Ray's Retire Right Report Retire Right — Retire Smart! Raymond T. Martin, Retirement Coach and Medicare Planning
July 2024 Happy Independence Day! This month I bring you trivia from our country’s earliest years plus the usual oddball assortment. Enjoy!
July is National Deli Salad Month July 7th – 13th is Nude Recreation Weekend July 8th is Savor the Comic, Unplug the Drama Day
Naked Colonial Weddings It was the custom in England that a groom took possession of everything belonging to his bride. This included her debts. If she were a widow, that would include her late husband’s debts as well. This tradition was carried forward to 1700s colonial New England. They believed that a way around this custom was if a woman married "in her shift [underwear] on the king's highway" it would make a public declaration to her creditors that she took no property to her husband which would make him responsible for her debts. For modesty, those weddings were often held at night. From a diary of the time, one bride wrote “in a perfectly nude state, [the bride] thrust her fair, round arm through a diamond hole in the door of the closet, and the gallant major clasped the hand of the buxom widow.” Hopefully creditors honored this custom.
Every Independence Day, how many times does the Liberty Bell Ring? (See the Answer Area.)
Benefit Reductions and Cost Increases i Over the past 12 years, Medicare Advantage plans have experienced lower costs and lower out -of-pocket maximums. Plans have added dental, vision, hearing, transportation, personal emergency response devices, over-the-counter allowances and other benefits. However, payments these plans get from the government for each person enrolled are going down. Additionally, many plans had their Star ratings reduced in 2024 and a thus a reduction in their reimbursements. Also, due to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, plans will be forced to absorb much more in drug costs. In 2025 there will be a cap of $2,000 on what each person will have to spend for Part D drug costs. It’s possible plans might choose to absorb this and not raise costs or reduce benefits, but that seems unlikely. In 2024, once your out-of-pocket spending on prescriptions tops about $3,300, you qualify for Medicare’s “catastrophic coverage” and pay nothing for your covered Part D drugs for the rest of the year. This new rule applies only to medications covered by your Part D plan, not to out-of-pocket spending on Medicare Part B drugs such as vaccinations, injections a doctor administers, and outpatient prescription drugs. The $2,000 cap will be indexed to the growth in per capita Part D costs, so it may well rise each year after 2025. The $2,000 cap will likely save money for some Medicare beneficiaries, particularly ones taking expensive brand-name drugs. But it’s possible the cap will have bad effects on people who have or who are looking for Part D plans too. Call us for help when you’re looking for a Part D or Medicare Advantage plan. That’s what we do!
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