Medicare. The beauty and the terror!

This episode of Retirement Equals Freedom features a first-ever guest, David Wylly of Medicare Solutions Network, who is here to liberate us from our fear of the unknown!

Host Josh Bretl, Founder of FSR Wealth Solutions, runs through a list of key questions covering everything we need to know about this federal health care program and how it can directly impact our quality of life. (If you missed Part I, you might want to get the basics by clicking here to hear Episode 35.)

You’ll learn in Part II why it’s important to be an educated consumer and where some potential red flags are hidden – especially as you approach age 65 and a blizzard of insurance pitches hits. Supplements.

Advantage programs. Options. Parts A, B, C and D. These Medicare components aren’t as daunting as they might seem, especially once explained by Dave W., FSR Wealth’s preferred expert on the topic.

When it comes to smart retirement planning, Josh and Dave W. (not to be confused with our regular co-host, Dave S.) have an unmistakable message to share: Staying engaged is huge.

The choices we make about health care have real consequences. It’s definitely not something to set and forget. So don’t run and don’t hide. Instead, find out how you can take charge!

A great place to start is with Dave’s Medicare Master Class he gave at FSR's quarterly client event, which friends of FSR are invited to attend for free at this link. You can also reach out directly through to Medicare Solutions Network or by giving Dave a call at 630-809-9758.

And don’t worry! Your co-hosts will be back next time with their signature segments, “Get to Know Josh and Dave” and “Dave Relates to Retirees.” (Cue the DR2R jingle!)

Want to chat with others in the FSR community? Join the conversation at our private Facebook group, which you’ll find here!

If you haven’t yet subscribed, click here to have FSR news you can use – and lots more fun stuff – delivered straight to your inbox. You’ll also find great resources about all things R=F at this pod link resource, including one-click access to your favorite platform for listening!

Whenever you’re ready to schedule a free discovery with one of our team, please visit this site. We look forward to meeting you and exploring how FSR Wealth Strategies can help you create the retirement you have worked for and deserve!

Our whole planning process, we call it our own your

retirement planning process.

We want people to be in control and own their situation.

And bearing your head in the sand about Medicare for

your entire retirement is one of those things that

you're just hurting yourself.

I would always say the first thing you want to do

is start to educate yourself.

Waiting till the last minute is not the answer.

Do not ignore it.

It's not going to go away.

The more you learn about Medicare, the more you're

going to appreciate what a great program it is.

But you just need to understand the intricacies involved.

Medicare.

Oh, the Beauty and the Terror.

This episode features our very first guest, Dave Wylly,

who is here to liberate us from our fear of the unknown.

Our host, Josh Bretl, runs us through a list of key questions,

covering everything we need to know about Medicare and how it

can directly impact your life.

In this episode, the part two of our Medicare series,

you'll learn why it's so important to be an educated

consumer and where some potential red flags may pop up.

Supplements, advantage programs, options, parts A, B, C, D,

these Medicare components aren't as daunting as they

may seem, especially once explained by Dave Wylly, our

preferred expert on the topic.

Staying engaged is huge.

The choices you make about healthcare have

real consequences.

It's definitely not something you should just set and forget.

So yeah, don't just run and hide.

Instead, find out how you can take charge.

And a great place to do so is right here in episode 36.

This is the Retirement Equals Freedom Podcast.

Your host, Josh Bretl, is the owner of FSR Wealth Strategies.

And for the last 20 plus years, he's been helping fine folks

like you gain the confidence needed to make retirement

the best part of your life.

And me?

Why hello, I'm Dave.

Josh's longtime friend, co-host and fan of Barrel

Aged Old Fashioneds.

All right, all right.

I have been talking long enough.

Let me, let you, let me end my introduction so we can get right

on with Medicare part deux.

FSR Wealth Management is a registered investment advisor

located in Elmhurst, Illinois.

Information and opinions contained in this audio

have been arrived at by FSR Wealth advisors.

All information herein is for informational purposes

and should not be construed as investment advice.

It does not constitute an offer, a solicitation or recommendation

to purchase any security.

FSR is not providing legal, tax, accounting, or financial

planning advice in this audio.

These views are as of the date of this publication

and are subject to change.

We made a pact months ago saying we would never record

a podcast after lunch.

