How Long To Apply For Medicare

♪ hi, i'm angela james at the centers for medicare & medicaid services. i'd like to give you some information to help you decide if you should sign up for medicare part b when you're first eligible. part b covers things like doctor visits, preventive services,

How Long To Apply For Medicare, outpatient care, durable medical equipment, and more. but keeping part b is your choice, and while it's important to have the kind of coverage that part b offers, there may be times where you don't need to sign up right away. deciding whether to keep part b depends on your situation. here are a few common scenarios:

are you still working? or is your spouse (or a family member, if you're disabled) still working? if you have health insurance through an employer because you or your spouse is still working, you may want to keep that coverage. but don't worry - you'll have a special enrollment period to sign up for part b later and you won't have to pay a penalty. do you have tricare coverage? if you have tricare, which is insurance for active-duty military, military retirees, and their families, you may need to take part b to keep your tricare coverage. here's how it would work: if you're a retired service member, or the spouse or dependent child of a retired service member, you must enroll in part a and part b when you're first eligible to keep your tricare coverage.

however, if you're an active-duty service member or the spouse or dependent child of an active-duty service member, you may not have to get part b right away. you can get part b during a special enrollment period without a penalty. what if you don't have other health coverage? if you don't have any health coverage, you may want to keep part b if you want coverage for the types of services and items i mentioned earlier. if you don't keep part b, you may have to wait to sign up later, your coverage will be delayed, and you may pay a late enrollment penalty. if you have to pay a late enrollment penalty, your monthly premium

for part b may go up 10% for each full 12-month period that you could have had part b, but didn't sign up for it. you may have to pay this penalty for as long as you have part b. to get an estimate of your medicare premiums and any late enrollment penalties that you may have to pay, you can use our eligibility & premium calculator. to use our calculator and learn more about enrolling in medicare, visit medicare.gov.