Medicare insurance & supplemental plans

Looks like my United Healthcare Part A, B and D will be going up almost exactly what my SS will be going up.

Got a letter from United Healthcare last week that said "We are pleased to announce that your premiums won't be going up next year, until April"

Jerry

Ken & Sheila said:

btw, the Romney/Ryan plans for Medicare MAY have much larger increases under their "voucher" plan. I say MAY because this information comes from a study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation and I have not studied it to see if it is accurate.  I also don't know if the Ryan plan would effect current retirees.

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Yes, there is much inaccuracy about the Ryan plan as described by Obama and his reelection team. The Obama side always refers to the Voucher plan in terms such as, "They want to turn Medicare into a voucher plan" -- implying it would apply to everyone and be mandatory. The Romney side continually corrects them in that it will have no impact on anyone over 55 in that they would continue w/their current plan, and would only be an option for anyone else. So no, it would not impact any retirees or anyone else unless they choose to have it.

Ken, Like you, we have not heard of any increase in Medicare Part B costs, nor has our Anthem supplement gone up.  However, I must say we are at our son's in Lake Arrowhead, CA and the letter may be in the mail when we get home on Tuesday.... 8)

Marsha,

Sorry I was in a hurry yesterday when I answered you.  I think this will be your first renewal period with Medicare plans so you'll be unundated with "stuff" from all the Medicare supplemental insurance companies.  They all want you to change to their plan!  Don't be so overwhelmed with all the paper that you miss your official announcement of next year's Social Security payment and next year's Medicare deduction.  They'll both come in the mail separately.

If you take any medications or have a specific medical condition it pays to go to the Medicare web site (a drag - make sure you have a big block of time!) to compare the various plans for your zip code.  I changed the Part D for drugs last year because our insurer dropped from their formulary the few medications I occasionally need and it cost quite a bit more.  Also, as RVers, you want to make sure both the medical and drug parts are available nationwide.  For 2013 there's only one Part D insurer in our zip code that is both nationwide and has in its formulary the few meds we take, so the choice has been narrowed just since last year when there were several.

ArdraF

Bob Buchanan said:

Yes, there is much inaccuracy about the Ryan plan as described by Obama and his reelection team. The Obama side always refers to the Voucher plan in terms such as, "They want to turn Medicare into a voucher plan" -- implying it would apply to everyone and be mandatory. The Romney side continually corrects them in that it will have no impact on anyone over 55 in that they would continue w/their current plan, and would only be an option for anyone else. So no, it would not impact any retirees or anyone else unless they choose to have it.

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I never quote from known political sources - either side. The information I was talking about came from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Marsha/CA said:

... we have not heard of any increase in Medicare Part B costs, nor has our Anthem supplement gone up.

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Marsha,

See the last paragraph of this article in the Chicago Tribune.

R

RLSharp said:

Marsha,

See the last paragraph of this article in the Chicago Tribune.

R

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I recommend reading the whole article. There's a lot of good info there. I can live with a $7 Part B increase, that's about the cost of a bottle of wine (ok, 2 bottles if it's 2-Buck Chuck which is $3 in Colorado)

Wendy

Hi Richard, thanks for the article.  It seemed to discuss the Part D prescriptions portion of Medicare, then right at the end was the info about the increase in Part B.  We do have Humana Walmart and did notice the premium went up.  We used to pay $15.?? a month and did get the notice that it would now be $18.??  Guess it wasn't enough to set off our alarms.  We had been paying close to $13,000 a year for insurance premiums, so a small increase in Humana didn't bother us....Yet!!  ;D  It will be interesting to see if our Anthem Supplement will go up.

I can live with a $7.00 increase in Medicare Part B.  When I first signed up in 2011, Medicare Part B was higher, then they lowered it for $2012. 

Ardra, we use mail order from Humana, so weren't really concerned about getting meds out of state.  I'll also verify that they provide the same meds we've been using.  Like you said, though, I need to make sure the Medicare supplement continues to provide care out of state.

Marsha~

Like Ken, I don't quote from either side, and I take both sides' commentary with a very large grain of salt. I can only speak to what I am experiencing. My premium has not changed for 2013, still $45/month for each of us for the most deluxe plan that Blue Cross/Blue Shield Advantage has here. I might downgrade to the $15 plan after I get a chance to compare the benefits between the two plans. I gained a bit and lost a bit with the 2013 plan; certain exams and clinic services called for by Obamacare (for want of a simpler name) are now free, my doctor appointments are now $5 and my hospital co-pay has increased $50/day for 5 days. I do wonder if the hospital increase was due to BC/BS taking over my local hospital plan? There was no change in my formulary for any of my prescriptions. My prescriptions continue to be available throughout the country.

Marsha/CA said:

We had been paying close to $13,000 a year for insurance premiums, so a small increase in Humana didn't bother us....Yet!!  Marsha~

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Are you talking US dollars?    Seriously, that is pre-medicare.  Right. 

