Sharon S. Campbell

Sharon Campbell has been writing about Medicare fundamentals and how to sign up without incurring lifetime penalties for three years, updating her "workshop-in-a-book" annually. And, while most authors of Medicare books are also selling Medicare "Medigap" insurance policies, she does not. She is only an advocate for people on a budget needing to make their best decisions when signing up for their Medicare options.

After a career mainly in human resources and management training, she decided to focus her education and experience on getting the word out about the little-known pitfalls and penalties to anyone needing to sign up for Medicare. How did this happen?

Well, after having questions a year into using her Medicare insurance she realized she’d been given incorrect information by the insurance salesman/broker she'd used. She could NOT switch her Medigap plan during "Open Enrollment" as he had said she could; she couldn't even upgrade it! So, Sharon started researching for herself and interviewing a lot of people on Medicare. What an eye opener! Within a few months, an advocate was born and her workshop-in-a-book was being written for everyone. To make sure people would learn and understand the complexities of Medicare easily, she held pre-publication workshops and honed the information even more carefully.

This easy-to-understand workbook can be your guide even if you decide to get a much larger Medicare reference book of 300+ pages. And use it while on medicare.gov. The little you spend could save you hundreds or thousands each year and over time. Sharon doesn't want you to be one of the nearly 1 million people paying 30% more for Medicare in penalties because it was too complicated to try to sift through all the data yourself.

The biggest issue Sharon sees is that most of us don't even know what it is that we need to know about Medicare. Many think it's essentially one thing. People don't know that there are a range of options as to which type of Medicare we can purchase. Or that there are pitfalls and penalties that we can incur, often while doing things correctly and on time! It shouldn't be that way, but it is.

Medicare is definitely NOT one-size-fits-all. And, while one CAN sign up quickly, that is exactly what can lead to the pitfalls and penalties. Understanding all the parts of Medicare and how they mesh with your needs and budget allows you to make an informed decision.

That’s what this one-of-a-kind workbook does for you. It gives you the Medicare fundamentals (with visuals and in plain English, including Enrollment Periods) and then provides worksheets, lists, to-do timeline and more, where you can figure out what combination of Medicare “Parts” you may want, can afford, and whether you want a Medigap supplement policy. And, it walks you through the online signup/enrollment process, many of which are intended for you to write down your specific information and questions.