With more and more people having access to employer health insurance plans after 65, it can be confusing whether you’re better off on your employer health insurance plan or if you’re better off on Medicare.
Not knowing what to look for to decide which is better for you could end up costing you thousands of dollars in the long run.
Now, there are two situations in which you should ditch your employer plan and join Medicare.
1. Your employer plan does not meet Medicare rules.
If you don’t have “creditable” health care coverage when you turn 65, you will face penalties and possible enrollment delays. So, if your employer insurance doesn’t meet those rules, you’ll want to join Medicare.
2. Your current employer insurance is costing you more than Medicare would.
I usually recommend that if you are paying more than $250 a month on premiums, and it has a deductible or an out-of-pocket cost of $2,000 or more, you’re almost always better off on Medicare.
However, it’s important to consider that if your current employer insurance covers dependents, you will want to consider the cost of finding them coverage elsewhere if you were to join Medicare.
With that said, for Medicare to truly be better than your employer plan, you need to be in that right Medicare plan. And that right Medicare plan can be hard to figure out. It’s there, but you have to do your research.
Don’t forget that you might be in that plan for the rest of your life due to insurability rules.
