This post is about Medicare and the experiences I've had with it. Let me state right here that I'm not an expert on the subject so I encourage you to get the official word on how things are supposed to work at the federal government Medicare website and the CMS website. CMS is the outfit that actually handles the processing of bills under Medicare. What follows here is my view of how Medicare works and what that meant to my wife and me.
I'm older than my wife so I reached the magic Medicare age before she did. That caused some interesting developments that I'm sure most couples who reach our age go through. Here's how it worked out for us.
When I retired one of the benefits I got from the company I had worked for was health insurance for my wife and myself. It wasn't free. In fact I had to pay more for it every year. The cost eventually got so high that the only plan we could afford had such a high deductible that it was sort of like catastrophic illness insurance, but at least we did have some choice of plans. When I reached 65 things changed. Instead of the choices I previously had for health insurance plans to cover both my wife and me, I had no choice but to enroll in Medicare and had several choices of insurance plans for supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare did not cover for me and a completely separate health insurance for my wife.
At this point I should tell you a little bit about Medicare. It's coverage is composed of several different “parts”. Part A covers hospital costs and is free. The majority of folks will also need part B, which covers doctor bills, outpatient costs and some other things that Part A doesn't cover. It's not free. For most people Part B costs around $100 per month. The good news is that the deductible is pretty small and, for the things that Medicare covers (more on that later), it pays 80% and you pay the other 20%. There is also a Medicare Part D, which covers drug costs. There is a separate charge for that too, but with some insurance packages a Medicare Part D equivalent drug plan is included. With some it is not.
Before I enrolled in Medicare I was already paying monthly fees for dental and eye care insurance in addition to a monthly fee for health insurance for my wife and me. After I enrolled in Medicare I still paid the monthly fees for dental and eye care. In addition the government began deducting about $100 out of my social security check to pay for Medicare Part B.
The company from which I retired offered several different types of health insurance plans to cover costs which Medicare does not pay and several plans for health care insurance for the spouses of retirees. From conversations I have had with other retirees they appear to me to be pretty typical for retirees on Medicare who can still get health insurance for themselves and their spouses through the company from which they retired.
I'll get into the types of plans that are typically available below, but to complete my story, the plan that my wife and I were able to afford gave me what I think of as catastrophic illness insurance in that it only pays something when I have laid out a fairly high out of pocket expense. That would be made up of my 20% of Medicare-eligible costs and 100% of any medical costs I incur which the good folks at Medicare don't want to pay for. The insurance I was able to get for my wife amounts to a PPO with a lower deductible than we had before I went on Medicare. For both of us that also includes a Medicare Part D equivalent drug plan. That's the good news. The bad news is that when you add up what we are paying per month for our dental, eye care and health insurance, plus the money that the federal government deducts from my Social Security check to pay for Medicare Part B, it comes out to somewhere between two and a half to three times the monthly payment we were paying before I was forced to get on Medicare. Oh, by the way, Medicare doesn't cover a lot of the preventive medical costs that our previous insurance did, so we are getting less service for our increased cost. To be fair I should point out that Medicare's deductible is a lot lower than the deductible we had before I got on Medicare so, at least for me, we probably pay out less out of pocket money over and above the monthly cost of insurance, but we end up paying out more money in years where we don't have large medical expenses than we would have with our old plan.
After all this whining I have to point something else out: My old girl and I are lucky that we are able to get health insurance through the company from which I retired for both her and me. People who are not in that position (that is, those who are on Medicare but are married to someone who is too young to be on it and who are not able to provide health insurance for the younger spouse through a group plan from the company that the older spouse retired from) have to find some other way to provide health insurance for the younger spouse.
One way to get insurance for the younger spouse is for that person to go to work at a company that provides health insurance. Not all companies do that these days, but when I worked part time for awhile at a big box store that shall remain nameless, I met a lot of people who were working there mostly because the company had a health insurance plan. I know people who are doing this because they are in just the situation described above. Unless you do something like that about the only other alternative is to find some affordable health insurance that you can pay for in its entirety, and that is hard to do if you are retired.
