I keep notes here. Most of these are related to travel, work, or books.
What I Learned from Reading Medicare for Dummies
booksfitnessMedicare for Dummies by Patricia Barry
Chapter 1: Nuts and Bolts (pp. 9 - 18) #
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Medicare part A - you already paid this, through your paychecks and taxes.
Medicare part B - you have to pay a monthly premium, like it's health insurance.
Yearly cap on out of pocket? Yes in (C) but NOT in (A, B)
"Medigap" is what people buy as a cushion against the "sky is the limit" maximum out of pocket costs
Medicare has 4 parts:
- Nursing stuff (A)
- Doctoring stuff (B)
- "Let's use a company like Blue Cross instead of Parts A|B"
- Pharmacy prescriptions (a subset of D, added during the Bush admin)
Some preventative cares (B):
- diabetes screening, training
- flu shots
- any doc ordered blood, urine test
- exams of prostate, colon
- any doc ordered imaging
- annual wellness check up
End of life! (A):
- hospice
- palliative
Old people living out their last years in a nursing home
- pay with your own money...til you're broke
- once you're broke you apply for Medicaid and that pays for a much worse nursing home
Long hospital recoveries:
Days 1 - 60 are paid but then the co-pay becmes $300 and then $600 a day
Strange surprising part:
- Medicare costs money. It's a kind of health insurance company (by the US government) that has low premiums, cannot refuse you, BUT
- will make you pay an elevated fee for the rest of your life (!) if you forget to join when you turn 65 or within a few months of leaving your work insurance if you are over 65.
- Here is a screenshot of that confusing point:
(screeenshot to go here from Medicare for Dummies)