Currently 1 Response
- 1.
- Forget the new system, the current Medicare is a mess. As background, let me say that I have been working for 56 years, paid my taxes all that time and the new year will be my first on Medicare, if I even live that long.
Is there a doubt that I will live? Yes, there is. I am diabetic and I use insulin. The program that supplies the insulin to me will disqualify me when I turn 65 or become eligible for Medicare.
Once the various costs of Medicare are deducted from my Social Security I will have less than $600 a month left to pay my part of the health costs AND live on, obviously impossible.
Before this came up I was already $100 short of my budget every month. I thus am a great attendee of Church Suppers and the like.
What to do now that I will be several hundred short of budget? I have been trying to find out for six months. No one wants to tell you because it is bad news.
Maybe, maybe, I will get "Extra Help" from Social Security based on my income, but whoever figures out the "Extra Help" overstated my income by $3000 on the first determination and this had to be appealed. No word on that yet at the 11th hour.
Also, maybe, maybe, the state will pick up some of it as "Medicaid". Good luck on that though, last year my Medicaid share of cost deductible was $1200 *per*month*. I had to pay the first $1200 every month. The insulin doesn't cost *that* much! Might as well, though.
OK, we are a week away from the Medicare start date and it is all up in the air at this point. In a worse case scenario I won't have the money to buy food AND I won't have the money to pay my share to the health care either. Since Medicare requires the patient to pay before *they* pay anything I will be paying for Medicare and receiving no benefits from it. Isn't that cosy?
I checked on Food Stamps. The answer on that is a resounding "NO!" The Food Stamp Lady did suggest that I haunt the private food banks. She also said that she has been seeing this problem all the time for 20 years, and that all the lawmakers know about it.
Do they? Why did their representatives all play dumb when I called them?
- May
22 Fifth Third Bank "Drives" Financial Wellness
11:00 am - 7:00 pm - May
27 Memorial Day "Tribute to Heroes Parade" and Festivities
5:00 pm - 9:00 pm - May
30 Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance's New Member Orientation
7:30 am - 9:00 am - Jun
13 AJC Summer Lunch & Learn
11:00 am - 1:00 pm
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Purdue player swinging big
05/16/12
Summerfield residents Rossana and Paul Schmidt have something to brag about — their daughter, Mara, a tennis player, is making a hit at Purdue University. -
Witt fathers complete makeover
05/16/12
Fathers at Gene Witt Elementary rolled up their sleeves for a weekend of hard work for the school, as they launched a 48-hour extreme makeover of the school's media center. -
Linger Lodge to host festival
05/02/12
Bluegrass fans take note: Linger Lodge will host its first Braden River Bluegrass Festival from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. May 5, at the restaurant, 7205 85th St. Court E.