We're going to test it.

We're testing our energy levels.

I mean, you and I are physical specimens of way

to not treat your body.

Our food intake and lack of exercise is not good.

It's not good.

And actually, you and I were talking this

morning about mentally how you get back in the game

and back into certain stuff.

And this is a prime example of us saying we're

going to eat healthy.

It's like we're going to record podcasts, but early

in the morning when we're full of energy and not

when the food coma hits in.

And here we are.

We were both talking this morning about

taking the first steps to getting healthy again.

And what do we do?

We order the most carb-heavy, gluttonous, ramen deliciousness

Elmhurst has to offer.

It's just broth and chicken.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

The noodles, that's just like veggies, right?

Mm-hmm.

The amount of time stuff spent in the fryer?

No big deal.

No.

Yeah, I agree.

Our bodies love us.

Dave this is..

I think I said this in the last podcast.

It's this rebirth of spring.

It's a fun time of the year.

It's why you live in Chicago, because the

winters are miserable.

Now, you love winters.

You love being miserable apparently.

It's true.

But here we are, winter again.

Mm-hmm.

And coming up this weekend, I am doing something

with my daughter Maggie.

It's take two of Indian Princess's camp out.

Now the last time, she barely slept and got the flu and COVID,

I think, all in one weekend.

And we found out right in the middle of our Disney trip.

So no, she did not get COVID.

Just the flu, that one.

So that was fun.

Let's try it again.

Yeah, I was going to say.

It was so successful.

Take two.

She's super excited for it.

Let's play two.

Wait, is she excited for it or is she not excited for it?

Oh, she is giddy excited for it.

Oh, oh, oh.

She's missing soccer and some other fun

things, but she doesn't care because she's like, "I get

to go to this camp out."

It's fun.

They run around outside.

They stay up late.

They eat junk food.

They're with just dads.

No moms telling them not to do stuff.

What do you have planned?

Now, do the guys coordinate who's going to bring what snacks

to grill and things like that?

Yeah, they coordinate.

Actually, the one guy who's the head of our little

Princess tribe, he's awesome.

But he brings a giant grill and he makes sure there's

enough food and he does all this stuff, and we just chip

in some money and help clean up and do all that fun stuff.

All that fun stuff.

It sounds like the time we hung out with Dave Wylly.

It is like the time we hung out with Dave Wylly.

You had so much fun with Dave Wylly.

You said he should be our very first podcast guest ever.

Mm-hmm.

I did.

And this is the very first episode that

we're bringing a guest on.

So you and I, the reason we decided we could record this

after lunch is because this is the first time you and

I are not the main talking heads on this episode here.

It's true.

Dave Wylly is our Medicare expert that we

use in our office, but we've been referring to Dave Wylly

now for couple of years.

My parents personally use him.

Dave Wylly is as intelligent about Medicare and cares as

much about the client as we do about all their aspects

of financial planning.

We really match well together.

So there's no affiliation between us.

We don't share revenue.

There's nothing other than I think that this is the right

person to refer our clients to.

And there are other Medicare people out there as well that

if you were using someone who you trust, that's great.

But I want to bring Dave Wylly on to ask him some questions

that I get asked a lot from different people and to help

dispel from that viewpoint even things that we can't do

because we don't deal with it day in, day out the way he does.

I know you've had the pleasure of watching one of Dave Wylly's

seminars he gave to our clients.

Mm-hmm.

And on our show page, what I'd like

to do is link to that seminar if we could, Mr.

David.

Yeah, I think we could work

something like that out.

We'll probably have to just have people enter in a few

pieces of information to get access to the video.

We don't want it totally all over the internet, right?

Yeah, that's probably good.

David wouldn't like that.

No.

But he's okay with me sharing it with

some people who request it.

So.

Okay.

But yeah, if you like what he has to say, if

you just want to learn more, we did do a whole hour-long

presentation to our clients.

It's a live presentation.

It's clean and barely edited there, but it's a

good presentation, too, and there's a lot more

detail that we go in there.

Was this the live event you made me record

and you did not let me get up for water or bathroom breaks?

Yeah, it was a really long one too.

And Medicare is an in-depth topic.

So in-depth.

Super, super awesome topic too.

All right, so I think without any further ado...

