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husand and I both have medicare part B and supplemental. Lately on the EOB sent to us, the supplemental only pays very little which makes me wonder if we should drop the supplemental and save around $230 a month. Is this a good idea or bad one. Right now both of us are somewhat healthy-no big issues but I am 65 and my husbad 75 and dont want to do drop it and regret it later. thanks for any help on this

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Oh wow, do I have an experience to share with you. My husband is on medicare, I am too young still (and so paying half of our salary for insurance). I decided to look for new insurance, and while speaking to the salesman he asked about my husband's supplemental, which was through AARP. Well, it had doubled since he had started (about 3 years ago). I said oh, no, we are covered there. Then later I rethought and said, "well, why don't you check it and see what we can get". He had the EXACT same insurance for half the price. In other words it was knocked back to where he had started 3 years ago through a different insurance. He also cut my cost back a little with a smaller deductible (from $10,000 ded to $2500 ded). This is the lesson I learned: check for new insurance every other year, they are playing you and count on you being too tired to check with other companies which will compete. This includes AARP.
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I am the attorney in fact for my mother who is in stage 5 Alzheimers Disease. She is in assisted living. She has Medicare Part A & B. We did not choose Part D. With her income level she is eligible for patient assistance program for her Alzheimers medication which costs a fortune. I pay for here assisted living and her other medications that are all generic, they are $10.00 for 90 days and an additional $3.00 per 30 card bubble packed which assisted living requires for dispensing the medicatiions.

If we had the Medicare prescription plan she would not get the Alzheimers medication through a patient assistance program.

Her supplemental just went up to $300.00 a month. It pays the hospital deductible and what medicare covers it will pay the part that the patient is responsible for after the medicare Part B pays. That is $3,600 dollars a year. Due to the stage of her disease and financial position she may be better off without the supplemental. Interested to hear your answers........When I am unable to help her with paying a portion of her assisted living she will have to go on medicaid.
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That is a great question. My husband and are not of age yet to receive Medicare but our current Blue Shield premiums for individual insurance are off the planet! over $1,600/mth but employer pays. We don't know what to do once we "come of age" and semi-retire since our income will barely allow us to have a supplemental at all even though our insurance agent tells us that supplemental will be cheaper....HA! Probably still astronomical and unaffordable. We are healthy but husband had a heart stent ten years ago which makes him have a pre-existing. How do people afford the rates and is there anyone out there who understands this Obamacare stuff and whether you can go without supplemental and still "get away with it" if something medical should arise that Medicare doesn't cover? We are in Ca but will be moving to Oregon in a year or two.
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What we need is a single, nationwide universal health insurance program and policy. What all of your postings show is how fractured and maddening it is to sort out what's what as each state manages it's health policy & $$ differently beyond the old-school Medicare A & B. Write your representative, especially if you have new one's elected yesterday. The whole Medicare prescription program is all about who did successful lobbying imho.

Grannysmomma - my dad was a federal employee and had a federal BCBS for our family. My mom was on it until she went on Medicaid (she's in a NH and it get's "suspended" and not ever cancelled because it's federal) and her monthly BCBS rate was about $ 250 & automatically taken out of her SS and paid 100% of whatever Medicare didn't with no limits. Doc's & hospitals love this type of insurance. Most lawmakers are under this type of federal health insurance policy and because of this are totally insulated from understanding the total clusterF* that dealing with the health care system is for average folk. Write your representatives and tell them you want change that needs to be universal and in clear understandable language. Imho this is an issue for all of us, but especially this is a woman's issue (no matter what your political party is) as we are default caretakers, caregivers and do the brunt of the work one way or the other.
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I have no idea what plan my dad has on AARP but I do know that it is $179 per month. He still have copays for meds though. He does not have copays for the doctor and when he went in the hospital there was no out of pocket cost to my dad. I think his annual cost out of pocket is something like 2700 per yr, that is meds only, he was taking a ton of those. Now I have him on baby aspirin and his blood pressure meds... the rest are supplements so I am not chasing those side effects all over the place. He is doing great but the wallet is being depleted rather quickly since herbal supplements and vitamins are covered by no one
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On my United Health Care Medicare Advantage I do not pay a monthly premium. There are co-pays which I think might be 20% but not in all cases. This plan also includes prescription coverage at $6 each, but in the new year that is going down. Also, doctor visits now are $10, but go to $0 in the new year. It is not offered in all counties but you should surely check it out. It has worked really well for my family.
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GrannysMommy, First of all, see if there is a senior "helper", that is free in your state or county. They can help you "muddle" through this mess!!!!!!!!
In my opinion, they want to confuse us! Remember that lawyers write the laws!!!
It is difficult for me to understand how someone who has a college education and has worked in the medical field and I still cannot understand how they word things.
In my opinion a lot of it is "lawyer speak"!
This whole thing is a gamble as I see it, no matter what you choose. For a year, you hope that your "prediction" for the next year was a good one! If you are fairly healthy and then oops! get sick, you may be stuck with bigger bills than you might have imagined! So you really need to think about what monetary resources you have and would you be able to pay it out of pocket!!! If not then I would choose the best possible, for what you can pay for per month.
Leave it to the government to write it in English, and we still can not understand or comprehend it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you are confused, the only comfort is that you are not alone in this confusion!!!!!!!!!
And depending on your monthly income, you may actually qualify for MEDICAID, AND then it is a totally different "ball game".
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Hubby and I are in our late 70s and have medicare and a PPO from a national company which costs us each $150 a month. The healthcare facilities bill a huge amount then Ins pays them the medicare allowed amount. There are co-pays but we know each year what the co-pays will be. For example $10 to visit a PCP $40 for a specialist and $150 - $175 for something like an MRI. We have drugs included in the plan, and as long as the meds are on the ins co formulary the co-pay is reasonable.
Last year my bills totaled a million dollars so I was very glad not to have to find 20% of that.
So yes I would say supplemental insurance is well worth the money unless you can qualify for Medicaid
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GrannysMommy: When we went on Medicare, our BC/BS plan automatically became the supplimentary. It pays very little on anything except for medications. I recently had major surgery and learned that it paid all of .03 on my MRI (other things they paid .01) Surprise -- it finally paid .55 on one bill. We are looking into other plans to see if we'd pay less for medication coverage. BC/BS is a joke.
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The search continues.........for the most appropriate plan for you. Medicare is a given, right, amott6?? The remaining 20% is yours to pay, or to obtain a Supplemental Plan. Nothing is automatic. Not in this life. You choose to apply or not. I chose Plan F, United Healthcare for the supplemental for many years, and found that I was paying TOO MUCH. I never got sick, and it was money down the drain. About two years ago, I chose Medicare Advantage with no monthly premiums, no deductible and only a very small co-pay with each doctor's visit. $10.00 to my doctor ( still is) and, $35.00 to a Specialist. ER visits are $65.00 and long-term hospitals stays are $3,500.00 total.
Of course things my change someday, but right now, this is something that works for me. You should look into such a Plan.
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