medicare

There may come a time when tasks like putting on your pants and brushing your teeth are difficult without assistance. The federal government projects that almost 70 percent of Americans turning 65 now will eventually need long-term care. How much care you think you’ll need, and how you’ll pay for it, is an essential part of prudent retirement planning.

Medicare Advantage plans, often called Medicare Part C, are sold and administered by private companies. Medicare pays these companies a fixed fee for each enrollee, and they’re required to provide at least as much coverage as Original Medicare (Parts A and B.) Some plans even offer customer rebates.

Signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966, Medicare now covers nearly all Americans over age 65. And they’ll need the help: Projections indicate that a healthy couple who retired in 2019 could expect to spend over $385,000 in insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs to cover their healthcare needs.

Americans turning 65 now have about a 70% chance of needing long-term care in the future. You might assume that Medicare will pay for all your long-term care needs, but you’d be wrong. Medicare does provide some benefits, but only under very specific conditions.

So What Does Medicare Cover?