OK old farts what are you using?

Subbed.

I know it's different for everyone, I'm a year away from that. The nice thing about straight medicare is that you don't need any approval to go see a specialist. Yes the supplemental plans cover a lot but you always need approval. Also, the only thing good that came out of the last administration is (I believe) there is a cap on out of pocket expense on medication deductibles of $2,000. I'll be looking forward to that. There is that to consider. Presently my one med has a deductible of $1,200 per month. However, we do get help with that. There's a lot to consider.

TM

I am just using A and B, no supplemental plan, but I'm not on any medications and unless it's broke or bleeding profusely, tend to avoid doctors.

We've been with Kaiser forever (I know some people hate Kaiser but we like the doctors and orthopedic surgeons 😝we have now) Anyway I went with A,B&D. Plus dental.  My health insurance went from almost 800 a month to 220 with dental, which I didn't have before. So nothing changed as far as what doctors I see etc. Next step for me is to start collecting ss in November. I'll be 66 &10 months. Which is old enough that I can still make enough money to live without being dinged for it. (Theoretically, we'll see)  Or figure out how to live in Ca for a whopping 2K a month....   

Steve, my Aunt (she's 89) lives in San Jose and for years had United Health care and loved them. Because of health care costs in San Jose, United Health Care was dropping all of their Medicare supplemental plans in San Jose as of Jan 1 2025. We found her Aetna and seems to have the same coverages as her United Health Care plan and so far she's had no problems. I'm lucky enough that my former employer has their own supplemental plan so it costs me nothing (I am so very fortunate) but finding a supplemental plan has to be confusing. I got more junk mail pamphlets in the mail I would have thought it was election time. I just went on Medicare the first of this month so I'm new to this whole Medicare thing. Like I said my Aunt really liked United Health Care and Aetna seems to be doing her right too. I hope this helps you some.

Well Lump ,the best advice I can offer is to sit down with 3 different MediCare specialists/brokers and give them all the same medical history and current medications that your currently on . In fact , if they don’t ask for that ahead of your “meeting”, they won’t be prepared enough to counsel you properly.   These consultations are absolutely free and are ,in my opinion, 100% necessary.  As most on here already know , I’ve spent most of my life dealing in finance and “numbers” etc, and I couldn’t research and educate myself enough to trust doing it on my own.   As an example , I went with a Highmark Complete Blue PPO Signature plan that seemed to be best suited to my situation. Relatively good shape, only on one prescription med ,haven’t had any extended hospital stays etc .Highmark offered  8 different choices . UPMC also had some good looking programs , and I think they offered 7 . Aetna , similar etc .  All with different coverages ,max dollars covered , deductibles ,prescription plans , in network/ out of Network guidelines etc. My partner in the business was advised to go with an entirely different provider and program as he’s on 9 prescription meds and has spent 60 + days in the hospital in the past 4 years.   

   These specialists came right to our office and spent a couple hours each with us separately.  The trick is if 2 of the 3 specialists recommend the same provider and program , you’ll know you’re cooking with gas .   Everyone thinks they’re sharp enough to do it on their own ,and a lot of my friends have muddled thru it , but they are also pretty shocked on all the advantages my plan has compared to what they selected on their own.

In closing , if you do go the “specialist “ route ,make sure you get the meetings with Brokers that handle multiple providers ,not one that works for one of the actual providers .  Remember — these meetings are zero cost, so there’s no reason to not listen to what they all suggest .   Hope this helps 

I'm the dumbest mofo you'll ever meet.  Me and Forrest Gump are twins and he's the smart one.  I did luck out when I decided to keep Tricare military insurance when I retired.  Now that I'm on Medicare my Tricare picks up deductibles, prescriptions, vision and dental.

Thank you Jesus and the support of the American people.  I gave it my all and the rewards are greatly appreciated.

Sorry to hijack the thread...I dont even know how my insurance works...it just does.🙃

Great question Lumpy, I turn 65 in December. some good advice in here so far, I will continue to monitor this thread.

My S/S currently comes in at $2K now & $3K in 5 years…

Now, because I’m still “earning more than $24K a year”…I’m not eligible…now. Not eligible for MY OWN MONEY that I’ve been paying into since THE AGE OF TWELVE! 😂

But, when I’m 67? IT’S VIRTUALLY AUTOMATIC?!🤣

As for all this Medicare stuff…I’m currently in a BlueShield PPO that allows me & my employees to go to damn near anyone we want: that’s super nice when it comes to orthos and specialists.

I’m gonna do whatever I have to do to keep shit that way ”post 65”.

We have a coupl’a consultants that are ex-military/retired military…we pay for their supplemental coverage that’s Aetna or some such shit.