No, I didn't said that correctly.

With...

Huh?

How do you say that?

Let me let you let me let you let me let you enjoy.

Oh.

Ooh, should I do that?

I can do that live right now.

Right now?

Are you ready to end this introduction so

we can get onto Dave's here?

Yeah.

Dave Schmidt:

Because I can say it.

But here's the thing:

when I say it, that's it.

But here's the thing:

We can't talk anymore.

Okay, deal.

Okay, ready?

All right, listeners of the podcast and friends.

Let me let you let me and Josh end my introduction so you

can enjoy Dave Wylly and Josh.

Enjoy.

We can't talk anymore now?

I mean, we can still talk.

All right.

Yeah.

So this is the first time I'm talking into

a microphone without my good friend Dave Schmidt.

So I pulled in another David with me here and another

friend of mine, Dave Wylly.

Dave, thanks for joining us here.

My pleasure.

So a little background.

David is a Medicare specialist.

He's an expert in Medicare, and my father, five

years ago was turning 65.

Now, we happen to own a practice that specializes

in working with retirees and Medicare's a hot topic.

Well, we never had anybody who we would send

Medicare referrals to.

It's something that we don't handle.

It's a very specialized thing, and we have always

felt that when it came to Medicare, most Medicare

salespeople who approached us were buying a used car.

It was a dirty, used car.

And it wasn't until, actually it was one of my dad's

high school friends, they just happened to all be

turning 65 at the same time.

Who is a really, really smart guy.

He says, "Hey, you've got to meet this Dave guy.

It's something totally different."

And so, I don't know if you remember, but you came in and

you talked to my dad and I, and we brought you in to do

a workshop and we all said, "This is totally different."

Yeah.

You guys definitely put me through the full nine yards.

That's for sure.

We did.

But every time we've heard you talk, it's like our whole

staff learn something new and it's just a great experience.

So I appreciate all of your help over the years.

My pleasure.

It's a complex topic and yet it's not as scary if you break

it down into bite-sized chunks.

We're not going to have a ton of time here because

our podcast listeners get really sore on their butt if we make

them sit and listen too long.

But I wanted to go through a few key questions for you

and then we'll talk about how they can reach out and

learn more as we move on here.

So the person who's listening just turned 64 years old and

on their birthday, they start getting their first batch of

mail and it's every insurance company under the sun.

It's unbelievable.

The landslide, if you've ever owned an insurance product

in your life, and property and casualty, automobile,

homeowners, any of that, they've got your birthdate,

they've got your address, and they probably have your phone

number, maybe your old phone number, but you'll find that

the phone rings off the hook and your mailbox fills up.

It will be unbelievable.

So you can't get Medicare till 65.

This starts at 64.

When should people start worrying about it?

Well, we always say anytime you feel your blood

pressure going up, we do a lot of educational seminars and

we find that people will show up, and you'll run the gamut.

You'll have folks that are in their late 50s.

You'll have folks that have already made their Medicare

decision, and yet that gives me a great source of pride because

they're smart enough to revisit the initial decisions they

made because maybe they didn't make a fully informed decision.

But you see people, will get people coming to our

office that saw us four or five years ago at a library.

So I would always say the first thing you want to do

is start to educate yourself.

Waiting till the last minute is not the answer.

Do not ignore it.

It's not going to go away.

And it's the more you learn about Medicare, the more

you're going to appreciate what a great program it is.

But you just need to understand the intricacies involved.

So I got a few things out of that.

One is don't wait.

So if someone's 60 years old and they're freaking out about

Medicare, they can come watch one of your presentations.

Anytime you feel your blood pressure going

up is when we should meet.

Okay.

Here's a second question.

You're 68, 69, 75 years old, and you made a Medicare choice

at 65 and you just kept the same thing over and over again.

Is there room to be better?

Is there...

There's always room to investigate.

We find an awful lot of people come to Medicare and they

did what their neighbor did.

They did what the guy at work did.

They did what their brother-in-law did, and

that is not usually the best opportunity to maximize value.

And everybody's value equation is a little bit different.

How are you doing financially?

How are you doing physically?

What's your risk tolerance?

What's your medical history?

These things all go into a comfort level.

