moving, the better.
