In this modern day and age, you’d think they’d have the act of retiring down to a science.

The frustrating part is that signing up for Social Security, getting Medicare medical coverage and such are all things you do for the first time and just once in your life. But, dare to forget to do one simple little thing along the way, it can screw it all up.

To those readers who have not yet hit 65, make mental notes of what I’m about to tell you so that when your time finally comes, your transition to the so-called “Golden Years” will be less eventful.

OK, quick review on Social Security basics: Yes, you CAN retire at age 62 (for now) and start collecting Social Security at that age, but you don’t want to. First, they have something called a “Full Retirement Age.” It keeps getting older, but for me, it was 67 and six months, or something like that. If you start collecting what’s due you at age 62, it will be reduced, because you’re “retiring early.” If you wait to get to that Full Retirement Age, you’ll get the full amount. Hold off on starting your checks to 70 and you’ll get an even bigger monthly amount for life.

Think of it this way:

• At age 62, you receive X.

• At Full Retirement Age, you’d get X and a half.

• And at 70, you’d get 2X!

OK, there’s that. But there’s one other age you need to put on your calendar–when you turn 65. Because that’s when you need to sign up for Medicare. It doesn’t mean you have to start paying for it. Maybe you’re still working and have a job with medical insurance and don’t need the Medicare coverage for now. Good for you. But you still need to sign up for what they call Plan A and start being in the program, get your card in the mail and so on. Why? Because if you think, “Oh, I don’t need Medicare, I have my own insurance”, when you finally get around to signing up for the first time and you’re older, you’ll pay a penalty. (we have friends where that happened to them)

To help make the whole process further confusing, the minds of Medicare came up with various supplemental plans. You’ve got Plan A, but then you’d like to be able to have doctors visits covered and your prescriptions handled. Well, welcome to plans C, D, E and keep going. Oh, and you can’t get any of those other plans until you sign up for Plan B with Medicare.

In our case, my wife–whose job provided the insurance–was laid off, and with the job, so went the insurance. Off to Medicare we go. Within days of finding out, we went to the website, downloaded the forms, had her former employer fill out the form they needed to deal with, and then I hand-delivered them all to the Social Security office not far from our home.

Everything’s covered, right?

This is just where our adventure began.

Shot of actual Social Security recipient waiting on hold

So, January 31st was the final day of my wife’s insurance coverage. We were told we needed to have a COBRA plan, which for both of us would have run around $1700 a month. But we were also told that we had up to 6 months after our insurance ended to implement such a plan and that, if we did that, it would be retroactive to February 1st. Well then, why worry about insurance when Medicare should kick in? We’ve got this!

Two weeks after dropping off our applications and checking both the Social Security and Medicare sites daily, nothing. So, we called, went on hold for more time than we’ll admit, and eventually talked with someone who said our application was in the works and that the process could sometimes take up to 60 days.

Great.

Two more weeks passed and my restless wife was anxious for answers. Another wait-on-the-phone session and this time we were told that we failed to write in the “remarks” box when we wanted our Plan B coverage to start. Really? If they had only put a “As soon as friggin’ possible” box to check on the form. But they didn’t.

Again, you can’t get a plan C through Z or any supplemental insurance until the government approves Plan B first. And so, we wait.

Oh, and there is Medicare coverage and Medicare Advantage coverage. Bottom line, it’s best to have an insurance person recommended by a friend who knows what they’re doing.

There is so much that would have been great to know going in. I just thought I would share our experience of the learning curve and maybe you can avoid a similar adventure when your time comes. You’d think it would all be such a simple process.

Hopefully, by the time it’s your turn, they’ll have developed an app for that.

Tim Hunter