You guys...  The more I see of what hoops you must jump through and what your costs are, the more I appreciate my position - Medicare and Tri-Care for Life (retired military).  I've had 3 major surgeries since turning 65 and my DW has had a couple major hospital stays and about all we've had to pay is our part 'B' cost and minimal precription costs for temporary meds not on our "by mail" delivery from Express Scripts.  We just do not worry about health care expenses.  This has convinced me that the only way to go for the entire country is some type of "single payer" system or, perhaps, some massaged version of Obamacare.  Heck, if nothing else, it would save a lot of trees by reducing the health insurance junk mail.

garyb1st said:

Are you talking US dollars?    Seriously, that is pre-medicare.  Right.

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Yes, pre-medicare, healthy, and a $5,000 deductible.  Coverage was for both of us.  My husband took an early retirement at 58.  We used up the cobra part of his companies coverage and then had to buy it on our own. 

Marsha~

Ken & Sheila said:

I never quote from known political sources - either side. The information I was talking about came from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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Ken, is there such a source as a totally unbiased source? Each side claim unbiased sources if those sources agree with them - and vice versa. For example, THIS article refers to KFF as, "One of the most prestigious liberal inside the beltway think tanks on health reform policy". And points out that originally KFF was funded by the hospital industry.

And THIS article from Time points out what the KFF source you mention left out of their study, including the point I made about seniors 55 and over.

QUOTE:
The problem with this analysis is that it ignores the whole point of the Romney-Ryan approach, which is to encourage seniors to choose health insurance that's cheaper and which, they say, would be just as good and more widely available thanks to more competition. KFF includes charts on how many seniors would pay more if some switched to lower-cost options, but it doesn?t analyze how much cheaper overall options might be with more competition in the marketplace.

And the caveats in the KFF report don?t end at the disclaimer cited by the Romney campaign. The analysis is based on a scenario in which a premium-support plan for Medicare was fully implemented for all Medicare beneficiaries in 2010, which Romney never called for. (He favors no changes for people who are 55 and older right now.) The report doesn?t consider a whole host of factors that could affect how a premium-support model might change health care costs for seniors. It doesn?t analyze how the pool of seniors in traditional Medicare might change if private plans scoop up the youngest and healthiest seniors. The study also only looks at premiums and doesn?t factor in co-pays and other out-of-pocket spending that could affect how costs could change for seniors.
UNQUOTE:

Ken, I'm independant, slightly to the right of center - and don't want to be political here. I just want to point out that, IMO, there are not many sources to quote from that are not political. Including the two that I quoted from. 

Bob,

I guess I need to vet sources better. I apologize.

The statement that they are funded by the Hospital industry is a really bad sign.

I think the influence (including heavy influence on congress - BOTH sides of the aisle) of the Drug industry, the Insurance companies and the whole medical industry is making any real reform in our health system extremely hard. And no, I am not a fan of the new law, but I do believe we need to reform our health care laws.

I deleted the next page of this post because I really don't think this forum is the place to talk about the serious issues behind health care reform.

>>Ken, is there such a source as a totally unbiased source? Each side claim unbiased sources if those sources agree with them - and vice versa. For example, THIS article refers to KFF as, "One of the most prestigious liberal inside the beltway think tanks on health reform policy". And points out that originally KFF was funded by the hospital industry.<<

Bob,

For the accuracy, the article says the KFF was ORIGINALLY funded by Health Insurance. OK, It was founded by Henry Kaiser and once owned stock in Kaiser Permanente, but that association was terminated in the 1980's. As to whether they are liberal or not, I haven't read enough.

Single Payer, by the way seems, to advocate taking private insurance out and making the government the "single" payer under the theory that one payer would have less admin costs. They seem to think that KFF is against Single payer because of their prior association with Kaiser Permanente.
ken

An interesting/entertaining read is The New New thing; The story of how Jim Clark founded a company in the dot-com era with the intent to be the single interface to healthcare providers. It's been some years since I read the book, but it's still available.

Clark's motivation for founding the company was to fund his new sailboat with the tallest mast in the world. The company, Healtheon, didn't go anywhere, but Clark took it public for IIRC $1.2B.

Tom said:

Clark's motivation for founding the company was to fund his new sailboat with the tallest mast in the world. The company, Healtheon, didn't go anywhere, but Clark took it public for IIRC $1.2B.

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That ought to fund a pretty tall mast. ;D

It was, until it broke on the sea trial  ;D

I am a Canadian.
I think if  natural selection has anything to do with favoring a general smartening of the population, we here north of the 49th are going end up a lot dumber.

Health or medicare - my home town has had it since 1935. So its been a long time since we have had to test our mental skills weighing one health insurance plan against another.

And watched the Debates tonight - Canadians are probably going to end up with short attention spans as well-our election  campaigns are limited to 8 to 10 weeks.

Best of luck to you all, may you never need health insurance.