Even if you are fortunate enough to have the ability to provide health insurance for your younger spouse through the group insurance plan of the company you retired from, you have several options for insurance that will supplement Medicare. The two basic ways to get Medicare and integrate it with a supplemental insurance plan are Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans. I'm not going to go into all the differences here because I'd probably get something wrong and you can get all that info on the Medicare web sites. As I see it, however, the difference is this: In Original Medicare you get Part A for free and pay a hundred bucks or so for Part B. Then, unless you want to cover all of the cost of drugs and the 20% that Medicare doesn't pay for, as well as 100% of the things that Medicare doesn't cover at all, you need to find some kind of supplemental insurance to pay for some or all of those things. In a Medicare Advantage plan (sometimes also called Medicare Part C) you pay a monthly fee to the insurance provider who covers all of the Medicare Part A and B things (and usually also Part D if you elect to pay more for that) and you don't have money deducted from your social security by the government to pay for Part B. There will almost certainly be differences in the doctors you can go to between these alternatives. With Original Medicare you can usually go to any doctor that takes Medicare. The catch is that there will be some (maybe even many) doctors who take Medicare that will only accept it for existing patients. That is, they aren't interested in accepting new Medicare patients. That can be a real problem. The doctors you can go to under a Medicare Advantage plan will be doctors that have signed up with that plan. There may be fewer of them but you probably have a better chance of going to them as a new patient.
So if you or your spouse is about to turn 65 the bottom line as I see it is as follows. It would be a good idea to check to make sure that your spouse can still be covered through the group insurance plan from the company from which you retired. If they are, you can probably expect to pay a higher overall cost for health insurance for the two of you than you are paying now, so it would be a good idea to plan for that. It would also be a good idea to check the Medicare web sites to see what is covered to ensure that you will be able to get the same physicals you have been getting or that other procedures you anticipate getting will be covered. Definitely check into the two alternative ways to get Medicare, pick the one you think works best for your situation and make sure that, if you choose that option, you won't get yourself in a position where you are no longer covered through the group insurance plan of the company you retired from. This is probably not likely but you will get offered a lot of alternatives from many insurance companies and you may be tempted to take one that is not offered through the company from which you retired. That's a big step to take so research it thoroughly before you do that.
Good luck and welcome to the quagmire.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Discount This
On the way home from a day trip the other day my old girl and I stopped at a Whataburger for a bio break and a cold drink. When we tried to pay for the drinks the woman behind the counter told us that small drinks were free for seniors. I think my wife was a little miffed that the woman realized how old we are but I was just happy to get the discount.
Lots of places have senior discounts these days. Sometimes they promote them or at least tell you about them up front as happened to us at Whataburger but sometimes you have to ask for them. Many events and tourist attractions have senior discounts too though, again, you may have to ask for them. Recently my wife I went to a fair where they offered half price tickets to seniors. That made the price $6 apiece instead of $12. For us that's a significant savings.
Often times stores, such as Kohl's, have senior discount days. They are usually in the middle of the week when there aren't as many non-retired folks out shopping. You can usually find out about senior days by checking the store's web site or asking a cashier.
A lot of restaurants offer senior discounts, sometimes on particular items and sometimes on the entire menu. Some McDonald's have a reduced price on coffee for seniors and some provide free coffee. Some IHOPs offer a senior citizen discount across the board while others offer a buy-one-get-one (BOGO) deal for seniors. The key here is that many chain restaurants are franchised so the senior deal varies between restaurants of the same chain. That often means that, in order to get that senior discount, you have to ask for it.
Many restaurants, and other businesses too, offer discounts and free meals or other perks if you join their club. These discounts are available for any member of the club regardless of age. The number of restaurants that do this is way too numerous to list here, but a couple of them are The Spicy Pickle and Mimi's Cafe. A word of caution is in order. If you join the club you will have to provide an email address at which you will receive coupons or offers for discounts. That's the good news. The bad news is that in many cases your in box will also get cluttered up with a lot of advertising email that you'd rather not receive. So it is a good idea to establish a sort of junk mail email id on google, yahoo or some other web mail system in order to receive the mail from the clubs you elect to join.
Quite a few businesses give discounts to members of AARP, so if you have an AARP membership it is a good thing to ask if the place you are doing business with gives AARP discounts. To get a list of the businesses that do give AARP discounts just check the AARP website. Another organization whose members get discounts is AAA. Check the web site for details. Of course the AAA discount is available to any member regardless of age. My wife and I have found that most hotel and motel chains offer discounts to both AARP and AAA members. By the way, many of them have senior discounts that don't require membership in AARP or AAA.
