Changing from ACA to Medicare

[Texas Proud]

OK, I need help from someone who has done this already....


I have signed up for Medicare and bought my medigap plan... but I now need to schedule dropping my ACA plan... However, I am the primary contact for the plan and in order to keep DW and DD on the plan I need to change the primary contact...


But talking to a rep from the site they said that I cannot drop the plan with a future date... they say I have to call the day I want to drop? REALLY?


Is the system so broke that they cannot schedule when I want the last day of my insurance to be? There is no help on the website for this as it just says to call.


I want to get this done now so I know what my next month ACA premium will be instead of paying the full amount and hoping to get a refund.


Has anybody got an answer?

 

[Aerides]

Rianne did this recently (she makes several posts in this thread: https://www.early-retirement.org/fo...nsurance-when-starting-medicare-114944-2.html)

But you're right it doesn't look like they can tell you what it will be next month, and that you can't get off the ACA until you can actually confirm you are on Medicare. Hence 1st of the month thing I guess.

Perhaps block the auto-pay and then pay on the 1st after it all shakes out?

 

[Texas Proud]

Bumping to see if anybody can help

 

[orchid55]

Unfortunately the other posters are correct. You can probably find out the new premium for your wife and daughter by going to healthcare.gov or healthsherpa and pricing a policy just for them. It may be more expensive than expected as you now have a smaller family size but the same income.

As far as calling on the last day to cancel, that seems to be the only way to do it.

If anyone else in your family will be dropping the policy next year (wife or daughter), you could buy them separate policies. The separate policies avoid the unknown premium problems and the possible unwanted cancellations.

 

[zinger1457]

Probably not much help because my situation is different than yours in that I don't have anyone else listed on my ACA plan so the cancellation process is obviously different. Did you try and cancel through the healthcare.gov web site? I thought it was fairly straight forward to cancel online to make the switch to Medicare, made the change at the beginning of October to cancel the plan after 10/31/22, looks good to go. Saw posts on the other thread that you should go thru a rep to cancel but at the same time the only ones reporting issues were those that talked with a rep.

 

[Texas Proud]

The website says that if you are the main contact and cancel through the website then all are cancelled.... It states to change the main contact...


I will try in a day or two and see what happens...

 

[xlf11]

You don't need to change you as main contact. But your wife and daughter need to have a new plan (even with the same provider under the same plan before, also different ACA credit), while you remain the main contact with no ACA plan for you self. That seems counter intuitive, but it worked when I transitioned from ACA to Medicare with wife remained in ACA two years ago.

 

[Texas Proud]

You don't need to change you as main contact. But your wife and daughter need to have a new plan (even with the same provider under the same plan before, also different ACA credit), while you remain the main contact with no ACA plan for you self. That seems counter intuitive, but it worked when I transitioned from ACA to Medicare with wife remained in ACA two years ago.

What qualifying event did you use for them to be able to sign up?

 

[xlf11]

What qualifying event did you use for them to be able to sign up?

They don't need to sign up again if you have a family ACA plan with you as main contact before. But after you are transitioned to Medicare, they remain under ACA plan, only you self has the qualifying event. It's more likely your insurance company will issue a new plan # for them as well (at least that was the case for my wife remained with the same plan).

 

[whenicandave]

My plan is to have a separate ACA policy for the wife and me the year we turn 65 since my birthday is in June and hers is July. Figure it would just be easier to do the transition.

Sent from my motorola one 5G UW ace using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[cbo111]

I will be hitting that magic number in a few months. Amazingly, lots of folks seem to know this. I must get 5 pieces of mail each day advertising some medicare supplement, even personal handwritten notes from medicare brokers wanting to help me find the perfect plan. Then of course there is the daily barrage of emails and voicemails. I guess it is now time to re-allocate some of my limited RAM to learn about all the exciting options available. Fun.

 

[Carpediem]

My plan is to have a separate ACA policy for the wife and me the year we turn 65 since my birthday is in June and hers is July. Figure it would just be easier to do the transition.

Sent from my motorola one 5G UW ace using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

@whenicandave, Did you use the 'group' function in the ACA marketplace to choose a separate ACA policy for your wife? I will be going on Medicare 11/2023 and my wife will need to remain on ACA. I'd like to take the path of lease resistance when it comes time to move myself over to Medicare from ACA if possible.

 

[camfused]

^^^ DW will go on SS in April, but I'll have another year of ACA, so we did the group thing (with separate policies), with me as the primary account holder. This way, when she drops off ACA in April, mine *probably* will not be screwed up. We have a calendar entry for the beginning of March to remove her Autopay, and another for the end of March to get her signed up for Medicare, and a third calendar entry for beginning of April to get her into a Plan N gap plan.

 

[MBSC]

This way, when she drops off ACA in April, mine *probably* will not be screwed up. We have a calendar entry for the beginning of March to remove her Autopay, and another for the end of March to get her signed up for Medicare, and a third calendar entry for beginning of April to get her into a Plan N gap plan.

If DW will start Medicare April 1, she should sign up 3 months prior (January) to allow time for the paperwork to process. Please see this thread where the person waited until the week before their birth month to sign up for Medicare.

SIXTY Days to Process Medicare Application

In early March, sign up for Medigap Plan N and Part D drug plan with April 1 effective date. If she waits until April to sign up for Medigap and Part D, they won't start until May 1 leaving her without the additional coverage during April. Terminate her ACA plan at the end of March.

 

[xlf11]

If you apply SSB/Medicare at the same you could start 4 months before starting month.

 

[INTJ10]

My plan is to have a separate ACA policy for the wife and me the year we turn 65 since my birthday is in June and hers is July. Figure it would just be easier to do the transition.

Sent from my motorola one 5G UW ace using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

We were going to do this also but I called the healthcare.gov helpdesk to ask about it. They advised us that if we file our taxes jointly then we must have a "family/joint" ACA plan in order to get the tax credits. They advised us to sign up for a family plan and then switch my wife to an individual plan when I turn 65.

 

[camfused]

Ok, thanks MBSC