The joke's on me

Now that I'm approaching 65, I applied for and received my Medicare card, which will I'll be eligible to use next month.  I was so pleased at the thought of having the government pay for (most of) my medical bills that I completely forgot one major detail--one must pay one's own premiums until one goes on Social Security (at which point the premiums are automatically deducted from one's monthly Social Security retirement benefit payments).  I got an unpleasant reminder today in the form of my first quarterly premium bill.  That's a lot of money, sonny.  :(