Insurance is like the simultaneous-coexistence of a “split” single photon: it’s spooky, confusing and complicated!🤣

It sounds expensive. I'm just not going to get insurance. 

Guess I have some research to do. 

My total cost for ALL the “parts” is only $167/mo.  In Pa,that even varied from county to county .  This Medicare shit was very confusing, even with my experience in the F&I game. I have a shit ton of friends /clients that are in the medical profession and even THEY called in outside Medicare Specialists .  Now, I’m sure there is probably idiot brokers out there as there are in any profession, but if you do your own due diligence on some personal research,you’ll be able to weed out any sketchy ones you may encounter. 

Those fuckers charge me 200 a month for just straight medicare, something seems off

Did you use broker ,or just wing it ?  Also,  as I stated above , my costs actually varied by up to approx 40/mo for the plan I ended up with depending on what area of southwestern Pa  I was registered living, so different States may be priced differently  as well. ?

Also, as I was rummaging thru my original Medicare research docs, I realized that Highmark actually had 11 (!!) different programs that I qualified for.  My first bill was for the 3 month period from 10/1/24 thru 12/31/24  ( I turned 65 10/8/24) and it was $ 499.30   ( 166.43mo )  The semi annual payment for 2025 is  $ 1,056  ( 176.00 mo)  so it did go up a small bit for 2025 .  I'd recommend having someone that does it for a living take a look at your program. You're not locked in forever on whatever  you chose.  A buddy of mine has changed his 3 times in the past couple of  years lol.  

I did 'wing it', I started s.s. at 66 and 8 mos., a few months ago. Maybe I pay a penalty for not starting medicare at 65. I just have the bare bones part a and b. Whatever, hope I never need it and I die with my boots on.

Well you can still change plans if you're not completely happy with what you got . No sense taking a chance passing on better coverage at a lower price . I'm exactly a year from my 66yr 10mo full SS benefits , but I'm pretty sure none of us actually get healthier as we age 🙄 , kinda the reason I put so much effort into the MediCare deal a year ago.  Look into it . Change it if necessary 

Will do, thanks for the feedback pro.

"Not eligible for MY OWN MONEY "

If they give you money too early, they won't have any for the folks that didn't contribute. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter

I’ll be 65 next month, so my full SS retirement age will be 67. Monday I’ll be sending all my retirement forms in for my full pensions out of the electrical trade.  I pretty much lost my drive for the electrical trade / aged out after 38 years. So I got a CDL and have been driving Transit Buses full time back and forth to Seattle and several other cities in the area for the last 2.5 years. So my question is….. if I decide to stop working period and take my SS early, will my electrical pension go against my SS and be deducted till I reach full retirement age?

Kenny, I bet Grok could answer that kind of question. My first SS check comes in November. I'm taking it as soon as I can because who knows how long it will be before they use SS all up for something else. Plus who knows if I'll be around in another year. My goal is to at least collect one check before I check permanently into into Non-Moto. 

Naw Void, you ain’t go’n anywhere soon. I get your move to get SS as soon as possible a lot of people feel the way you do. My plan is to double dip ,working full time and draw my full pension out of the electrical trade for the next 2 years till I reach my full SS age. Then I might triple up for a bit longer. But I was asking just in case I decide to just throw in the towel and fully retire before my full SS kicks in. I’m still get’n around pretty good, but still I definitely don’t have the energy of 10 years ago. I really hope to go 2 more years at least. 

Good call Void, I did AI……BOOM!

Well, it’s possible that he/she will get that info at the first meeting and then schedule a second to go over all the pertinent plan choices after they have a chance to spend some time researching the best choices for you. Don’t immediately throw them out lol.   Just in my case, prior to our meeting,I actually had to email her all my scripts ( easy because I only had one) but she wanted name,dosages, how long I was on them etc.  Good luck 👍 

Yes it is . Even just the drug coverages are confusing because of the “formulary” description and the 5 separate Tiers of meds - Generic —Preferred Generic - Preferred Brand- Non Preferred Drug- Specialty Tier etc etc.  😂.   It would be interesting to see how your prices for the same plan is in your state , since it varies so much just depending on what county we live in here in Pa .  The pic I posted is the price and coverages for just the 9 counties in SouthWest Pa. . for the HighMark Complete Blue PPO Signature plan ( one of the 11 HighMark plans available ,lol!!!)    I had 3 separate brokers give me proposals , and 2 of them suggested the same plan , so I was fairly confident it was a good one for me -  the other partner in our company is going thru this meeting process as we speak- interested in what plan he’ll end up with compared to what I and our other partner ended up with last year .  You almost need to be a Rhodes Scholar or Mensa member — good luck