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56Sierra

A few words about Medicare

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Nov. 1st I go on Medicare.   Here's what I'm finding out.  A few months before turning 65 you'll get your Medicare card.  In that envelope will be a form to fill out and send back in if you don't want part B.  A is free, you have some money deducted from you SS or in my case Railroad Retirement check to pay for part B.  You must get B to get any other supplement plan.  Part D is drugs.  There are three plans available to me ranging from $7-25 / month.

Used to be plan F was the best supplement but isn't available anymore.   F covered all deductibles and Uncle Sam didn't like that.  Law says a plan you choose is going to be the same regardless of who you buy it from.  Except cost.

My advice is if you have a local insurance agent that isn't tied specifically to one company, go visit them.  That's what I did for my home, cars and now healh insurance.   Turns our if I use the same company for all three I get a good discount. 

My part G supplement plan costs me $110 a month.  Like all plans I have to pay a deductible of around $200-something a year.  Dr visits are 20 buck copay and ER costs 50.  All the normal stuff is covered at 100%.  80% if in a foreign country. 

Watch out for Advantage plans.  It sounds like to me they are a real bear to deal with and limit where you can go.   Like HMO's do.

I don't know how much my pension will be reduced but will find out Nov 1st and will report back.  Way I understood I'm currently paying for Medicare tax just like you working guys and gals but that will stop when I have to pay for plan B.

 

Again, go talk to a reputable insurance agent. 

 

Edit:  My pension check gets reduced by $156/month.

Edited by 56Sierra
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A few corrections and additions.   2021 Part B deductible is $203.  Plan G covers the Part A deductible which is over $1,400.  No need to worry about in network or out of network.   If the provider accepts Medicare, they accept your medigap insurance.  Plain and simple.   I worked since I was 16 so it's about time to get a chance to suck the teet a while.

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only if the gov. forced plan was explained in common language.  i know i cant understand many things. reading the direction from the gov, is one.. the gov. is goofy, at best in explaining.

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10 hours ago, 56Sierra said:

A few corrections and additions.   2021 Part B deductible is $203.  Plan G covers the Part A deductible which is over $1,400.  No need to worry about in network or out of network.   If the provider accepts Medicare, they accept your medigap insurance.  Plain and simple.   I worked since I was 16 so it's about time to get a chance to suck the teet a while.

My wife has done a lot of research on the subject , she just got on it , need to trade notes with her ----     I am still a couple of years away ---- it sure seems very confusing and a head ache 

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On 9/13/2021 at 5:55 AM, Fishfiles said:

My wife has done a lot of research on the subject , she just got on it , need to trade notes with her ----     I am still a couple of years away ---- it sure seems very confusing and a head ache 

learn it, before ya get sucked in by the gov. hype.. then tell me what ya found. Advantage Plan, i wish i had the words. i know the gov. is playing me.

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here's what I know..about 6 months before you reach eligible age...your phone will start to ring...and your cell phone, and your mail box will have daily stuff in it.

 

I swear ta God.. I get 11 calls a day wanting to sign me up...most of the calls are some crap indian or asian sweat shop call center.

I've told them to stop, I've ignored them, I've screamed colorful language at them.. my cell phone will ring at the same time my house rings..unbelievable abuse!!

 

yeah.. I already talked to my company benefits person.. I turned 65 Dec 1st.. I'll sign on to Part A at no cost as I still have my employers insurance program.

 

maybe then, they'll stop calling me...oh wait.. my wife is next in April...the horror continues !!!

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52 minutes ago, Bighanded said:

here's what I know..about 6 months before you reach eligible age...your phone will start to ring...and your cell phone, and your mail box will have daily stuff in it.

 

I swear ta God.. I get 11 calls a day wanting to sign me up...most of the calls are some crap indian or asian sweat shop call center.

I've told them to stop, I've ignored them, I've screamed colorful language at them.. my cell phone will ring at the same time my house rings..unbelievable abuse!!

 

yeah.. I already talked to my company benefits person.. I turned 65 Dec 1st.. I'll sign on to Part A at no cost as I still have my employers insurance program.

 

maybe then, they'll stop calling me...oh wait.. my wife is next in April...the horror continues !!!

Isn't that the truth.  We ditched the landline a few years back since almost 100% of the calls were scams, someone wanting money or political.   Come to think of the the last category was covered by the first two.  Yeah, my cellphone gets a few but the mailbox gets a bunch of paper I'll use come winter to start fires.

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@56Sierra  ironic you started this thread and I just got involved in it , and I just heard a advertisement on the radio for a special segment of the news tonight with Stinchfield about how Medicare is falling apart and won't be around much long and how to protect yourself

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Isn't it odd the one party, the one currently in power wants government controlled heathcare now Medicare is supposedly on the way out?  Anyone else remember the first Democrat presidential debate where ever one of the candidates said they were for giving illegal aliens free heathcare?  What is wrong with our system.   I've paid taxes since I was 16.

