That hit me, as well. Prior to turning 65 I was contacted by any number of insurance companies who wanted to sell me Medicare supplemental coverage, that is part C,D,E,F,G,H. The one I eventually settled with, he and I spent 45 minutes on the phone discussing all the parameters and I eventually settled upon part G. In all that time I never got the single sentence warning “oh by the way you have to go down to the Social Security office and sign up for parts A and B”. As a result, I signed up late, and had no coverage from January 19 to July of 2020. All because one douchebag could not say one sentence of warning, “make sure you do this”. As a result, my cost for Medicare Part B Rises 10%, forever. I would punch this guy in the face if I saw him today.
This is the problem with insurance, in general. You have no choice but to rely upon the person you are buying the product from for information about the product. And I have learned through many, many examples, that that is one of the worst possible positions to be in. I never, ever allow myself to rely solely upon the person trying to sell me something as a source of information. It is a near suicidal position you place yourself in. That is among my top 10 life lessons.
My mom worked for an insurance company—she worked for a marine surveyor, but when she retired, the company’s retirement ‘counselor’ was out. So no one ever told her that she had to do the Medicare thing. She based her appeal on that, but as I said, to no avail. I don’t know how many years penalty she accrued, but it was more than one.