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A Part D Late Enrollment Penalty Is Permanent. The Amount It Costs Is Not.

Two Medicare late enrollment penalties are described the same way in almost every summary: sign up late, pay more for life. They are built on different units. The Part D drug penalty counts single months and multiplies them by a premium figure that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services resets every year. The Part B medical penalty counts only completed twelve-month periods and multiplies them by a much larger premium. For 2026 the two base figures are $38.99 and $202.90. What follows is what each formula does with the same gap, and why one of them costs a different amount every January while the gap behind it does not change. What Starts the Part D Count The condition is not lateness in general. The Medicare drug coverage cost page states: “You may owe a late enrollment penalty if at any time after your Initial Enrollment Period is over, there’s a period of 63 or more days in a row when you don’t have Medicare drug coverage or other creditable prescriptio...
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Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 23, 2026

This page explains what information TheWalletCompass collects, how it is used, and what choices you have. It applies to thewalletcompass.blogspot.com and any custom domain later pointed at the same site.

Who operates this site

TheWalletCompass is an independently operated publication run by M. Kim. It is hosted on Blogger, a service provided by Google LLC. Because the site is hosted on Blogger, Google processes some visitor data as the platform operator, independently of this site. Google's own handling of that data is described in the Google Privacy Policy.

Information collected

Information you provide. No account, subscription, or registration is required to read this site. Personal information is collected only when you choose to send it — for example, by emailing the address on the Contact page, or by leaving a comment. If you email, the message and your email address are retained only for as long as needed to respond. If you leave a comment, the name shown and the comment text are published on the site by design.

Information collected automatically. Like nearly all websites, this site records standard technical information when a page loads:

  • browser type and version, operating system, and device type
  • which pages were viewed and in what order
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  • approximate geographic location at the country or region level, derived from IP address
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Blogger's built-in statistics report this information to the site operator in aggregate form only. It is used to see which articles are read and which are not. It is not used to identify individual readers, and it is not combined with any other data set.

Cookies and third-party advertising

This site uses or may use third-party vendors, including Google, to serve advertisements.

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If you disable cookies in your browser, this site still functions; advertising you see elsewhere simply becomes less personalized.

Analytics

Traffic measurement is handled by Blogger's built-in statistics. If a separate analytics service such as Google Analytics is added in future, it will be named in this section, and its cookies will be subject to the same consent and opt-out choices described above.

Readers in the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland

No advertising is being served on this site at the time of this update, and no advertising or consent cookies are currently set by it. Where consent is legally required for cookies or for the use of personal data to personalize advertising, that consent will be obtained through a consent mechanism presented before any such cookie is set, in line with Google's EU User Consent Policy. That mechanism will identify the parties that may collect or receive personal data through this site, link to their disclosures, and allow consent to be withdrawn at any time. This section will be updated at that point to name the parties involved.

Readers in these regions have rights under the GDPR and UK GDPR, including the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal data held about them, and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Requests can be sent to the address on the Contact page. Note that beyond emails you have sent, this site holds no personal data capable of identifying you.

Readers in California and other U.S. states

Residents of California and of other states with comprehensive privacy statutes may have the right to know what personal information is collected, to request its deletion, and to opt out of its sale or sharing. This site does not sell personal information, and does not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising other than through the advertising cookies described above, which you can opt out of using the links in that section. Requests can be sent through the Contact page.

How information is used

  • to see which topics readers actually use, and to decide what to write next
  • to serve and measure advertising, where advertising is running
  • to respond to emails, corrections, and questions
  • to detect and prevent spam and abuse

Personal information is not sold, rented, or traded. It is not used to build reader profiles, and it is not disclosed to third parties except where required by law or where necessary for a service provider — such as the hosting platform — to operate the site.

Links to other sites

Articles here link frequently to federal agencies and to primary source documents. Those sites are governed by their own privacy policies, which this site does not control and is not responsible for. Following a link means leaving this site's policy behind.

Children's privacy

This site is written for adults and is not directed at children under 13. No personal information is knowingly collected from children under 13. If you believe a child has submitted personal information here, contact the address on the Contact page and it will be deleted.

Data retention and security

Emails are retained only as long as needed to handle the matter they concern. Aggregate traffic statistics are retained by the hosting platform under its own retention schedule. This site is served over HTTPS. No transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed fully secure, and no sensitive personal information — account numbers, Social Security numbers, tax documents — should ever be sent to this site.

Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated as the site changes — for example, when advertising begins, when an analytics service is added, or when a legal requirement changes. Material changes are reflected in the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the site after a change indicates acceptance of the revised policy.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or requests concerning personal data, can be sent to the address listed on the Contact page.

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