The problem is most people come to Medicare, they make

one decision, they throw it in a drawer and they don't

ever want to visit it again because it was so damned

confusing the first time.

So what they wind up doing is just ignoring.

And we know, even though there's a landslide of

advertising, every year you get a chance to do your drug

program over or maybe look in an advantage program or

just reassess where you are.

That's from October 15th to December 7th.

And we know studies tell us about 65% of all

seniors never even look.

They got so confused the first time.

They don't even want to deal with it.

And we know the most terrifying word that seniors

can hear here comes change.

Oh my God, they hate that word.

It's not just seniors, trust me.

We're really big.

Our whole planning process, we call it our own your

retirement planning process.

We want people to be in control and own their situation.

And bearing your head in the sand about Medicare for

your entire retirement is one of those things that

you're just hurting yourself.

That's one of the saddest things.

We'll catch people in their late 70s, early 80s, even

further on down the road because eventually these decisions that

you made, whether you look at it yearly or every 10 years,

it's eventually going to be something that's going to grab

your attention because it's going to continue to increase

in cost on a fixed income.

You're eventually going to bump into the decision point

of what are we doing and is there a better alternative?

And that's one of the great things that we're able to do

is rescue people in their later years that might not have made

smart decisions initially and be able to improve their situation.

Usually it's fairly dramatic, but as always, the saddest part

of that conversation is when you explain to the couple that

with a couple couple of prudent moves, you can save about $180

a month between the two of you and they get very excited.

But it always seems like it's mom that wants to

know how long could we have been saving $180 a month?

And you have to try to tell them, "Well, I'm glad I

didn't meet you at 86 because you're paying way too much."

yeah, in $180 a month, it's real money.

I mean, it's-

Times 12.

Yeah, that's every year.

Let's take a step backwards here.

Medicare is ungodly confusing and that's talking from

someone who knows the tax code.

A, B, D, Advantage, all that fun stuff.

Can you give us a brief description of how to

think about Medicare?

Well, you start with Medicare being primary,

and this is a tectonic shift.

You have to almost check what you learned in your

first 65 years of insurance at the door because now

there's a new sheriff in town.

This is Medicare.

The federal government is going to step into place, and

that doesn't have to be at 65.

You might wait longer if you continue to

have coverage at work.

But the first step in the process is wrapping your

mind around how Medicare breaks out facilities.

That's all under part A, and services, that's

all under part B.

And that's a little bit different, but it's the

buildings that you need is part A, and then everything that goes

on in the buildings is part B.

And what you want to know is that that's really good coverage

at a really good price, but it's nowhere near complete.

So that A and B is government

run, government control.

They set the rules, they set the cost, all of that.

That's the foundation.

You got to have that.

That's the cover charge to get into the wonderland

of Medicare, A and B.

And once you get educated and understand what that does,

and then conversely what that doesn't do, then that opens

the door to a discussion about how private insurance

companies can step in and fill those gaps or supplement what

original Medicare doesn't cover.

So the supplements, those are what

people are getting mail for.

These days, supplements are not

getting as much push as the Advantage programs.

Advantage has become a very hot topic because it features

low premiums and Joe Namath.

And a high commission for the salesperson.

Pays absolutely the highest

commissions in my industry.

And it drives me crazy because if you're doing a analysis of

what folks need that should be, and I know Josh and I share a

similar philosophy, it's called fiduciary responsibility.

Are you doing what's in the best interests of your clients?

And a lot of agents that I've seen in the field and the

advertising on TV is incessant.

Advantage is a gold mine for the agent.

It's a gold mine for the company that's marketing

it, but it might not be your best option for coverage.

And I'm someone who thinks graphically,

I love a good flow chart.

And my family makes fun of me.

But the way you picture it, actually, you have a handout in

the seminars that's fantastic.

And you have two paths that it follows.

You have this traditional path, part A, part B,

and the supplement and-

A drug program.

And a drug program.

We called original Medicare.

That's one pathway.

Okay.

And the other pathway is the advantage pathway.

Correct.

And we'll see a change here probably in the next year

because what we're hoping is going to come out of

Washington DC is they're going to take the word Medicare

off of Medicare Advantage, all these advertisements

on TV intimate that you are part of Medicare when you're

with an Advantage program.

That's not true.

