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Tear Jerker
On Monday, September 16, 2013 7:02:32 PM UTC-4, Boating All Out wrote:
I expect the ACA will get Mass back on track. That's the funniest thing I've read in a long time. Thanks for the laugh! |
Tear Jerker
"Hank©" wrote in message eb.com... On 9/17/2013 1:20 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote: "F.O.A.D." wrote in message m... On 9/16/13 6:51 PM, F.O.A.D. wrote: On 9/16/13 5:47 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote: "F.O.A.D." wrote in message m... On 9/16/13 4:31 PM, Boating All Out wrote: In article , says... I am going to be on the bleeding edge of this because IBM chucked us into exchanges. Florida isn't exactly good place to be with this. Not sure of all the details, but I've seen "things" on the internet. Your governor putting up roadblocks to exchange enrollment doesn't help. A Richard suggested, this isn't set up well for higher income folks. But that's really only if they choose the type of "golden" plans which do what you don't like - remove out-of-pocket costs. I expect the premiums on those type plans will subsidize "lesser" plans. Many of the issues people whine about should and could be addressed if the degenerate Congress wasn't...degenerate. Good luck to you. You've got an absolutely great head start - Medicare. So you're only talking about a supplemental. You can commiserate with Mr. Krause about the big evil corporation stripping your company benefits. Awwwww. My health plan benefits aren't changing, nor is my premium going up, though I do plan to switch to Medicare and a Supplemental at my next birthday. It's not easy to figure out which Supplementals provide the widest and deepest coverage. My monthly health care premiums will be going...down. --------------------------- Don't bet on that. I'll bet you will find that Medicare with a decent supplemental plan will be close to whatever you are paying now. I've been talking to those slightly ahead of me in years (I turn 65 and am eligible for Medicare in another year). All have told me that their monthly premium cost didn't change much. Hmmm. Medicare B with a Humana supplemental will run me about $200 a month. Right now I'm paying close to $900 a month for my union plan. My union plan requires me to pay a $10 copay for doctor's office visits, and $5 for generic prescriptions, and discounts non-generics 80%. I had a cataract operation two months ago, and my out of pocket cost was under $100. I'll have to spend some real time investigating all this. I'm sure there is more to this, but I still think my monthly outlay will go down. ------------------------------ You may be right. I need to investigate this more as well. It just dawned on me that the last person I talked to who became eligible for Medicare last year *may* be paying for Medicare Part "A" for him and his wife. That would be roughly a $900 per month. Add a Part "B" supplement at $200 and he's up to close to what we are paying now for direct, private insurance. If your employment over the years contributed to Medicare, Part "A" is supposed to be free. His may not have. Part A is free and part B is a little over $100 IIRC. --------------------------------- If that's the way it works, can I skip 64 and go directly to 65? |
Tear Jerker
On 9/17/2013 8:25 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
"Hank©" wrote in message eb.com... On 9/17/2013 1:20 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote: "F.O.A.D." wrote in message m... On 9/16/13 6:51 PM, F.O.A.D. wrote: On 9/16/13 5:47 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote: "F.O.A.D." wrote in message m... On 9/16/13 4:31 PM, Boating All Out wrote: In article , says... I am going to be on the bleeding edge of this because IBM chucked us into exchanges. Florida isn't exactly good place to be with this. Not sure of all the details, but I've seen "things" on the internet. Your governor putting up roadblocks to exchange enrollment doesn't help. A Richard suggested, this isn't set up well for higher income folks. But that's really only if they choose the type of "golden" plans which do what you don't like - remove out-of-pocket costs. I expect the premiums on those type plans will subsidize "lesser" plans. Many of the issues people whine about should and could be addressed if the degenerate Congress wasn't...degenerate. Good luck to you. You've got an absolutely great head start - Medicare. So you're only talking about a supplemental. You can commiserate with Mr. Krause about the big evil corporation stripping your company benefits. Awwwww. My health plan benefits aren't changing, nor is my premium going up, though I do plan to switch to Medicare and a Supplemental at my next birthday. It's not easy to figure out which Supplementals provide the widest and deepest coverage. My monthly health care premiums will be going...down. --------------------------- Don't bet on that. I'll bet you will find that Medicare with a decent supplemental plan will be close to whatever you are paying now. I've been talking to those slightly ahead of me in years (I turn 65 and am eligible for Medicare in another year). All have told me that their monthly premium cost didn't change much. Hmmm. Medicare