SRIG's 5 Costly Medicare Mistakes

This is the big one — the most common and most expensive penalty in all of Medicare. For every full 12-month period you could have had Part B but didn't sign up, your monthly premium goes up 10% — permanently. This isn't a one-time late fee. It's added to your premium every month for as long as you have Medicare.

And the penalty isn't even the worst part. Miss your window and you often can't enroll until the General Enrollment Period (January 1–March 31), with coverage not starting until July 1 — leaving you exposed with no coverage for months.

This is the trap that catches healthy people. You feel great, you take nothing, so you skip drug coverage. But the Part D late penalty is 1% of the national base premium ($38.99 in 2026) for every month you go without creditable coverage — and it's permanent, whether you take medications or not.

You're not buying a drug plan for today. You're protecting yourself against a lifetime penalty — and making sure that if you ever do need an expensive medication, you're already covered.

This one quietly locks people out of the best coverage — and most never see it coming. When you first enroll in Part B, you get a 6-month Medigap Open Enrollment window, and it only comes around once. During it, insurers cannot use your health history to deny you or charge you more. No health questions. No underwriting. No denials.

Miss that window, and in most states insurers can ask health questions and deny your application based on your medical history — or charge you far more. And here's the cruel part: the older you get and the more conditions you develop, the harder it becomes to qualify. Wait until you're sick, and it may be too late to get the plan you want at all.

Here's the assumption that triggers a penalty people never see coming: COBRA does not count as creditable coverage for Part B. Retire at 65, take COBRA, skip Medicare — and your penalty clock is already ticking. Many retiree plans don't count either, which means you could still get hit with the permanent Part B penalty.

Two more traps hide in this same family:

• ACA / Marketplace subsidies end the moment you become eligible for premium-free Part A at 65 — whether you enroll or not.
• HSA contributions — delay Medicare past 65 with an HSA and Part A can apply retroactively up to six months, making those contributions subject to a 6% IRS excise tax penalty.

Only active employer coverage — from a company with 20 or more employees where you or your spouse are still working — lets you delay Part B penalty-free.

This is the slow bleed most people never notice. Plans change every single year — provider networks shift, drug formularies drop medications, and premiums creep up. Auto-renew without checking, and you can wake up in January paying full price for a drug your plan no longer covers, or find your doctor is suddenly out of network.

Every fall your plan mails you an Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) listing next year's changes. Most people toss it. The window to fix anything — the Annual Enrollment Period — runs October 15 through December 7. Miss it, and you're locked into a bad fit for a full year.

Figures reflect 2026 amounts: Part B premium $202.90/mo, Part D national base premium $38.99. Penalty amounts adjust as these base figures change each year.

Every one of these mistakes is avoidable — but only if you catch it in time. Here's how to make sure none of them touch you:

• Watch the video above — we break down all five mistakes and exactly how to sidestep them.
• Book a Blueprint consultation — we'll pull your exact deadlines and windows, and build a timeline so nothing slips.

Your blueprint is waiting. Let's build it together.