As you near retirement age, you may often wonder how you will pay for your healthcare needs. For most older adults, some form of Medicare is often the most comprehensive and cost-effective solution. However, what about those of us who have an insurance plan through our employer?

If you continue to work even after you qualify for Medicare, should you keep your employer-sponsored health insurance? Moreover, if you have the opportunity to continue your employer insurance even after you retire, should you keep your current plan or switch to Medicare?

First, let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of employer-sponsored health insurance.

Pros and Cons of Employer Health Insurance

For the sake of simplicity, we will evaluate some of the pros and cons of employer-based health insurance versus an individual health insurance plan. Here are some of the most important benefits of an employer health plan:

• Your employer pays part of your premiums.
• Your employer does all of the research and chooses the best plan for you.
• Your insurance premiums are likely taken out from your pre-tax pay, which will reduce your taxable income.
• Some employer plans can extend into retirement.

Alternatively, here are some of the cons of having an employer health plan:

• You have less control over your health insurance.
• You could lose your insurance once you retire or change jobs.
• You could likely find cheaper individual plans on the open market.

How Does Medicare Work with Employer Insurance?

Now that you know a little bit more about the pros and cons of employer insurance, next we’ll cover the question: How does Medicare work with employer insurance?

Unfortunately, it is a pretty complex question, as the precise answer will depend on your individual needs and circumstances. That said, if you have employer insurance that extends into your retirement and you’re happy with your coverage, the answer is ‘no. You do not need to enroll in Medicare.

As mentioned above, this answer will not apply to everyone. For example, let’s say you’re turning 65’, and you are still on your employer’s health plan. If you want to get the benefits of Original Medicare, you will need to enroll in Medicare via the Social Security Administration.

Typically, it’s best to enroll during your Initial Enrollment Period so that you can avoid paying any penalty fees by signing up “late.” However, if you contact the Social Security office and inform them that you wish to stick with your employer-sponsored insurance for the time being, you can delay signing up without any penalties.

On the other hand, if you’re already over 65, you don’t need to do anything unless you lose your employer’s health plan. From there, you’ll need to enroll in Original Medicare and keep your healthcare as is or sign up for a Medicare Advantage (Part C), Medigap, or Part D plan.

Depending on the size of your employer, you may or may not have to pay a penalty for signing up after the Initial Enrollment Period. If the company has more than 20 employees, you generally will not have to pay any penalty for signing up late.

Alternatively, if you work (or worked) for a company with fewer than 20 employees, your employer decides whether or not you will need to sign up for Medicare when you become eligible. According to AARP:

“If the employer does require you to enroll in Medicare, then Medicare automatically becomes primary, and the employer plan provides secondary coverage. In other words, Medicare settles your medical bills first, and the group plan only pays for services that it covers but Medicare doesn’t. Therefore, if you fail to sign up for Medicare when required, you will essentially be left with no coverage.”

Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage (Part D) and Medicare Supplement Plans (Medigap)

Things get a little more complicated if you want Part D prescription drug coverage or a Medigap plan. If you have a large employer group coverage and decide to keep it, you’ll get a special enrollment period for Part D and Medigap plans without penalty.

Fortunately, you can also enroll in Part D even if you haven’t enrolled in Medicare Part B. That said, many employer health plans offer “creditable” drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries, or, if you choose to delay Medicare enrollment, standard prescription drug coverage.

Every employer’s health plan is unique, so you will need to contact your employer to find out what kind of drug coverage they provide once you turn 65. If your employer’s health plan doesn’t fall in this category, then you should enroll in Part D as soon as it becomes available so that you can avoid any penalty fees.

Additionally, enrolling late will not incur a penalty with Medigap plans. You will be able to delay enrollment up until the time that your employer insurance ends. Thus, if your employer insurance allows it or qualifies for it, you can delay both Medicare and Medigap enrollment without penalty (rate increases).

Next Steps

In short, there’s no rule saying that you need to sign up for Medicare if you have employer insurance. However, signing up when you turn 65 could save you money in penalty fees. Additionally, many older adults prefer the stability of Medicare instead of the relative instability of employer-sponsored health insurance.

If you’d like to learn more about enrolling in Medicare with an employer-sponsored insurance plan or your Medicare coverage options, contact a licensed agent who is a Medicare expert so they can guide you through the process.

Are you at the 65-year age bracket? Have you signed up for Medicare or are you keeping your employer-sponsored insurance plan? Have you compared the two? What made you decide the way you did? Please share with the community!

Stephanie Hollman’s Pink Off the Shoulder Cardigan on Instagram

Real Housewives of Dallas Instagram Fashion 2021

On Sunday she wore pink! Stephanie Hollman’s pink off the shoulder cardigan that she wore to celebrate Easter with her family last weekend was a super cute choice to mark the start of spring. And lucky for y’all reading this it just so happens to still be in stock and totally ready to hop it’s way on into your cart basket.

Fashionably,

Faryn

Click Here to Shop Her Milly Cardigan in 3 Colours

Photo: @StephHollman

Originally posted at: Stephanie Hollman’s Pink Off the Shoulder Cardigan

Have you seen the statistics about the staggering amount of resources used in conventional burial? Maybe you should consider a green burial!

According to National Geographic, “American funerals are responsible each year for the felling of 30 million board feet of casket wood (some of which comes from tropical hardwoods), 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete for burial vaults, and 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid.”

This translates to enough metal to build a Golden Gate bridge going into the ground every single year. It’s also the amount of concrete it would take to construct a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit being buried in the ground every single year.

