60+ year old thread.

Yea I’ve seen that in my travels lately too.
Doesn’t make sense. Like people don’t want to make money

 

Or mine's not good enough. One young man, came over with the City for something or another, just launching his business here in town. Gave me a PILE of cards. Told him gas gennie, or solar batteries (and you can get your solar licensing on me), open to anything, and retirement will buy it. Because a system that works without me is much better for the wife.

Never heard back from him....

 

Next December for me.... figured I'd start looking next summer

thanks for the info. Was wondering if an agent/broker would be a better option

Thanks for the info Kurt....

 

I did use a guy we had a relationship with - but we did Medicare.Gov together. He was just getting licensed for this stuff. You have time to look, you are probably smart enough to do it on your own. He explained what you can get in the Medicare Bible from the site. Brokers don't charge you, they get a commission when licensed. You can go through it on your own, and if not comfortable - then get some help. It does seem daunting, but it's not that bad. And if you use the compare website, you can really toss out a lot of what you don't need to know. It's just noise. Free stuff isn't usually free, after all!

 

I recently read an article about some of those plans advertised on the tv and they aren't as good as they make it out to be... I'll start looking soon.... I've got a little time before I need it

 

The sooner you sign up, the better. For Medicare - not necessarily any insurance.
You will be amazed at how much riff raff falls away when you compare what you can get where you are (MAKES A DIFFERENCE!)
(Another aside - my wife's plan is a "private offering" to retired teachers - I can't "see it". But it's nearly a clone of my coverage. Your former employers might have something - I don't know where you worked. The good news on that aside is you can compare your private offering to what you see!).
As others have said - You get A for "free". You pay for B, usually out of your SocSec (but you can pay direct before). Expect to see $148 for that. The D part is for Drugs. What you pay for B NORMALLY includes some D coverage. Drugs are the hardest to fathom - if you need a lot, if you can use generic, etc.
A consideration is your max "out of pocket", which they arrive at in different ways too. The "most" I have to pay for a year if everything goes wrong is about $5K.
If you think it gets confusing, go shop for glasses on line with your insurance, which will be cheaper than the store, but you will getting there!

 

It's more complicated than it needs to be, but it's not that complicated. Our health insurance has been a bargain. I've had two eighty K heart ablations and my wife has had her knees replaced and between Medicare and supplemental we had ZERO out of pocket. The only time we have any costs is when we see a specialist and then there is a co-pay for the office visit.

 

What supplement do you have, if you don't mind me asking?

 

In our area we have an option between a PPO (preferred provider organization) and an HMO (health maintenance organization), and ours is an HMO through a place called Select Health.

 

Thank you.

 

I guess most folks here are concerned about losing power for an extended period in winter. In Florida, we are prone to lose power in the summer due to hurricanes. My solution is a 6500W gas generator which is enough to power the essentials, a 10K BTU window air conditioner, coffee maker and the fridge. Plan is I’ll set the genny on the pool deck and run a couple extension cords. I tested it and it worked but I don’t know how sustainable it would be if we got whacked like Sanibel and Ft Myers did this year. During hurricane season I keep an extra 5 gal of gas in the garage and could siphon whatever is in the Taco. I was ready to pull the trigger on a generator interlock for the breaker panel and a power inlet box to install on the side of the house this summer but figured why bother if we’re moving.

 

I feel for you guys back east... We just don't get the kind of weather that would put the power out for weeks.

In the last years since we moved here we have had some interesting electrical oddities though. To the west we have an above ground line and to the east everything is underground. The three hundred feet of above ground that goes to the corner has had a transformer blow up. I've also seen blue/white eels of electricity sizzling down one of the lines in a series of bursts. I was building a camper one day, on the roof to seal around the vent, and all of a sudden there was an explosion that made a twenty foot wide orange mushroom cloud where an insulator burst and shorted. The neighbor, knowing I was on top of the trailer, rushed over thinking I'd touched something and might have been fried. But overall the times we've been without electricity have only lasted a few hours at most and are too infrequent to worry about.

I've been thinking about solar panels but have been waiting to see how the ones already installed around town will age. So far I'm fairly impressed.

 

I’m fortunate, when I retired my company offered a supplemental plan and as part of my retirement package the company pays 60% of the premium. The supplemental plan pays what Medicare doesn’t and my prescription part D plan is included in the supplemental plan. Remember Medicare part B pays only 80% of outpatient visits, surgery and other clinical visits and procedures. It’s not 80% of the bill, it’s 80% of the Medicare schedule. For sample you may see your doctor for a routine visit and the charge is for example $150. But the Medicare schedule may show a routine doctors visit should be $100. Medicare will then pay 80% of what their schedule says the cost should be, which would be $80. You would still owe the doctor $70. Supplemental plans pay the 20% Medicare doesn’t pay and some pay the full amount that Medicare doesn’t pay. So some plans will pay only $20 where others will pay the full $70. My plan pays the full amount, so in the above example Medicare would pay $80 and my supplemental plan would pay $70 , I pay 0.
I recently had 2 separate kidney stone surgeries, not major surgeries but not minor either. The total bills for the surgeries were over $50,000 , Medicare and my supplemental plan paid 100%.
Prescription medications for me are $10 for a months supply and some are cheaper. There is no “donut hole” in my prescription plan.

Advantage plans are completely different than supplemental plans. They are similar to a HMO or PPO. Some pay better than others. Some pay 100% , some don’t. They all have drug plans included in them. Some plans have deductibles, some have co-pays and on and on. Not all supplemental plans are like mine. Some pay less, some have deductibles etc. etc. Also some doctors, clinics and hospitals will take what ever Medicare pays as payment in full.

When you are new to this it’s all quite confusing and quite complex. My advice is go to a broker or a couple different brokers and have them explain the different plans and costs to you. Use the brokers as a teacher or mentor. You don’t have to purchase a plan through the broker. After they educate you just tell them you’ll think about it and will let them know. And remember you can switch to a different plan every year during the annual enrollment period so you are not stuck with the same plan year after year. I would say go to more than one broker as they sell different plans.
Even though Im happy with my supp. plan I went to a broker and discussed the different plans and options available to me. I learned a tremendous amount but decided to stick with the plan I have.

 

I am no rocket scientist but managed to muddle thru signing up for Medicare. You can do it! Almost as much fun as signing up for Social Security.

 

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!! We've been trying to find an appliance person to replace our built-in oven/microwave/warming drawer - in a custom opening in a cabinet and no one makes the exact same thing that we can find. So I need to find an option - can't get anyone to return calls even though we identified something we think will work.

 

Morning 60+

 

With regard to siphoning from the Taco...it's possible but extremely difficult. Modern vehicles have a check ball stop valve in the filler neck to prevent gas flow in the event of a roll over. You need an extremely stiff, very small diameter line and it's still not a given it'll work. Give it a try before you need to in an emergency.

 

The only thing he’s going to do is maybe break the ball loose from its socket and it will float around in the tank forever. Then it will be easy peasy to drain it anytime. And yes it will dump like a hose if it’s upside down. I had one guy actually want it done to his vehicle so he could get fuel out of his truck.
I refused.

 

Good advice Mike

 

Good Morning Porch Pals & Sue! Grey and damp, but my plan was to mower clean the yard up today, and get stuff ready for Thursdays HARD freeze. Sort of stuck with that plan. Shouldn't be that bad - mower is easy to clean up.