B with a Humana supplemental will run me about $200 a month. Right now I'm paying close to $900 a month for my union plan. My union plan requires me to pay a $10 copay for doctor's office visits, and $5 for generic prescriptions, and discounts non-generics 80%. I had a cataract operation two months ago, and my out of pocket cost was under $100. I'll have to spend some real time investigating all this. I'm sure there is more to this, but I still think my monthly outlay will go down. ------------------------------ You may be right. I need to investigate this more as well. It just dawned on me that the last person I talked to who became eligible for Medicare last year *may* be paying for Medicare Part "A" for him and his wife. That would be roughly a $900 per month. Add a Part "B" supplement at $200 and he's up to close to what we are paying now for direct, private insurance. If your employment over the years contributed to Medicare, Part "A" is supposed to be free. His may not have. Part A is free and part B is a little over $100 IIRC. --------------------------------- If that's the way it works, can I skip 64 and go directly to 65? I wouldn't if I were you. 64 might be a good year. |
Tear Jerker
On Tuesday, 17 September 2013 09:25:45 UTC-3, Mr. Luddite wrote:
"Hank�" wrote in message eb.com... On 9/17/2013 1:20 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote: "F.O.A.D." wrote in message m... On 9/16/13 6:51 PM, F.O.A.D. wrote: On 9/16/13 5:47 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote: "F.O.A.D." wrote in message m... On 9/16/13 4:31 PM, Boating All Out wrote: In article , says... I am going to be on the bleeding edge of this because IBM chucked us into exchanges. Florida isn't exactly good place to be with this. Not sure of all the details, but I've seen "things" on the internet. Your governor putting up roadblocks to exchange enrollment doesn't help. A Richard suggested, this isn't set up well for higher income folks. But that's really only if they choose the type of "golden" plans which do what you don't like - remove out-of-pocket costs. I expect the premiums on those type plans will subsidize "lesser" plans. Many of the issues people whine about should and could be addressed if the degenerate Congress wasn't...degenerate. Good luck to you. You've got an absolutely great head start - Medicare. So you're only talking about a supplemental. You can commiserate with Mr. Krause about the big evil corporation stripping your company benefits. Awwwww. My health plan benefits aren't changing, nor is my premium going up, though I do plan to switch to Medicare and a Supplemental at my next birthday. It's not easy to figure out which Supplementals provide the widest and deepest coverage. My monthly health care premiums will be going...down. --------------------------- Don't bet on that. I'll bet you will find that Medicare with a decent supplemental plan will be close to whatever you are paying now. I've been talking to those slightly ahead of me in years (I turn 65 and am eligible for Medicare in another year). All have told me that their monthly premium cost didn't change much. Hmmm. Medicare B with a Humana supplemental will run me about $200 a month. Right now I'm paying close to $900 a month for my union plan. My union plan requires me to pay a $10 copay for doctor's office visits, and $5 for generic prescriptions, and discounts non-generics 80%. I had a cataract operation two months ago, and my out of pocket cost was under $100. I'll have to spend some real time investigating all this. I'm sure there is more to this, but I still think my monthly outlay will go down. ------------------------------ You may be right. I need to investigate this more as well. It just dawned on me that the last person I talked to who became eligible for Medicare last year *may* be paying for Medicare Part "A" for him and his wife. That would be roughly a $900 per month. Add a Part "B" supplement at $200 and he's up to close to what we are paying now for direct, private insurance. If your employment over the years contributed to Medicare, Part "A" is supposed to be free. His may not have. Part A is free and part B is a little over $100 IIRC. --------------------------------- If that's the way it works, can I skip 64 and go directly to 65? We'll get to 65 (senior citizen status) soon enough. I plan on enjoying 64 as long as I can...maybe even extend it a little beyond next August. ;-) |
Tear Jerker
"Mr. Luddite" nowayalso.jose.com wrote:
"F.O.A.D." wrote in message m... On 9/16/13 6:51 PM, F.O.A.D. wrote: On 9/16/13 5:47 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote: "F.O.A.D." wrote in message m... On 9/16/13 4:31 PM, Boating All Out wrote: In article , says... I am going to be on the bleeding edge of this because IBM chucked us into exchanges. Florida isn't exactly good place to be with this. Not sure of all the details, but I've seen "things" on the internet. Your governor putting up roadblocks to exchange enrollment doesn't help. A Richard suggested, this isn't set up well for higher income folks. But that's really only if they choose the type of "golden" plans which do what you don't like - remove out-of-pocket costs. I expect the premiums on those type plans will subsidize "lesser" plans. Many of the issues people whine about should and could be addressed if the degenerate Congress wasn't...degenerate. Good luck to you. You've got an absolutely great head start - Medicare. So you're only talking about a supplemental. You can commiserate with Mr. Krause about the big evil corporation stripping your company benefits. Awwwww. My health plan benefits aren't changing, nor is my premium going up, though I do plan to switch to Medicare and a Supplemental at my next birthday. It's not easy to figure out which Supplementals provide the widest and deepest coverage. My monthly health care premiums will be going...down. --------------------------- Don't bet on that. I'll bet you will find that Medicare with a decent supplemental plan will be close to whatever you are paying now. I've been talking to those slightly ahead of me in years (I turn 65 and am eligible for Medicare in another year). All have told me that their monthly premium cost didn't change much. Hmmm. Medicare B with a Humana supplemental will run me about $200 a month. Right now I'm paying close to $900 a month for my union plan. My union plan requires me to pay a $10 copay for doctor's office visits, and $5 for generic prescriptions, and discounts non-generics 80%. I had a cataract operation two months ago, and my out of pocket cost was under $100. I'll have to spend some real time investigating all this. I'm sure there is more to this, but I still think my monthly outlay will go down. ------------------------------ You may be right. I need to investigate this more as well. It just dawned on me that the last person I talked to who became eligible for Medicare last year *may* be paying for Medicare Part "A" for him and his wife. That would be roughly a $900 per month. Add a Part "B" supplement at $200 and he's up to close to what we are paying now for direct, private insurance. If your employment over the years contributed to Medicare, Part "A" is supposed to be free. His may not have. Part a is not free. My employment sent lots of money to Medicare, and I still pay the $120+ a month each for wife and me. Comes directly out of the SS payment. |
Tear Jerker
On 9/17/2013 1:31 PM, Califbill wrote:
"Mr. Luddite" nowayalso.jose.com wrote: "F.O.A.D." wrote in message m... On 9/16/13 6:51 PM, F.O.A.D. wrote: On 9/16/13 5:47 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote: "F.O.A.D." wrote in message m... On 9/16/13 4:31 PM, Boating All Out wrote: In article , says... I am going to be on the bleeding edge of this because IBM chucked us into exchanges. Florida isn't exactly good place to be with this. Not sure of all the details, but I've seen "things" on the internet. Your governor putting up roadblocks to exchange enrollment doesn't help. A Richard suggested, this isn't set up well for higher income folks. But that's really only if they choose the type of "golden" plans which do what you don't like - remove out-of-pocket costs. I expect the premiums on those type plans will subsidize "lesser" plans. Many of the issues people whine about should and could be addressed if the degenerate Congress wasn't...degenerate. Good luck to you. You've got an absolutely great head start - Medicare. So you're only talking about a supplemental. You can commiserate with Mr. Krause about the big evil corporation stripping your company benefits. Awwwww. My health plan benefits aren't changing, nor is my premium going up, though I do plan to switch to Medicare and a Supplemental at my next birthday. It's not easy to figure out which Supplementals provide the widest and deepest coverage. My monthly health care premiums will be going...down. --------------------------- Don't bet on that. I'll bet you will find that Medicare with a decent supplemental plan will be close to whatever you are paying now. I've been talking to those slightly ahead of me in years (I turn 65 and am eligible for Medicare in another year). All have told me that their monthly premium cost didn't change much. Hmmm. Medicare B with a Humana supplemental will run me about $200 a month. Right now I'm paying close to $900 a month for my union plan. My union plan requires me to pay a $10 copay for doctor's office visits, and $5 for generic prescriptions, and discounts non-generics 80%. I had a cataract operation two months ago, and my out of pocket cost was under $100. I'll have to spend some real time investigating all this. I'm sure there is more to this, but I still think my monthly outlay will go down. ------------------------------ You may be right. I need to investigate this more as well. It just dawned on me that the last person I talked to who became eligible for Medicare last year *may* be paying for Medicare Part "A" for him and his wife. That would be roughly a $900 per month. Add a Part "B" supplement at $200 and he's up to close to what we are paying now for direct, private insurance. If your employment over the years contributed to Medicare, Part "A" is supposed to be free. His may not have. Part a is not free. My employment sent lots of money to Medicare, and I still pay the $120+ a month each for wife and me. Comes directly out of the SS payment. Are you sure that's not part B? |
Tear Jerker
In article , "Mr.