There are so many places that offer senior discounts that a slew of web sites have been established to let seniors know about them. Some of these websites require membership. For those that do, I would advise the same caution as I mentioned above. That is, use a junk mail email address when joining them, and certainly be careful that you do not reveal any personal information that you wouldn't want to be sold to some company that might inundate you with email or snail mail offers you just can refuse. Here is a partial list of sites that provide lists of senior discounts. To find more, just google “senior discounts”.
Lots of places have senior discounts these days. Sometimes they promote them or at least tell you about them up front as happened to us at Whataburger but sometimes you have to ask for them. Many events and tourist attractions have senior discounts too though, again, you may have to ask for them. Recently my wife I went to a fair where they offered half price tickets to seniors. That made the price $6 apiece instead of $12. For us that's a significant savings.
Often times stores, such as Kohl's, have senior discount days. They are usually in the middle of the week when there aren't as many non-retired folks out shopping. You can usually find out about senior days by checking the store's web site or asking a cashier.
A lot of restaurants offer senior discounts, sometimes on particular items and sometimes on the entire menu. Some McDonald's have a reduced price on coffee for seniors and some provide free coffee. Some IHOPs offer a senior citizen discount across the board while others offer a buy-one-get-one (BOGO) deal for seniors. The key here is that many chain restaurants are franchised so the senior deal varies between restaurants of the same chain. That often means that, in order to get that senior discount, you have to ask for it.
Many restaurants, and other businesses too, offer discounts and free meals or other perks if you join their club. These discounts are available for any member of the club regardless of age. The number of restaurants that do this is way too numerous to list here, but a couple of them are The Spicy Pickle and Mimi's Cafe. A word of caution is in order. If you join the club you will have to provide an email address at which you will receive coupons or offers for discounts. That's the good news. The bad news is that in many cases your in box will also get cluttered up with a lot of advertising email that you'd rather not receive. So it is a good idea to establish a sort of junk mail email id on google, yahoo or some other web mail system in order to receive the mail from the clubs you elect to join.
Quite a few businesses give discounts to members of AARP, so if you have an AARP membership it is a good thing to ask if the place you are doing business with gives AARP discounts. To get a list of the businesses that do give AARP discounts just check the AARP website. Another organization whose members get discounts is AAA. Check the web site for details. Of course the AAA discount is available to any member regardless of age. My wife and I have found that most hotel and motel chains offer discounts to both AARP and AAA members. By the way, many of them have senior discounts that don't require membership in AARP or AAA.
There are so many places that offer senior discounts that a slew of web sites have been established to let seniors know about them. Some of these websites require membership. For those that do, I would advise the same caution as I mentioned above. That is, use a junk mail email address when joining them, and certainly be careful that you do not reveal any personal information that you wouldn't want to be sold to some company that might inundate you with email or snail mail offers you just can refuse. Here is a partial list of sites that provide lists of senior discounts. To find more, just google “senior discounts”.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Movin' On
If you are approaching retirement you might be thinking about moving to another part of the country, or even another part of the world, that seems like it might suit you better than where you live now. If it's a place you've already spent some time in then you probably already know that you could be happy there. If, on the other hand, you're thinking about moving somewhere else because your “kinfolks said 'move away from here' and 'Californy is the place you oughta be'”, then you might want to do a little research before you load up the truck and “move to Beverly”. In The Country Saga I've written about a real life example of what happens if you don't do some serious research before you decide to make a move. So I guess it's only fair that I point out some web-based tools that might help you do some real research and get an idea of whether you really will be happy if you retire somewhere other than where you live now.
If you want to move out of the USA to some other country a really basic place to start gathering info is the CIA's World Fact Book . It will provide you with information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for hundreds of countries. Those last few things seem pretty important to me. After all, it would be good to know whether you should pack a bullet proof vest when you make your move.
If you are just thinking about moving to another city or another state right here in the good old USA, you can get some basic demographic information from the US census bureau's American Fact Finder web site. More comprehensive data can be found at City-Data. The information on this site includes photos, maps, population demographics, housing prices, rents, local headlines and much more. You can get a similar, but different, set of information about states, counties, cities and subdivisions at US Home Town Locator. There are other sites that provide this sort of information but these three cover it pretty well.
Most states have official state web sites that provide a great deal of information intended to help you understand how to obtain a driver's license, how to register your vehicle, how to do business in the state and many more subjects as well. A couple of representative examples can be found at http://ohio.gov/ and http://www.texas.gov/en/Pages/default.aspx. Similar sites exist for most cities (e.g., http://www.dallascityhall.com/ ) and many counties (e.g., http://www.tarrantcounty.com/egov/site/default.asp ).