Advantage is a private health insurance alternative, doesn't

have the same catchy phrase.

It's not as catchy.

How you name that is genius.

Yeah.

So what they've got is people being convinced that they're

part of the Medicare world.

You still have A and B, you still got to pay the part B

premium, but with Advantage, you've moved to a different

platform where now a private insurance company is running

your healthcare and there's a market difference between

making decisions with your doctor, and that would be

the pathway called original Medicare, or making decisions

with an insurance company.

That's what Advantage is.

The federal government pays a private insurance company

and they step in and literally replace original Medicare.

Now, everything is run through them.

It's not a bad thing.

But boy, those advertisements on TV drive me crazy.

They're very disingenuous.

The way that they're pitching dental, vision, hearing, get all

the benefits you're entitled to.

Let's take a real good look at those benefits in what you're

actually getting and what you're actually giving up.

So the first step is to decide original

Medicare, that pathway with A, B, D supplements

or the Advantage path.

Is that correct?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I would say when you look at A and B, and we would refer

to A and B, the bedrock, the foundation, that's a sunk cost.

So when you realize that you got to have A and B, then the

way you really analyze whether it's original Medicare or an

Advantage program, you'd want to look at buying a drug program in

a supplement that would complete the original Medicare pathway.

So what is the drug program and the supplement cost as

opposed to an Advantage program?

Where most advantage programs are touting, and it's true

zero premium, you're not paying a monthly premium, but

you're out of pocket exposure is dramatically higher and

your network restrictions are something that need

to be analyzed in depth.

So you'll pay less-

Upfront.

probably upfront, but they're going

to limit who you can see, when you can see them.

And it's going to cost you a lot more when you need it probably.

This is the bane of my existence, is people

who spend 12 minutes on the phone with somebody in a

teleservice agency in Florida and decide to dramatically

change their coverage.

And yes, it's true with Advantage you do get bells and

whistles and shiny objects, but when the rubber hits the

road and you really need health insurance, people are dismayed

to find out they traded free toothpaste for the Mayo Clinic.

To my opinion, you want to be able to see the doctors,

you want to see when you want to see them, what original

Medicare is all about.

Now, we've just spent the last five

minutes bashing Advantage.

I'm sure there are people who is-

Who love it.

Who is in it, and it's appropriate for them.

Sure, could be, could be.

If your health is good, if your doctors are in network, we like

the advantage play later in life because what you'll find is

supplements and drug programs, those premiums will increase

through the years and there can become a tipping point where

you've slowed down, you're not traveling as much, your doctors

are all in the same network, you are much more stationary.

And that's where an Advantage program could

make a lot of sense.

Your doctors are in network and the price of your supplement

and drug program have spiraled up through the years.

There can be a flipping point there.

So that goes back to the, it's not

a set it and forget it.

It's something you need to look at as much as you can.

Shouldn't be.

Yeah.

We have people who listen to this all over

the country, and this is a question I didn't tell you

I was going to answer or ask you, but is Medicare

different state by state?

Well, you get 47 states that do it the same

way, and then you've got three that are wacky and do

it a little bit differently.

But for the most part, when you have Medicare running the

show, it's a nationwide program.

They're the network, they're the billers, they're the paperwork,

they're all the follow-up.

And that allows us a level of competition

among all these companies that want your business.

Wisconsin is a little bit different, Minnesota's a

little different, and Rhode Island I think is the other one

that's a little bit different.

But for the most part, the platform is very standard

across the United States.

And once you understand the components, and

that's a problem.

People come to the world of Medicare, they've had

an employer plan and all the decisions that went

into their healthcare program were all dictated

to them by the employer.

It was a wonderful benefit, but they've not been used to the

putting together a health plan.

What's the network?

What's the deductible?

What's the co-payment?

What's the drug benefit?

What's the wellness benefit?

The beauty of Medicare, which conversely can be the

terror of Medicare, now you get to make those decisions.

The beauty of it is it's totally customizable to what

you want it to be, and it can be changed through the aging

process if you'll stay engaged.

That's funny.

I've never thought about it that way.

I talk about that all the time from a tax perspective and

an investment perspective.

Well, while people are working and just living their lives,

there's not much control.

There's not much decisions they have to make.

The employer makes most of those decisions.

