Medicare is the health care program for Americans over the age of 65. You can get automatically enrolled when you turn 65 years of age, or you can enroll if you need to. Either way, once you do get into the program you will get a membership card. This is a great club to be apart of. It will help you to cover your health care costs whether you need to be in the hospital, in hospice, at a skilled nursing facility or just going to the doctor for a regular reason. You membership card is just a piece of paper. You will want to do some other things in order to keep this card looking good as new. You might even come up with the idea of laminating it. Is that a good idea or something that should be done with your card?
Can You Laminate Your Medicare Card
Most people say that you should not laminate your Medicare card. This is because if you expose it to the heat of lamination, it could damage some of the functions of the card. It is definitely recommended to protect it in some way because you will need it to get the information needed to get medical services. If you want to protect is besides putting it in your wallet, you can go to an office supply store and get a plastic ID card holder. This is a great idea and it only costs a few bucks.
If Your Medicare Card is Damaged
If you choose not to protect your Medicare card in this way and you end up damaging it or needing to get another one, luckily it is very easy. First of all you can visit a social security office in person. This may be a timely process in which you would have to wait in a line or in a waiting room for your number to be called. Then after awhile you would see a representative who would help you get a new card sent to you. This is the timeliest process for getting a new card.
You can also call the hotline for people who need services from social security. This will probably take some time and it is only available Monday-Friday from 7 AM to 7 PM. If you call, it is recommended to call after Monday because that is the busiest day for people to call up. This may be time consuming because you could get stuck on hold for quite a while.
The best way to get a new card is probably to set up an online account with social security. Here you can monitor all aspects of your account and order a new card with just a few clicks. This method has little to no waiting time and it is the way that they are trying to encourage people to do this now.
All About the Medicare Card
It used to be that the Medicare cards would have your social security number on them. However, now that we live in a fast paced digital era, the government thought that this was a terrible idea so they decided to discontinue the practice. Instead they now have a unique Medicare number on the card. This policy just started in April of 2018 so it may take people awhile to get used to it. You should have received a new card around that time. If you didn’t, make sure to get a new one so your social security number would be protected.
Why is Medicare Connected to Your Social Security Number?
Medicare is part of the government’s social welfare programs. The government uses your social security number to track you for pretty much everything because it is so easy. That is why it is used for Medicare and many other services that you may receive throughout your lifetime. It is a big factor for your credit report and other ways to identify that it is really you! However, by using this new Medicare Number system, they are trying to prevent that.
What is Lamination?
Lamination is a process of putting a piece of paper in between two sheets of plastic and then putting this through a special machine that melts the plastic together so the paper will be not only more sturdy but also protected forever, or at least for a longer amount of time. However, the heat process of this can damage certain items like credit cards and you Medicare card. It is not recommended to do this for these items at all. If you must laminate your Medicare card, just put it in a plastic sleeve but do not heat it up.
In Conclusion
If you must protect your Medicare card, make sure, first of all, that you got a new one in the mail when they changed over from an old system that used social security numbers instead. Then you should make sure to keep it in a safe place. Put it in your wallet when you are going to the doctor and then consider a safe place to keep it at home like your home safe or another protected location. If you want to keep it extra safe and nice put it in a plastic sleeve from the office supply store. Otherwise if it gets to worn out, just order a new one through one of the various methods offered by the social security administration.
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