Retirement marks an exciting new chapter, offering opportunities to pursue personal passions or spend more time with family. However, it also brings significant changes to your financial and insurance needs. After years of serving patients and building a career, it’s time to start thinking about how your insurance coverage needs will shift. The benefits you've relied on through your employer might no longer be available once you step away from practice.
Thoughtful preparation before this transition can help keep your retirement years as secure as they are fulfilling.
What Changes When You Retire?
Health insurance is often the most impacted coverage when you retire. Staying informed will give you the confidence to make the right insurance decisions. You can maintain continuous, comprehensive coverage by understanding how Medicare works and transitioning from employer-provided insurance to Medicare and supplemental options. As you prepare for this next stage in life, here are some important considerations:
- Medicare: For most retirees, Original Medicare becomes your primary health insurance. However, it only covers 80% of hospital stays and doctor visits costs, leaving you responsible for the remaining 20%. To cover these out-of-pocket expenses, many choose a Medicare Supplement policy.
- Timing matters: Missing your initial Medicare enrollment window can lead to lifelong penalties, so signing up at the right time is vital. Additionally, Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period (AEP), which runs from October 15th to December 7th each year, offers an opportunity to adjust your coverage. You can discontinue a Medicare Advantage plan and enroll in Original Medicare, switch between Medicare Advantage plans, leave your prescription drug plan, or switch to a different one.
- Employer Coverage: If you intend to continue working past retirement age, it’s crucial to understand how Medicare interacts with your employer’s group plan. Additionally, you will want to consider what will happen to your dependents, who may still rely on your health insurance.
Losing employer-provided prescription drug coverage is another consideration as you approach retirement. Many turn to Medicare Part D to help with prescription costs.
- Medicare Part D: A Medicare Part D (prescription drug) plan can help offset costs if you take prescription medication regularly. Private insurance companies offer these plans, and coverage and costs will vary. To find a plan for your specific medications and budget, a TMA Insurance Trust advisor can guide you through your available options.
Beyond health insurance, other coverage types may change once you leave your employer's benefits package.
- Disability insurance: Once you retire and begin drawing from your retirement savings, disability insurance may no longer be necessary since you no longer rely on earned income.
- Life insurance: Reducing your life insurance coverage might make sense if you’ve built savings and no longer have dependents relying on your income. On the other hand, keeping life insurance in place during retirement can offer financial support to your heirs when settling your estate. This could help with burial expenses, paying off outstanding debts, and other associated costs. TMA Insurance Trust can assist physicians who may lose their employer-provided life insurance upon retirement or seek additional coverage. Even physicians in their seventies can apply for a ten-year level premium term life policy through TMA Insurance Trust, with additional underwriting required.
- Dental, vision, and hearing insurance: These benefits are often part of an employer's package but may not be available after retirement. Exploring affordable replacement options for these types of coverage can help you better manage costs.
The right insurance choices can help you save thousands throughout your retirement. If your spouse is also nearing retirement, ask a TMA Insurance Trust advisor about household discounts that could increase your savings even more.
Making the Right Decisions for a Secure Retirement
At TMA Insurance Trust, we have helped generations of physicians like you make thoughtful, informed decisions about your insurance coverage from residency to retirement. Our unbiased, sales-free advice is tailored to your unique situation, helping you confidently move into retirement and ensuring that you and your loved ones are fully covered.
From Medicare enrollment to selecting a Medicare Part D plan to finding affordable insurance replacement options, our TMA Insurance Trust advisors are committed to being your ally in securing the best coverage. Call 800-880-8181, Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM CST, or click below.
For over 65 years, TMA Insurance Trust advisors have been serving Texas physicians, their families and staff. TMA Insurance Trust prides itself on offering unbiased information and strategies to members, along with exclusive group rates on a range of the highest-rated plans in the industry.
