Book · Amazon
The Year You Turn 65
The Medicare and Social Security Calendar, Month by Month
by Nancy Whitaker
Your 65th birthday starts a calendar. Most people only find out when a deadline has passed.
Seven months to sign up for Medicare. Six months to buy a supplement without health questions. Sixty-three days before a drug penalty starts to build. Eight months after a job ends, not after COBRA does. Miss some of these clocks and a charge is added to your premium for as long as you have the coverage.
This book puts every clock in order, month by month, from a year before your birthday to a year after. Find your month and read that chapter first. Every number comes from the agency or law that sets it, with the year and date checked. The rules are laid out and the choices are left to you. Nothing is for sale: no plan, no broker, no phone line.
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What is inside The Year You Turn 65
- The one question about your employer that decides whether waiting on Part B is safe or expensive.
- Why COBRA is not treated as job coverage.
- The HSA rule that reaches six months backward.
- The 2023 change to coverage start dates that many older sources still get wrong.
- The one-time Medigap window and the few protected chances after it.
- Your spouse's separate clock.
- The surcharge built from a tax return two years old, and the form that asks Social Security to use a newer year.
- Separate chapters for people still working, leaving COBRA or the Marketplace, on Medicare through disability, covered by VA or TRICARE, on a tight budget, or living abroad.
- Ten fill-in calendar pages.
Frequently asked questions
Is this advice on which Medicare plan to choose?
No. The book lays out the rules and deadlines with their sources and leaves the choice to you. It does not sell or recommend any plan, and it is not affiliated with Medicare or Social Security.
Who is it for?
Anyone in the year before or the year after their 65th birthday, and family members helping them. It has separate chapters for people still working, leaving COBRA or the Marketplace, on Medicare through disability, covered by VA or TRICARE, on a tight budget, or living abroad.