If you don’t have health insurance, open enrollment for Medicare began this month and ends on Dec. 7.
HPR’s Dr. Kathy Kozak recommends anyone eligible for the government-run health insurance start looking into which of the plans works for them.
She says if you’re already enrolled, the open enrollment period is also the time to try a different plan if your needs have changed.
The most important thing is you are covered.
"Accidents happen and they can’t be predicted and people could wind up with a very bad diagnosis or they can be in some type of accident themselves, or someone could cause them injury, and not all the time are other types of insurance available," she said during HPR's The Conversation.
"So you never want to find out after you’ve incurred a huge bill that you should have had insurance — you don’t qualify for the types of insurance that you had hoped for and now you’re stuck with paying this large amount of money, and you may not have the resources to do it. Or you might have to work overtime to start paying that off," Kozak said.
For anyone enrolling in Medicare before the Dec. 7 deadline, Kozak says coverage will start in January 2022.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Oct. 22, 2021.
