Low Income Subsidy For Idaho Medicare Beneficiaries

Hi, boys see Chris with Boise Health and Life agency.

Today we're gonna be talking about getting help with your Medicare Insurance premiums.

And what I mean by that is either getting help with your prescription drug costs or with your part A and B. Premiums and that is all dependent upon your income and your assets.

So what you can do is type into google Idaho  S. H I. B. A. and this is an organization that's solely there to help folks with their Medicare and give them information and tools to find the best plans and to get actual help.

Now there's going to be quick. I just don't know about this. You can come in here real quick and what you do is just Idaho SHIBA Google that comes in here to Medicare tools and info and where you want to go is right here save money on Medicare.

It's going to tell you with the drop-down here the two programs that are available. You have extra help that can help you with prescription drug costs and it can help with premiums and or a combination of premiums and copays depending on your income and assets.

And then the other program is the Medicare savings program that can actually help you with your part A. And B. Premiums. Okay. Now real quick underneath here.

There's another drop-down and it says am I eligible? And it will give you For 2020 it was updated 2021 or 2020 April. But I will tell you right here whether you'll qualify based upon if you're an individual or married couple, your monthly income, and your assets.

And you know, it tells you down here what assets are counted.  So the one thing assets include money and bank accounts, stocks, bonds, and real estate. You're home, your car, personal possessions, and a burial plot.

Health Insurance & Medicare Premium Savings 

They're not counted. So you do if you have assets in your home, that's not counted as part of this there. When they talk about real estate, they're talking about investment, real estate.

Now then the Medicare Savings program is where you can get help with your part A. And B. Premiums, deductibles, and copays. And it's based upon again, monthly asset monthly income in your assets.

Now what you're gonna want to do is you'll come down here to apply, yeah, for extra help. When you apply for extra help on your part D. Premiums, uh you're going to apply through social Security, okay?

You can either go online or you can call them and apply over the phone, whichever you're more comfortable with. Now, when you do that, okay? You might as well apply uh for Medicare savings programs unless you already know that you're just not going to qualify so that's kind of up to you.

But anyways the information is right here so you can call them and apply as well and then hereafter you qualify right um you'll like they walk you through this whole the whole process and it will sync up with your plan.

If you've got a stand-alone uh part D. Plan or if it's in with a Medicare Advantage plan that includes prescription drugs, it will get credited into your account. So it can be confusing and please just give the office a call.

We can walk you through it. The whole process will hold your hand with this because there are some moving parts and we'll just make sure that we get you taken care of. But SHIBA just checked in Idaho into google or into being and it will pop up and you'll go to save money on Medicare.

That's where you're going to want to go. And there's a lot of good resources, uh, with the state and with agents like myself. All right, have a great day.