Behind in premiums with no coverage?
Let's see if I can explain this in a semi-short amount of time...
The Medicare extra help I got to pay my premiums ended in December of '24. But I didn't get notice of that.
By March of '25, my Aetna advantage plan ended my policy due to nonpayment. Even though I'd paid the Aetna premiums. After it took me FOREVER to figure out I had to pay Medicare premiums too, I went into my social security office and paid the $1300 to pay the back premiums all the way through June of '25.
After June, I checked online every couple of weeks for months to see if I could start paying my premiums on medicare.gov again. I was never able to make those payments. It just said I needed to call SS to find out what I needed to do. I called social security every month, and they would tell me that the $1300 was sitting at the payment center and I needed to "wait it out" until it went through and I could start paying my premiums monthly again.
In October, I got a letter from Medicare saying I was eligible to enroll in a plan b during open enrollment. So I did. In November, I got a letter saying this plan would NOT be effective in January, due to not being eligible for Medicare. When I called to ask why I got a letter saying I was eligible to enroll, if I wasn't really, no one could answer- and they said my $1300 was still waiting to be processed.
I finally got marketplace coverage in December, because I can't keep going without insurance.
I even tried to just get a letter from social security saying I was eligible for Medicare to give to my doctors, but they said they couldn't do that.
Then, when I needed a letter for the marketplace to show I wasn't eligible for Medicare, they gave me one.
But now they're saying I've been eligible this whole time.
Then, at the end of April, I got a statement saying I now owe $2048 for June of '25 through August of '26.
Why am I paying the premiums if I haven't been able to get coverage? This makes no sense to me and I'm about ready to do myself in over all of the bullshit I've dealt with over the last year.
I called Medicare twice this morning, Aetna once, and finally was on hold with SS for over an hour to make an appointment with my local SS office to "make the payment", even though the appointment is after the deadline and I can't see how I can possibly make that large of a payment in the next week, AND I don't understand what I'm paying for.
Anyone have ANY insight for me?