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1 hour ago, 56Sierra said:

Isn't it odd the one party, the one currently in power wants government controlled heathcare now Medicare is supposedly on the way out?  Anyone else remember the first Democrat presidential debate where ever one of the candidates said they were for giving illegal aliens free heathcare?  What is wrong with our system.   I've paid taxes since I was 16.

they dont leave ya alone, just turned 66 in aug. still get mail.. not as much. the gov. took money out of medicare, an other gov programs, SSA, an never put it back.

i heard rumors of unions doing this too. union dues. most likely lies?, Pension fund loss,,.. it will hit the fan soon, an splatter. Dust to Dust, looks like the future..

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As part of an Obama era Highway bill companies were allowed to calculate the value of their employees pensions in a different way.  Guess what?  The employees lost out and the companies gained.   My wife was an open heart surgery nurse in a large Eastern PA hospital.   She quit at 43 in 2000 but kept her pension.   At 55 she started drawing it.  We had a choice on how much.  If she took a reduced amount I could continue to get her pension (the reduced amount) if she passed away before me.  Or take the full amount and I'd get nothing.   Glad we chose the full amount since the new law did away with any chance of me seeing a penny if she died.  My mother faces the same thing.  My Dad chose to take the lesser amount but when he died my Mom only sees a fraction, a very small fraction of what they used to get.   Actually she continues to get her share but none of what was promised from Dad's share.

Twice the government tried to raid the railroad retirement like they did social security but nationwide strikes were threatened if they did and to this day the railroad retirement is in great shape.   That's what I get.

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got my 2022 medicare book, tis still written where i dont know x-actly what is said. hard to make an informed decision bout anything...  the bills passed in congress, 26,000 pages long, how can they, if they want to understand!!! take a year or more, maybe a lifetime, to understand.. explains how so much gets passed, with any so called knowledge.

just as soon clean house an senate, to write better an shorter, words, to be understood. not goobbley-gook, with manure..

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me mum; she got back her payment, of what she payed every month. she got more SSA back then i have. [working for low wages at horse farms, so i could get a start], still for the time she worked in a factory, she didnt get that much back from SSA, for the money she payed in. i didnt have as many hours under my belt, from injury's, over the years. must be safer at a factory[just kidding], i heard of people getting there fingers cut off at melrose, downtown Louisville, an the presses at some of those factory's, remind me of "the fly" Vincent Price". Now i got to tell ya a funny;; working the elevators, we went to melrose bacon place in louisville often. the boss, was standing next to his jeep, when a pig escaped, [they wet em down an shock them while they are on the conveyor belt] {something to see, the pigs ears stand at attention, when this happens, two probes about the temples], any way the pig was heading towards the truck, 40 yards away, an the boss jumped from the ground into the bed of the truck, one move, like a grasshopper. should been a bb player. best delete some parts of this, before i cant get no more bacon. not that there is that much bacon to get. still, bacon is good with everything. im thinking of a chocolate malt at the moment...

sorry, got carried away... an i do..

medicare to bacon, dont know how i do this. green solvent maybe..  Long Pig

Edited by LedFTed
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5 hours ago, LedFTed said:

 chocolate malt

after re-reading your post above , what I get out of it is , I like me a chocolate malts too   , I like mine with extra malt , LOL  

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i'm on it, only cuz of my motorcycle wreck in '08. i got part A , not sure about part B ?, but i got med part covered by silverscript, coverage is very good, only pay about 3 bucks, at most 7 bucks for meds ?. the rest..like doc visits ?, i dont worry about, i stay far ..far away from them , unless its an emergency ?,..other than this ?..i'm set i guess ?. at the time, i was not 65..but because of my wreck, and unable to work because of my leg ?, i got approved for ssd, had to hire a lawyer for my case, got all back pay, now i draw ssd per month. i'd rather work ?, but my leg say's no way !..lol. oh..and i just turned 57 last march. sigh...i'm too old for this crap !..lol.

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2 hours ago, shadetree said:

i'm on it, only cuz of my motorcycle wreck in '08. i got part A , not sure about part B ?, but i got med part covered by silverscript, coverage is very good, only pay about 3 bucks, at most 7 bucks for meds ?. the rest..like doc visits ?, i dont worry about, i stay far ..far away from them , unless its an emergency ?,..other than this ?..i'm set i guess ?. at the time, i was not 65..but because of my wreck, and unable to work because of my leg ?, i got approved for ssd, had to hire a lawyer for my case, got all back pay, now i draw ssd per month. i'd rather work ?, but my leg say's no way !..lol. oh..and i just turned 57 last march. sigh...i'm too old for this crap !..lol.

 

We pay in our whole lives and then people like my mother in law drop dead before they ever get a dime of it back. 

