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Medicare: education, because we are not allowed to sell you anything.

We hold no insurance licence and receive no commission from any carrier. That is a limit on what we can do and the reason you can trust what is on this page.

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The years before 65 are the expensive ones

For Special Risk members this is the whole problem. You can reach normal retirement at 55. Medicare starts at 65. That is a decade of coverage you buy yourself.

The options are the usual four: COBRA from your former employer, a retiree plan if one exists, a spouse's plan, or a marketplace policy. Each carries different premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums, and the Health Insurance Subsidy offsets a portion of the premium and none of the rest.

The mistake is not choosing wrong. It is not putting a number on those years at all, and discovering in year two that the plan assumed something cheaper.

An age line from 55 to 68. The FRS pension begins at normal retirement and runs on without stopping. Social Security is not available until 62. Medicare begins at 65. The ten years between 55 and 65 are marked as health coverage the household buys itself, against which the Health Insurance Subsidy is at most 225 dollars a month. 10 years Your FRS pension — begins at normal retirement, and does not stop nothing from Social Security in these years Social Security — 62 at the earliest you buy your own health coverage for all of this Medicare — 65 Health Insurance Subsidy — at most $225 a month against it 5558626568
The ages are the ones in statute. The subsidy ceiling is the one in section 112.363. Nothing drawn here is an estimate of what a premium costs.

The parts, briefly

Part A: hospital. Most people have paid for it through payroll taxes and pay no premium.

Part B: medical. Premium-based, and higher-income households pay a surcharge based on tax return income from two years earlier.

Part C: Medicare Advantage. A private plan bundling A and B and often drug coverage, with a network.

Part D: prescription drugs.

Medigap: supplemental coverage filling gaps in Original Medicare. Not compatible with Advantage; you choose a lane.

The deadline that follows you

Your Initial Enrollment Period runs seven months: the three months before your 65th birthday month, that month, and the three after.

You can delay Part B without penalty only if you have coverage from current, active employment at an employer with 20 or more employees. Yours or your spouse's.

Retiree coverage does not count. COBRA does not count. A marketplace plan does not count. VA benefits do not count. Being insured is not the test.

Miss the window without qualifying coverage and the Part B penalty is 10% of the premium for every full 12-month period you could have enrolled and did not, for as long as you have Part B. Part D carries its own permanent penalty, 1% of the base premium per uncovered month.

When coverage from active employment ends, you have 8 months to enroll in Part B and 63 days to arrange drug coverage, penalty-free.

If you retire before 65 onto retiree coverage or COBRA and stay there, the clock is running the entire time. It is invisible until it is permanent.

Confirm your own situation at medicare.gov, with the Social Security Administration, or with SHINE, Florida's free Medicare counseling program.

What we do and do not do

We do not sell Medicare Advantage, Medigap, Part D, or any other insurance product. We hold no licence and receive no compensation from any carrier or agent.

We do make sure the cost of coverage (before 65 and after) is a real figure in your plan rather than an assumption, and that the enrollment deadlines are on your calendar before they matter.

When you talk to a licensed agent or a SHINE counselor, you should arrive with good questions. That is the whole ambition of this page.

Questions

Questions we hear most.

Does the Health Insurance Subsidy cover Medicare?
It offsets part of the cost. At $225 a month maximum it covers about one standard Part B premium and nothing else, and it touches no deductible or copay.
Can I delay Part B if I have retiree coverage?
No, not without a penalty. Only coverage from current, active employment permits penalty-free delay. Retiree coverage, COBRA, marketplace plans, and VA benefits do not.
Do you sell Medicare plans?
No. No licence, no commission, no carrier relationship.
Important

This page is educational and is not individualized advice. Benowitz Wealth Management is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Florida Retirement System, the Florida Division of Retirement, or the State Board of Administration of Florida. Confirm the figures that apply to your own record at MyFRS.com or with the Division of Retirement.

Eight months from the end of active-employment coverage. The penalty for missing it lasts as long as you have Part B.

Independent, fee-only retirement planning for Florida’s public employees, built around your FRS benefit and everything you’ve built on the side.

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