Navigating Medicare is like trying to solve a complex puzzle with its multitude of parts, plans, rules, and‘ gotcha’ penalties. When you add in all the misleading advertisements, it’ s no wonder many find it overwhelming. But why is Medicare so complicated?

There are many reasons, but its history has a lot to do with it. Original Medicare( the red, white, and blue card) came out in the mid-sixties, and it has changed very little. It had, and still has, many shortcomings, but at the time it was much better than having no healthcare plan at all.

These shortcomings were addressed not by changing Original Medicare but by creating vast new bureaucratic institutions, slowly – over many decades. Now we have an alphabet soup of policies with many new institutions using names already taken by earlier programs. Several programs have two names.

Medicare was originally created under the Social Security umbrella. As it grew, it needed to be its

own department, creating a typical bureaucratic power struggle. Social Security did not want to give it up, so a compromise split Medicare off from Social Security— except for enrollment. New Medicare enrollees must go through Social Security first. You cannot make this up.

If you seek help from Medicare publications, YouTube, books, articles, or your uncle Charlie, invariably you will just get more confused. The reason is that they all assume everyone’ s situation is the same when, in fact, most people are unique.

Identifying who you are will dictate which path you follow to get the plans you need, avoiding penalties, frustrations, and financial hardships.

Enrolling in Medicare is a process. Done properly, enrolling in Medicare and its supporting plans begins by answering simple questions. The answers you give will dictate what the next question will be and so forth. When you get to the end, what and how you enroll should be clear.

You enroll in Medicare once, so it is very important to do it right. Many decisions you make could be permanent.

Many considerations determine which path you need to follow, such as your monthly budget, whether you are on Social Security, your health, your medications, and your lifestyle( lifestyle including being a snowbird.

Don’ t feel bad if Medicare overwhelms you; it overwhelms nearly everyone. My best advice is to start researching early, at least 4 months before your birth month in which you turn 65.

If you need help from a professional, stay local and check out what others are saying about them. Google is a good place to start.