Your 65th birthday comes with a deadline most people don’t know about. Medicare gives you a 7-month Initial Enrollment Period: the three months before your birthday month, your birthday month, and the three months after. Miss it, and you can face a lifetime late-enrollment penalty on Part B — 10% added to your premium for every year you waited.
Here’s your checklist, in order:
6 months before 65 — learn the parts
Part A (hospital) is premium-free for most people. Part B (doctors and outpatient care) has a monthly premium. Then you’ll choose how to receive it all: Original Medicare plus a Medigap supplement and Part D drug plan, or an all-in-one Medicare Advantage plan. There’s no universally “best” answer — it depends on your doctors, medications, budget, and travel.
3 months before 65 — decide about enrolling
Still working with employer coverage (20+ employees)? You may be able to delay Part B without penalty — but confirm the details with your benefits office first; guessing wrong is expensive. Everyone else: enroll early in the window at ssa.gov or your Social Security office so coverage starts the month you turn 65.
When Part B starts — your one-time Medigap window opens
For 6 months, insurers must sell you any Medigap plan at their best rate, no health questions asked. If you want a supplement, this is the moment — that guarantee generally never comes back.
Don’t forget drug coverage
Even if you take no medications today, going without Part D (or drug coverage through an Advantage plan) triggers its own penalty that grows every month.
A Tennessee note
The plans available in Memphis and Shelby County differ from what’s offered elsewhere — and from what national TV ads promise. What matters is what’s actually sold in your ZIP code.
You don’t have to sort this out alone
We’re a veteran-owned, independent Memphis agency, and there is never a charge for our services. Call (866) 327-6284 or schedule your free consultation — bring your questions, we’ll bring the plain-English answers.
We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.