The Turning 65 Checklist
Everything to do in the year around your 65th birthday, in the order it needs doing, on one page you can print and tick off.
Why a checklist and not another article
Turning 65 is not one decision, it is about nine of them, spread over roughly ten months, and two of the windows do not reopen. Most people meet this material once in their lives and are asked to get it right first time.
So this is the short version: what to do, when, and what happens if you leave it. Every item links to the page that explains it properly if you want the reasoning.
Send me the printable copy
Tell us where to send it and the checklist opens below straight away. If you tell us the month you turn 65, we will send a short reminder as each window opens, and nothing else. No newsletter, and we do not pass your address to anyone.
The checklist
Dates below are counted from the month you turn 65. If your birthday is on the first of the month, everything shifts one month earlier, which catches people out.
Twelve months before: find out which way this works for you
- Check whether you will be enrolled automatically or have to apply. If you are already drawing Social Security you are enrolled for you. If you are not, nothing happens unless you act.
- Decide whether you will still be working, and whether you will still be on an employer plan. That single answer changes the whole timeline.
- If you are staying on employer coverage, read Working Past 65 before you do anything else.
Seven months before: your Initial Enrollment Period opens
- The window runs for seven months: the three months before your birth month, the birth month itself, and the three months after.
- Applying in the three months before is what gets your coverage started on the first day of your birth month. Waiting until the birth month or later delays the start.
- Gather what you will need: Social Security number, the date any employer coverage started and ended, and a list of your prescriptions with dosages.
Three months before: apply, and decide the shape of the coverage
- Apply for Parts A and B through Social Security. Online is quickest. The full walk through is on the Applying for Medicare page.
- Decide between a Medicare Supplement and a Medicare Advantage plan. On the Central Coast the network reality usually decides this rather than the premium, which is why Supplement or Advantage is a local question.
- Check that your doctors take what you are about to buy. Do this before you enroll, not after.
- Sort the drug plan in the same pass. A Part D decision left until later is the most common expensive mistake here.
Your birth month: the clock you cannot get back
- Your Medigap open enrollment begins when you are 65 and enrolled in Part B, and runs six months.
- Inside it you can buy any Medicare Supplement sold in your area with no medical questions asked. Outside it, in most cases, your health can be used to decline you.
- This is the single window on this page with the most riding on it, and it does not reopen.
When your card arrives: check it and file it
- Check the effective dates on the card against what you expected. Errors here are easier to fix in the first weeks than the first year.
- Set up your online account with the insurance company, read the policy once, and confirm your providers are in network.
- After You Apply covers the four folder system for keeping the paperwork straight.
Every year after: the two dates worth keeping
- Annual enrollment runs each autumn. Drug plans change their formularies every year, so the plan that was right last year may not be this year.
- California gives Medigap holders a window each year around their birthday to move to an equal or lesser benefit plan with no underwriting. See the California Birthday Rule.
- If your income has dropped since you retired, you may be paying a surcharge you can appeal. See IRMAA and how to appeal it.
If you would rather just ask someone
There is never a charge for our services, and the premium is the same whether you buy through an agent or not. A short call usually settles more than an evening of reading.
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