Serious things you soon-to-be geezers need to consider
Medicare and the various insurances.
Mrs. Cow has been in charge of handling all of this for the both of us. She turned 65 in November of last year and officially retired from her 40-year teaching career this Summer. Way back in 2018, when I turned 65, I signed up for Medicare Part A (Hospitization only) as it was free. As I haven’t had a true employer since March, 1987, I have been carried on her employer’s insurance plan ever since we married in 1998.
That is where much of the confusion begins. The SYSTEM apparently likes to assume that virtually everyone working has insurance coverage via THEIR employer. The forms that had to be filled out to get me signed up for Medicare Part B and the various other options asked me for MY employer and the insurance coverage provided by THAT EMPLOYER. What I should have done, apparently, was list my wife’s employer as being MY employer and the insurance coverage as being that provided by HER employer.
That error on my part, that is not really an error but answering truthfully, has caused far too many hours of time on the telephone and numerous letters going back and forth. Corrections had to be made for each form of insurance coverage from Part B to prescriptions, dental, cancer, etc. It would really help tremdously if English happened to be the first language of the anonymous people that you must go through to resolve such matters. When you are told multiple times that what they think they heard is not what you told them and that is the primary reason for the call, it gets exasperating. One call Mrs. Cow made kept her on the phone for over four hours straight before she was finally transferred to someone who understood her and helped her finalize the issue correctly.
The prescription coverage is the latest and most expensive screw up. We thought we had this all straightened out. Then they sent back a rejection letter. They were claiming HER employer’s insurance plan for prescriptions was not a viable plan. Somehow, though, when she did her application it all went through with no problem. Therefore, I was being denied, but could reapply. With this came the threat that I could be assesed a life-long monthly penalty for having not signed up for my own prescription plan when I signed up for Medicare Part A in 2018. This prolonged the whole process such that I had no prescription coverage of any kind during this month (September). They sent us another form to fill out last week. We put that in the mail today. However, in today’s mail I received confirmation that there would not be a life-long monthly penalty applied as they had finally arrived at the conclusion that HER prescription plan was acceptable. It starts October 1. Last week Mrs. Cow picked up three prescriptions for me that needed to be refilled as they were running out and couldn’t wait until October 1. That amounted to a bit over $600 out of our pocket that we will never see again.
Oh, and don’t assume having Medicare Part B is free. They will subtract several hundred dollars out of your monthly Social Security payment to cover it for you. The prescription policies will cost us a few hundred dollars per month, each, as well. Of course, if we were to do our presciption shopping at Walmart and certain other firms, our out of pocket cost would be reduced. We support our small town pharmacy and will continue to do so until we die. By the way, you will get repeated information from Medicare and your other providers advertising for Walmart and those other firms, although it has no impact on your policy fees. Medicare also features certain insurance companies in their mailings to you attempting to steer you to those select few companies.
You have been warned. Take action now to save yourself from this BS.
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