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☕ DrinkCoffeeAndProfit
Smart money moves before breakfast
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Inspiration Quote for the Day
“Not to decide is to decide.”
Harvey Cox
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The Morning Ritual
The Envelope That Arrives This Month Decides What Your Pills Cost in January
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My neighbor Dana is `71`. She was carrying a stack of mail to the recycling bin yesterday and stopped over one envelope. It was thick, it came from her drug plan, and it looked like every piece of junk she throws out on sight. She opened it because it would not fold.
September mail season starts tomorrow, and this is the one letter in it that costs money. Not because it asks for any. Because it tells you what next year costs, and it assumes you will not answer.
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In One Sip
► Medicare Open Enrollment runs October `15` through December `7`. Whatever you pick then starts January `1`.
► Your plan has to get its Annual Notice of Change into your hands before that window opens. That is why it shows up in September.
► Inside it: next year’s premium, next year’s deductible, and every drug that moved to a different tier.
► Do nothing and you are enrolled again on your own. The plan can accept a change request only through December `7`.
► Here is the part that matters. What renews is next year’s version of your plan. It is not the plan you have today.
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Why It Matters for Your Money
Tiers are where the money hides. A pill that sits on tier `2` this year can sit on tier `3` next year. Same pill, same dose, same pharmacy. If that copay moves from `$10` to `$47` a month, you pay -`$444` more over the year for the identical prescription.
The premium line does the quieter version of this. Up `$12` a month reads like nothing on paper. It is -`$144` a year, decided by a letter that went out with the recycling.
Then there is the network page. Your doctor can be in the plan in December and out of it in January. This letter is not a bill and it is not an ad. It is the only warning you get, and it arrives looking like both.
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The Wealth Angle
Now here is the part most people miss. Automatic renewal exists for a good reason. It keeps people from waking up on January `2` with no coverage at all. The trouble is that a worse plan renews just as smoothly as a good one. The machine does not read the letter either.
Which side of Medicare you sit on decides what the mistake costs. If you are in a Medicare Advantage plan, you get a second window from January `1` to March `31`. If you are in Original Medicare with a separate drug plan, you do not. Same oversight, two very different prices.
I would rather spend twenty minutes in October than learn this standing at a pharmacy counter in January. The counter is a bad place to find out and a worse place to argue.
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☕ Key Insight:
Doing nothing feels like keeping what you have. It is actually agreeing to next year’s version, sight unseen. That September letter is the only place those two things are printed side by side.
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Coffee Break Move
If you are comfortable: Write your prescriptions and doses on one page, with what each one costs you now. Keep that page with the letter. On October `15` compare it against next year’s tier list on your plan’s site or through the plan finder on medicare.gov. Set a reminder today for that date. The window shuts December `7`, and the phone lines get long in the last week.
If you are stretched: Do one thing. Put the envelope somewhere you will trip over it. If it already went out with the recycling, call the number on the back of your plan card. Ask them to resend the Annual Notice of Change. It costs `$0` and takes one call.
Dana kept hers. It is on her kitchen table under the sugar bowl, with four prescriptions listed on the back of the envelope in pencil. That is the whole job. Twenty minutes in October beats a surprise in January every single time.
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