As baby boomers start facing their own mortality, the idea of eco-friendly funerals is becoming more widespread. If you bicycle, recycle or just want to minimize your final carbon footprint, consider these unique eco-friendly approaches for a greener disposition when the time comes.

Try on a Mushroom Burial Suit

Jae Rhim Lee made a viral video splash in 2011 with her TED Talk, My Mushroom Burial Suit. What started as an exploration of living, dying and recycling and the toxin-removing properties of mushrooms evolved into Coeio, a company that makes green burial products, specifically, the Infinity Burial Suit.

These “ninja pajamas” are impregnated with spores of mushrooms that aid decomposition, neutralize toxic byproducts in the body and transfer nutrients to plant life. The biomix is composed of mycelium, other types of mushroom spores and additional microorganisms.

Coeio offers Infinity Burial Suits for people and for pets. They also make a shroud that can be used for viewing before green burial and casket liners that help speed decomposition while clearing out heavy metals and other toxins.

Bodies buried in Coeio’s products are transformed into vital nutrients that enrich the earth and foster new life.

Dress for Death in Stylish Shrouds

Shrouds have been used for burial and cremation for millennia. Primarily composed of different types of fabrics, shrouds are coverings used to prepare a corpse for burial or mummification. Used in some religions’ rituals prior to burial, they also offer an eco-friendly way to place a body in the earth.

Esmerelda Kent was a Bay Area artist during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, which deeply affected her consciousness of death. She later worked as a costume designer in Hollywood. She became connected to the HBO TV series Six Feet Under, which took viewers behind the scenes at the fictional Fisher and Sons Funeral Home in Los Angeles.

Her involvement with a green cemetery and the TV series prompted her to make a career change. She became an entrepreneur in the death care industry, focused on green burial and making shrouds. Her first shroud was featured during a green burial held at the end of the groundbreaking series in 2005.

She started Kinkaraco Green Funeral Products. Her website, Kinkaraco.com, provides in-depth information about green burial and products such as burial and cremation shrouds in different fabrics, herbal washes for body preparation and custom-made burial wagons.

Italian Burial Pods Focus on the Life Cycle

With the growing interest in green burial in the U.S., an Italian company has designed biodegradable egg-shaped burial containers for cremated remains and full bodies folded in a fetal position. The Capsula Mundi project has created burial pods meant to be paired with a live tree in a natural burial ground.

Capsula Mundi’s founders, Italian designers Raoul Bretzel and Anna Citelli, see death as not the end, but the beginning of a way back to nature. They have redesigned the coffin, using secular and universal symbols of life: the egg, the tree and the fetal position.

Their project envisions a different approach to the way we think about death. As Raoul Bretzel explains, “The Capsula Mundi project is designed to spur a reflection on how our society deals with this important moment of life. There is no gloominess, no deprivation, no decay looking at death as a biological phenomenon: our body keeps on producing elements through natural transformations, feeding another life.”

The pod is buried as a seed in the earth, planted beneath a tree chosen in life by the deceased. Ideally, family and friends will continue to care for the tree as it grows. Cemeteries will grow into vibrant woodlands, havens for wildlife and a reminder of the cycle of life and death. Learn more at CapsulaMundi.it.

Jewish/Muslim Burial is Green Burial

Did you know Jewish and Muslim burial is naturally green? Both religions trace their roots to an ancient hot desert culture, sharing lineage to the patriarch Abraham. Both have similar purification rituals for the dead, conducted before a speedy burial, ideally within 24 hours.

Bodies can be refrigerated for preservation for up to four days, giving time for dispersed families to gather for a funeral. Because blood is considered an integral part of the body, embalming is avoided. This also keeps formaldehyde out of the ground. The deceased is gently washed and dressed in white cotton or linen garments, which biodegrade naturally.

Kosher caskets are made of soft pine or poplar wood, with no metal parts – totally biodegradable. In cemeteries that allow burial without a vault or liner, the body may be buried in just a shroud or a winding sheet, yards of fabric wrapped around the body.

Even in conventional cemeteries, the body in the casket is put in contact with the earth, with a liner above the casket to support the soil’s weight. The body, the clothing and the casket all biodegrade into the earth at the same rate.

Learn About More Green Burial Options

There are many options for greening your final arrangements and reducing your carbon footprint. There are eco-friendly coffins, such as woven willow, seagrass, or bamboo caskets, made of easily renewable materials that decompose naturally. These caskets can be lined with unbleached cotton and used for burial or cremation.

For those who choose cremation, biodegradable urns come in a wide range of materials, including handmade paper, sand and gelatin, cornstarch, bamboo and recycled paper. A biodegradable urn in the earth will decompose over time, the rate depending on the material chosen and environmental conditions.

Ocean lovers can be lovingly set to sea in a seashell or turtle-shaped urn that floats for a few moments, then gracefully sinks under the surface. Biodegradable urns for water are made of a variety of natural materials, including recycled paper, rock salt, gelatin and sand.

It has been estimated that over 40% of cremation consumers intend to have their cremated remains scattered. Scattering Tubes made from recycled paper facilitate the scattering process without having to awkwardly open a plastic bag holding remains. They are also suitable for carry-on when transporting cremated remains via airline travel. Visit AGreenerFuneral.org or PassagesInternational.com to learn more.

Pods, mushroom suits and shrouds – oh, my! There are so many eco-friendly options to explore. Just make sure your loved ones know your preference before your last day comes. And because we never know when that last day will be, have a conversation today.

Have you thought about having a green burial? Which of the options mentioned here sound the best – mushroom suit, seashell urn or a biodegradable tree pod? Something else? Please share what funeral options you have looked into.