You don't have control, but when you retire, all of a

sudden you have control over when and how you're taxed.

You have a lot more control over your investment options.

But at the same is true with healthcare too.

I never thought about that.

Sure.

It shouldn't be on autopilot.

Just like you control your 401[k] withdrawals and that

income level, you can control your healthcare to a large

degree if you stay engaged.

Every year, you get to change the drug program.

I guess the biggest key to anything with regard

to healthcare, the better your health, the more

doors are open to you.

So that's something we all need to get involved in.

Yeah.

Without a doubt.

Let's talk about drug companies or the drug program

for just a second here.

Part D, and I know you've heard this, I've heard you

say this over and over again.

You need to look at it every single year.

Why is that?

You really should.

The beauty of my industry, the cornerstone of Medicare

is robust competition and complete transparency.

So these companies, and there's many of them.

For example, here in Illinois, we currently have 24 different

drug programs to choose from.

My God, why 24?

No, no, no.

26 would be better.

28 would be better still because they're all focused in

on winning your business, but kept on the rails by Medicare.

Medicare shows them the drugs they can cover and they

don't have to cover them all.

So you have specialization, you have niches, whether it's

very healthy guy that's taking generics or a very sickly person

who needs very expensive drugs.

But every year these guys sharpen their pencil.

Every year they got to show us everything.

medicare.gov a wonderful website.

They have to show us their cards every year starting October 1st.

You have the ability to utilize capitalism.

Capitalism kept on the rails works.

And we've seen over the last 15 years a dramatic decrease in

the cost of the drug programs.

But any drug program that you choose needs to be correct

for your situation, for the pharmacy you want to use and

for the meds you are taking.

There's a lot of variables there, but when you understand

how to do it really can make a lot of sense every

year just to double check.

And your medication could change every year.

The cost of your medication could change.

Constantly, we have drugs going generic.

That's been a godsend for a lot of people.

Crestor used to be a brand name drug.

It was $110.

Now, it's called Rosuvastatin Calcium.

It's five bucks.

But you might not know that if you didn't check on it.

Yeah, that's crazy.

Well, Dave, you are the most knowledgeable Medicare

professional I've ever met.

And you have a very similar philosophy.

If people wanted to talk to you or learn more, how do they go

about getting a ahold of you?

We got a website.

Hey, there's a novel concept.

Medicaresolutionsnetwork, all one word, .com.

Don't Google that.

You got to put it in your email, your search bar

or the email address bar.

If you just put it in Google, obviously you're going to get

a million people that have Medicare in their name and

Medicare solutions as well.

Medicaresolutionsnetwork.com.

Give us a call, 630-809-9758.

Happy to talk to anybody who needs more information.

Oh, wonderful.

We'll put that link in our show notes.

And as well, if you are in the Chicagoland area,

I highly, highly recommend you check out one of Dave's

presentations at the library.

I think I'm a good public speaker and Dave is the only

person who I will turn the stage over to in front of clients.

So I appreciate that.

Humbled.

It's worth listening to.

So Dave, thank you very much for joining us on the-

thanks, Josh.

on the Retirement Equals Freedom Podcast.

Thank you.

Thank you for awakening me from my slumber.

You just made me watch that 18-minute interview with

Dave for the 15th time.

Well, David here who I'm talking to, Dave

Schmidt not Dave Wylly, edits everything in our podcast

so he gets the joy of seeing it over and over again.

So I hope you all enjoyed listening to Dave there,

Dave Wylly and I talk.

He is truly a amazing source of Medicare knowledge,

which I'm sure he's honored that we call him that.

And like Josh mentioned in the preamble, we

will link to that video in the show notes and you will be able

to enjoy that, what is it, 90...

Oh, it's less than 90 minutes.

We cut out a lot of your rambling at the beginning

of the presentation.

Yeah, I ramble.

Yeah, you do.

You ramble on.

So yeah, enjoy that Medicare video if you really are

a glutton for punishment.

And I look forward to seeing you

on the next episode of Retirement Equals Freedom.

Are you saying you look forward to seeing me

personally or our listeners?

Well, you.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

I don't see the listeners.

Oh.

I know, but that's how sometimes people sign off.

Anyways, all right.

Thanks, guys.

Bye.

Bye.