Once you've decided which part of the country you'd like to move to, you can look for a house or property for sale on Realtor.com. This site allows you to specify the things that you need to find in a home including the price range, number of bedrooms and baths, whether you want a condo or single family home, etc. If you find a house you are interested in, you can get even more information on Zillow.com. Zillow contains information such as a five-year value graph, taxes and assessed value.
If you need information about housing for the elderly in your target area, the US federal government has information on that subject at http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Seniors/Housing.shtml . This site also contains tools such as an elder care locator.
If you plan to work after your move, sites such as Career Builder and Monster can help you find a new job before you take the leap to the new place. You can also check the classified ads on Craig's List to see what jobs are available in the target area.
The bottom line here is that before you decide to retire to the place you've always dreamed about, if can't check it out in person, it would be a real good idea to do as much online research as you can.
If you want to move out of the USA to some other country a really basic place to start gathering info is the CIA's World Fact Book . It will provide you with information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for hundreds of countries. Those last few things seem pretty important to me. After all, it would be good to know whether you should pack a bullet proof vest when you make your move.
If you are just thinking about moving to another city or another state right here in the good old USA, you can get some basic demographic information from the US census bureau's American Fact Finder web site. More comprehensive data can be found at City-Data. The information on this site includes photos, maps, population demographics, housing prices, rents, local headlines and much more. You can get a similar, but different, set of information about states, counties, cities and subdivisions at US Home Town Locator. There are other sites that provide this sort of information but these three cover it pretty well.
Most states have official state web sites that provide a great deal of information intended to help you understand how to obtain a driver's license, how to register your vehicle, how to do business in the state and many more subjects as well. A couple of representative examples can be found at http://ohio.gov/ and http://www.texas.gov/en/Pages/default.aspx. Similar sites exist for most cities (e.g., http://www.dallascityhall.com/ ) and many counties (e.g., http://www.tarrantcounty.com/egov/site/default.asp ).
Once you've decided which part of the country you'd like to move to, you can look for a house or property for sale on Realtor.com. This site allows you to specify the things that you need to find in a home including the price range, number of bedrooms and baths, whether you want a condo or single family home, etc. If you find a house you are interested in, you can get even more information on Zillow.com. Zillow contains information such as a five-year value graph, taxes and assessed value.
If you need information about housing for the elderly in your target area, the US federal government has information on that subject at http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Seniors/Housing.shtml . This site also contains tools such as an elder care locator.
If you plan to work after your move, sites such as Career Builder and Monster can help you find a new job before you take the leap to the new place. You can also check the classified ads on Craig's List to see what jobs are available in the target area.
The bottom line here is that before you decide to retire to the place you've always dreamed about, if can't check it out in person, it would be a real good idea to do as much online research as you can.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Picture Perfect
Awhile back I posted an article about scanning in old hard copy pictures to preserve them. I promised that later on I would post an article about what to do with them after you get them scanned into the computer and backed up. This is it.
The problem that you have here is that now you've got all these picture files, which are probably .jpg files, in Windows folders (or the Mac equivalent, if that's what you use) but they aren't real convenient to view using the default media viewer. For one thing you might want to put captions on the pictures. For another, you might want to view them in multiple ways, e.g., by date or by some category. So it would be nice to be able to put them into a virtual album where you could do that. I use HTML to create web pages and view my pictures that way. I used to do that kind of stuff for a living so it comes easy to me. It would be difficult for the average person to do that though, and way beyond the scope of this blog for me to try to tell you how to do it. So this article will concentrate on tools that make it easy for anyone to create a photo album. I haven't used any of these tools myself and I'm not pushing any particular tool. I'm just going to point out a few that are available.
There are basically two options for creating virtual photo albums. Maybe three if you count those hardware photo albums that let you download pictures from your camera or the computer and store a bunch on a special viewer that you can sit on your desk or carry around with you. We're going to focus on two other options, though: online photo sharing services and photo organizing software.
