Understanding Medicare

The project of the month is understanding Medicare, Medi-gap, and Medicare Advantage. When I told Grant he would be helping me, he grumbled he'd rather keep working and not retire. Which is a possibility. Just in case, I made an appointment with SHINE, a program that gives free, unbiased health insurance information to seniors. Kathy, our representative, knew everything we need to start the process. As I understand it, first decision is whether to use Medicare, which is accepted nation-wide but we would pay for, or to use Medicare Advantage, which has no cost but uses a county-wide network of doctors. In either case, we need to decide which specific plan. Some have higher co-pays and deductibles but more choices of doctors or benefits. Others are cheaper but more restricted.

Best of all, Kathy had URLs of websites where we can enter our specific information and find out which insurance is best for us. That means Mr. Computer will have a part in the process. Easy for him to type in all his drugs's name to ascertain which Medicare Part D would be the cheapest for his list. Better him than me. Since I take no drugs regularly, I just need the cheapest Part D available.

Grocery Store Ready For Game  

Feeling satisfied with having made this much progress, I decided to take the rest of this week off and travel with my sister to Orlando. Not to Mickey Mouse Land, but to see my son and daughter-in-law on the east side of town, then over to my daughter and granddaughter's house.

Originally Grant and I had planned to attend the University of Miami v University of Florida football game at the stadium in Orlando on Saturday night. I decided I just couldn't do all the walking that would involve, so I sold our tickets, netting $205 over cost. Nice.