Luddite" says... You may be right. I need to investigate this more as well. It just dawned on me that the last person I talked to who became eligible for Medicare last year *may* be paying for Medicare Part "A" for him and his wife. That would be roughly a $900 per month. Add a Part "B" supplement at $200 and he's up to close to what we are paying now for direct, private insurance. If your employment over the years contributed to Medicare, Part "A" is supposed to be free. His may not have. I don't know where you and Califbill are getting your figures. For me Medicare A is "free." I paid those taxes. Anybody who takes themselves out of Medicare and SS taxing to avoid paying faces the music at retirement. Some low income folks who were never on a payroll get picked up by gov welfare. I pay 105 bucks a month for Medicare B - comes out of my SS check. If you have +170k annual income joint return, or +$85 single, it goes up, but it's never a bad deal. The low incomes are hurt more than anybody by the premium. If your only income is $10k a year SS, which is common enough, the part B premium is taking 10% of your income. But that $105 a month is my ONLY health care insurance premium. I have an AARP MedicareComplete Plus (HMO-POS) supplemental. Cost? Zero. Medicare pays United Health Care the part B money taken from my SS check. No idea how that works as a business plan for them. Don't think it's widely used. But that plan also adds the Medicare part D drug benefit. Which is how I found out about this "no cost" supplemental. Third degreeing the guy on the phone about drug plans. I was shocked when he told me about this. You want to check into all of that. Most people don't know that even exists. Downsides? $3800 max out of pocket per year. Pay first 20% of out-patient services. A colonoscopy next year could cost me a grand. If so, I'll pay up. Hospitalization is $250 a day for the first 7 days. Zero after that. $5 doc co-pay. $40 for a specialist. The only drug I use has a $6 co-pay. Tier 2 drug. Tier 3 goes to $60 co-pay. Some people would reject that. They'll reject paying $40 to see a specialist. Reject paying 20% of out-patient services. They'll reject the $3800 out-of-pocket max. They'll reject the provider list. In my case I kept the the same local hospital group, but had to change doctors. Some will reject that. You have to look at your own medical needs and calculate what works best. Pretty sure the "no fees" "gold" supplemental would have cost me $170- 180 a month. Or $4080-4320 over the past 2 years. Maybe more. I've only paid about 50 bucks in doc and medicine co-pays. Of course that could change if I start getting sick and hospitalized. Still won't cost more than than $3800 yearly max out-of-pocket. Kind of like a "free" "catastrophic" policy, but also covers the common stuff like exams, tests, and common medicines at no cost except small co-pays. When I get decrepit and that max out-of-pocket is getting hit too much, I'll look into changing it. Or just slowly fade away. |
Tear Jerker
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Tear Jerker
"Boating All Out" wrote in message ... In article , "Mr. Luddite" says... You may be right. I need to investigate this more as well. It just dawned on me that the last person I talked to who became eligible for Medicare last year *may* be paying for Medicare Part "A" for him and his wife. That would be roughly a $900 per month. Add a Part "B" supplement at $200 and he's up to close to what we are paying now for direct, private insurance. If your employment over the years contributed to Medicare, Part "A" is supposed to be free. His may not have. I don't know where you and Califbill are getting your figures. For me Medicare A is "free." I paid those taxes. Anybody who takes themselves out of Medicare and SS taxing to avoid paying faces the music at retirement. Some low income folks who were never on a payroll get picked up by gov welfare. I pay 105 bucks a month for Medicare B - comes out of my SS check. If you have +170k annual income joint return, or +$85 single, it goes up, but it's never a bad deal. The low incomes are hurt more than anybody by the premium. If your only income is $10k a year SS, which is common enough, the part B premium is taking 10% of your income. But that $105 a month is my ONLY health care insurance premium. I have an AARP MedicareComplete Plus (HMO-POS) supplemental. Cost? Zero. Medicare pays United Health Care the part B money taken from my SS check. No idea how that works as a business plan for them. Don't think it's widely used. But that plan also adds the Medicare part D drug benefit. Which is how I found out about this "no cost" supplemental. Third degreeing the guy on the phone about drug plans. I was shocked when he told me about this. You want to check into all of that. Most people don't know that even exists. Downsides? $3800 max out of pocket per year. Pay first 20% of out-patient services. A colonoscopy next year could cost me a grand. If so, I'll pay up. Hospitalization is $250 a day for the first 7 days. Zero after that. $5 doc co-pay. $40 for a specialist. The only drug I use has a $6 co-pay. Tier 2 drug. Tier 3 goes to $60 co-pay. Some people would reject that. They'll reject paying $40 to see a specialist. Reject paying 20% of out-patient services. They'll reject the $3800 out-of-pocket max. They'll reject the provider list. In my case I kept the the same local hospital group, but had to change doctors. Some will reject that. You have to look at your own medical needs and calculate what works best. Pretty sure the "no fees" "gold" supplemental would have cost me $170- 180 a month. Or $4080-4320 over the past 2 years. Maybe more. I've only paid about 50 bucks in doc and medicine co-pays. Of course that could change if I start getting sick and hospitalized. Still won't cost more than than $3800 yearly max out-of-pocket. Kind of like a "free" "catastrophic" policy, but also covers the common stuff like exams, tests, and common medicines at no cost except small co-pays. When I get decrepit and that max out-of-pocket is getting hit too much, I'll look into changing it. Or just slowly fade away. --------------------- Great post and info. I am going to save it. Thanks. |
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