Photo sharing services allow you to upload the photo files on your computer to a server operated by the photo sharing service. Once the files have been transferred you can then exercise some control over who gets to see the files and in most cases you can organize the photos as like and add captions or comments as well. It is often the case that photo sharing services have two forms: a free form with a limited set of functions or a limited amount of storage, and an advanced form that is available for a fee. These tools make it easy to make photos available to social networking sites like Facebook. In many cases the photo sharing sites can be used to make new hard copies of the photos, often cheaper than you can print them on your own printer. There are a number of sites on the Internet that provide information about photo sharing services as well as comparisons between them. One such site is Top Ten Reviews . There are other photo sharing services that are not listed in this review. For instance, both Walgreens and CVS have photo sharing services which are part of their online photo printing package.
Photo organizing software allows you to organize the photos on your computer into albums that you can view on your computer. Most of the products in this category have additional function that lets you create multi-media albums that combine photos, videos and sound. They usually have some way of sharing the albums, often by making CDs or DVDs. This, of course requires you to have a CD or DVD writer on your computer. Many of these software products also allow you to share photos and/or albums over the Internet. Tools of this sort usually contain function that lets you print calendars and other special projects using your photos. There are many sites on the Internet which provide information about photo organizing software. Top Ten Reviews compares eleven of them at http://photo-organizing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ .
Whether you use a photo sharing service or photo organizing software to create albums for viewing your photos is really a matter of personal preference. Photo sharing services make it easier to share your albums and photos with friends, family and via social networking services, but they require you to upload the photos, which can be time-consuming. Since photo organizing software doesn't require an upload until you are ready to share an album, it can be quicker to build the album with photo sharing software and it may be possible to create a more complex multi-media album, but it may be more difficult to share the results than it would be with a photo sharing service. In either case, you will end up with an electronic copy of your prized photos that will be protected from the fading and other issues you face with hard copy photos.
The problem that you have here is that now you've got all these picture files, which are probably .jpg files, in Windows folders (or the Mac equivalent, if that's what you use) but they aren't real convenient to view using the default media viewer. For one thing you might want to put captions on the pictures. For another, you might want to view them in multiple ways, e.g., by date or by some category. So it would be nice to be able to put them into a virtual album where you could do that. I use HTML to create web pages and view my pictures that way. I used to do that kind of stuff for a living so it comes easy to me. It would be difficult for the average person to do that though, and way beyond the scope of this blog for me to try to tell you how to do it. So this article will concentrate on tools that make it easy for anyone to create a photo album. I haven't used any of these tools myself and I'm not pushing any particular tool. I'm just going to point out a few that are available.
There are basically two options for creating virtual photo albums. Maybe three if you count those hardware photo albums that let you download pictures from your camera or the computer and store a bunch on a special viewer that you can sit on your desk or carry around with you. We're going to focus on two other options, though: online photo sharing services and photo organizing software.
Photo sharing services allow you to upload the photo files on your computer to a server operated by the photo sharing service. Once the files have been transferred you can then exercise some control over who gets to see the files and in most cases you can organize the photos as like and add captions or comments as well. It is often the case that photo sharing services have two forms: a free form with a limited set of functions or a limited amount of storage, and an advanced form that is available for a fee. These tools make it easy to make photos available to social networking sites like Facebook. In many cases the photo sharing sites can be used to make new hard copies of the photos, often cheaper than you can print them on your own printer. There are a number of sites on the Internet that provide information about photo sharing services as well as comparisons between them. One such site is Top Ten Reviews . There are other photo sharing services that are not listed in this review. For instance, both Walgreens and CVS have photo sharing services which are part of their online photo printing package.
Photo organizing software allows you to organize the photos on your computer into albums that you can view on your computer. Most of the products in this category have additional function that lets you create multi-media albums that combine photos, videos and sound. They usually have some way of sharing the albums, often by making CDs or DVDs. This, of course requires you to have a CD or DVD writer on your computer. Many of these software products also allow you to share photos and/or albums over the Internet. Tools of this sort usually contain function that lets you print calendars and other special projects using your photos. There are many sites on the Internet which provide information about photo organizing software. Top Ten Reviews compares eleven of them at http://photo-organizing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ .
Whether you use a photo sharing service or photo organizing software to create albums for viewing your photos is really a matter of personal preference. Photo sharing services make it easier to share your albums and photos with friends, family and via social networking services, but they require you to upload the photos, which can be time-consuming. Since photo organizing software doesn't require an upload until you are ready to share an album, it can be quicker to build the album with photo sharing software and it may be possible to create a more complex multi-media album, but it may be more difficult to share the results than it would be with a photo sharing service. In either case, you will end up with an electronic copy of your prized photos that will be protected from the fading and other issues you face with hard copy photos.
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