Hi there. Although I have registered for Medicare Part A, I am still working, so I continue to be covered by my employer's group health insurance and have not registered for Part B. I have entered my anticipated retirement date, but the Healthcare fields for my situation (over 65 but still working) are blued out. Where do I enter my current employer health insurance premium expenses? Thanks.
Good question, Robert. The tool assumes you will be on Medicare after reaching age 65 but if that doesn't apply to you then you'll need to ensure the "Auto-Calculate Medicare Premiums" box is NOT checked and just enter your premiums and out-of-pocket expenses in the period 4 and 5 fields manually. The problem with that, though, is that there's no way to change those values in the future at the point at which you actually go onto Medicare. So, an alternate approach would be to leave those fields on the Healthcare expenses page blank and use either the Discretionary or Miscellaneous expenses pages to capture your healthcare expenses because they allow you to alter the expenses over time. With that said, let's say your retire in two years and start Medicare at that point. Then, using PRC2024, you can start having the tool calculate those premiums for you and dispense with the alternate approach.
Stuart
@smatthews51 Thank you Stuart for the quick response and viable workaround. Bob
My wife and I have a similar, complicated health care situation that also does not seem to fit the various phases within healthcare expense page. My wife is 13 years younger and will work until 2036. We both have health coverage with her company and I will not select medicare until her retirement.
Taking Stuart's suggestion, I plan to use Miscellaneous expenses to capture these, but I do not want to duplicate anything if Parlana is already handling them elsewhere behind the scenes.
If I accounted for the following items in Miscellaneous expense, would I generate any duplicate expenses:
LTD, STD, life insurance cost, medical & health insurance cost, social security deductions, and medicare deductions
Thanks
@patton525 You're probably safe to put your healthcare-related costs and your life insurance cost on the Misc expenses page, but with this caveat: PRC will not recognize these as healthcare expenses and therefore not include them in itemized deductions. I'm assuming your reference to Social Security deductions and Medicare deductions refers to having your Medicare deductions taken out of your Social Security payments. That's not an issue because PRC doesn't model that detail.
Stuart
@smatthews51 I'm in same situation as Bob (retired but still on wife's employer -sponsored insurance, also applied for Medicare Part A ONLY). The plan is to go onto "full" medicare (A and B) or Medicare Advantage next year. So to confirm the guidance, I would have nothing entered into periods 4 and 5 in healthcare expense page, and add in insurance premiums and OOP costs in MISC page (as essential). Then next year when I elect full Medicare, I reverse it and configure Periods 4 and 5 in healthcare expenses (and delete healthcare expenses in the MISC page? Want to make sure I have this right as it appears to have big effect on CSS spend.
How does it differ if Medicare Advantage is elected?
@nc-cpl Yes, that's right. If you check the "Auto-Calculate Medicare Premiums" box, PRC will calculate Medicare premiums in accordance with the IRMAA tables. You might have additional premiums to pay under a Medicare Advantage Plan and, if so, you'll need to manually enter them in the Period 4/5 premiums field.
Stuart
@smatthews51 But I wouldn't check the "Auto-Calculate Medicare Premiums" box until next year when I go "full" medicare (add in Part B).
By the way, we're planning an enhancement in this area for the web version next year: you'll be able to start Medicare after age 65 if you're still on employer-provided health insurance, and that'll avoid users having to do what you're talking about in this post.
Stuart
@smatthews51 Is it possible to add additional rows to the One-Time Miscellaneous tab in a future update? I know you are solving this issue in 2024, but need more rows to work around the Healthcare page. I am forced to use this to account for my health cost prior to and after my spouse's retirement. I have already used 12 rows to capture normal expenses but since the age difference between my spouse and me, I will have different stop dates for Medicare parts b, c and d and then out of pocket medical expenses I am trying to capture. I could use about 7 more rows, but more would be better. This tab is a great feature!
@patton525 It's certainly possible and I'll give it serious consideration for an update in the next month.
Stuart
Regarding https://pralanaretirementcalculator.com/community/postid/1924/, when might we expect additional rows to be added in the Miscellaneous tab to allow extra space to capture spousal age differences in accounting for health care? I have run out of rows. The start and end dates are perfect but since I really can't use the Healthcare tab with much precision, the misc. tab is crucial in the interim before the 2024 version is available.