 

I've smashed that leg of yours unloading a "project".  You get around on it pretty good for an old guy, but you're actually hurt, which is how that system was intended to work. 

 

Around here we have lots of kids getting "crazy checks".  The parents tell the kids to act slow, or act crazy, so they can get an extra check. 

 

But that's another subject entirely............

 

Local woman who works with me is going part time, and came to me as her husband is old enough to be on Social Security and she wasn't sure whether she was better off keeping him on her work insurance or putting him on SS.  My buddy who wiped out last week sells insurance (mostly Medicare supplements) and I put her in touch with him.  Much cheaper for her to get a supplement and put BOTH of them on social security than it was to pay the $500+/ month for work insurance, and they'll have better coverage.

 

That said, the supplements are about like our tax codes; so ! complicated that most do not and cannot understand what they're getting and how much it costs.

 

Health care used to be a simple "doctor treats patient, patient pays doctor" transaction.  Then .gov got in involved.  Those who say "We need government run health care" need to look at the CAUSE of our out of control health care prices.  They created a problem, and now say that they are the solution to the problem that they created.......

healthcare costs.jpg

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Glad to hear you're happy with Silverscript.  That's the one I signed up for.  One month shy of 65 and I take no RX drugs.   Keeping a Fishfiles type diet keeps my cholesterol,  blood pressure and A1C all in check.

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On 9/24/2021 at 8:39 PM, 56Sierra said:

As part of an Obama era Highway bill companies were allowed to calculate the value of their employees pensions in a different way.  Guess what?  The employees lost out and the companies gained.   My wife was an open heart surgery nurse in a large Eastern PA hospital.   She quit at 43 in 2000 but kept her pension.   At 55 she started drawing it.  We had a choice on how much.  If she took a reduced amount I could continue to get her pension (the reduced amount) if she passed away before me.  Or take the full amount and I'd get nothing.   Glad we chose the full amount since the new law did away with any chance of me seeing a penny if she died.  My mother faces the same thing.  My Dad chose to take the lesser amount but when he died my Mom only sees a fraction, a very small fraction of what they used to get.   Actually she continues to get her share but none of what was promised from Dad's share.

Twice the government tried to raid the railroad retirement like they did social security but nationwide strikes were threatened if they did and to this day the railroad retirement is in great shape.   That's what I get.

the gov., likes other peoples money. they raided SS more that once.. never put any back in.. just take..

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7 hours ago, LedFTed said:

the gov., likes other peoples money. they raided SS more that once.. never put any back in.. just take..

The President of the company I worked for and I were having a discussion on dealing with government agencies and he told me it was our job to make money and the governments job to spend it.  How true that advice is.  Normal thinking doesn't apply to .gov.

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On 10/7/2021 at 5:35 AM, Fishfiles said:

after re-reading your post above , what I get out of it is , I like me a chocolate malts too   , I like mine with extra malt , LOL  

dont forget bacon, LOL

 

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On 10/7/2021 at 7:17 AM, shadetree said:

i'm on it, only cuz of my motorcycle wreck in '08. i got part A , not sure about part B ?, but i got med part covered by silverscript, coverage is very good, only pay about 3 bucks, at most 7 bucks for meds ?. the rest..like doc visits ?, i dont worry about, i stay far ..far away from them , unless its an emergency ?,..other than this ?..i'm set i guess ?. at the time, i was not 65..but because of my wreck, and unable to work because of my leg ?, i got approved for ssd, had to hire a lawyer for my case, got all back pay, now i draw ssd per month. i'd rather work ?, but my leg say's no way !..lol. oh..and i just turned 57 last march. sigh...i'm too old for this crap !..lol.

57 is young

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2 minutes ago, LedFTed said:

57 is young

tell that to my sore body lately !!!..lol.

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9 hours ago, shadetree said:

tell that to my sore body lately !!!..lol.

me too, lols

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7 minutes ago, LedFTed said:

me too, lols

i might be just 57 ?, but my body feels like 157 !..sigh...lol.

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might as well tell ya mine.. in 86 a 2 yr.old filly, throw me, an, stomped my chest, back leg, an i got 4 compound fractures of 3 ribs, a punctured lung, an a bruised spleen. i had a bruise, front an back, that went from my shoulder blade, to near my belt, left side. 19 years before a jabbing pain went away when i moved a certain way. never felt comfortable sleeping on my left side again. for 6mts., i had to sleep on my back, at the time, an i could only turn my head. then about, 2017, i had muddy boots, slipped on some steps, an landed, where one of the steps, met my lower spine. a couple of inches above my belt line, still got the sciatica from that. still have trouble walking from the strokes, left side, then there are other things i wont go into right now. i empathize with ya. 

i feel like a horse that has been rode hard, an put up wet.. Oh Well. s-it hits the fan.. 🙂

Edited by LedFTed
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