A Reverend and His Calling

The reverend in the picture writes movingly of his experience at the Port of Seattle. The link was forwarded to me by a member of his church. While I've never met the reverend, I have no reason to take his words at anything other than face value. Read his story with an open mind, as his words are very much worth reading.

Choosing a Medicare supplement

The open enrollment period to join or change a Medicare supplement plan is from 10/15 to 12/7 this year. Selecting the right plan for you does not have to be difficult. Seriously.

If you call an insurance broker to help you in this, you do want to sound very assured and informed about what expensive medications you take (if any) and what extent of coverage and monthly premiums you can afford. Otherwise, a broker is going to be unwilling to spend 1-2 hours with you without being able to sell you a plan.

The website for the Open Enrollment Center has gotten easier and easier to use since the start of the Part D (drug coverage) and Part C (Medicare Advantage) programs years ago.

First, click on the blue bar-shaped button called My Medicare Tools. (Sorry, Windows Vista is not easy to use for screenshots.) This goes to the Resource Locator page.

Next, click on the sidebar element called Drug and Health Plans. This will open the Medicare Plan Finder. Jackpot!

From here, you can use your Zip Code to look for available plans in your area. If you want, you can also do a more personalized search based on your Zip Code, and also your existing Medicare Number and demographic information.

Even using the general search just based on Zip Code alone, you still can indicate whether or not you are already on Medicare and whether or not you have any other help with prescription drug costs (such as Social Security, MediCal, SSI and so forth).

Continuing on the general search with regular Medicare alone, you get a chance to create a list of medicines you take by name. You do not have to do this, but it's useful if there are any medicines you get which seem to be unusually expensive. Usual examples of this would be inhalers for asthma or COPD, and pills for rheumatoid arthritis, chronic colitis, chronic pain and cancer. The vast majority of medicines for heart conditions and diabetes are generically available.

If you wish, you can bypass this by clicking "I don't take any drugs", or "I don't want to add drugs now".

The next screen then allows you to check off the pharmacy or pharmacies that you use. You can select as many from how ever many miles from where you live, or just skip ahead.

At this point, you get a Summary of plans in your area. This list will be limited to only ones that fit your selections if you made any specific selections. Here, you can go on to see an entire list of plans. You can also refine how the list is presented to you before you proceed. For example, you may want to show only Part D drug coverage plans because you already have Part A and Part B Medicare. Or, you may want it to show plans listed in order of monthly premium, or in order of annual deductibles, or ratings by consumers.

The last screen is titled Your Plan Results. This is a list of plans where you live, available to any pharmacies you may have chosen and any other specifics you may have made. You can still use the drop-down menu to change the list to show in order of cost, or ratings, or other choices. You can also check the box to the far left of any plans that interest you, and then click on the orange bar "Compare Plans" to show a head-to-head comparison of just the plans that interest you.

For what it's worth, looking for the most highly consumer-rated Part D plans in the Placerville area shows Medco, Blue Shield and AARP to be the best. Certainly, we've had no problems with any of these and patients do not complain about their coverage with them.

Otherwise, please please please DO NOT choose any plan that "takes over for Medicare" or makes Medicare your secondary insurance (this includes Part C Medicare Advantage plans). This will immediately result in a smaller pool of available specialists, more restrictions on medications, and long delays in getting authorization for any tests. If you don't like "the Canadian health care system", then don't pick any plan like this!

Be very suspicious of the nicely dressed, helpful young men and women with the tables set up at the grocery or drugstore. Plans they offer may be cheaper in the short run, but you will definitely be getting what you pay for here. Remember; if it's to good to be true, it is!