@SOSConcern - good luck on your last day of work and your next chapter. It sounds like you and your husband have prepared very well and are nicely positioned to enjoy the next steps!
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I work in a hospital and our hospitalists as well as palliative care team are wonderful about having detailed discussions with patients and families regarding treatment options or forgoing treatment. Other members of the medical team might be a mixed bag, but that is why there are referrals to palliative. Hopefully in most institutions it is possible to ask for a palliative referral if it seems timely and would be helpful for family decision making.
My aunt lived for a long while near downtown Portland, OR in a large complex of senior apartments. She described more than once having someone new show up for dinner and say they had moved to Oregon due to a terminal diagnosis. Theyâd be there for a time, and then gone, presumably due to the Death with Dignity Act.
Heck, my ex sister in law, my kids aunt, used something similar in Washington, as she had ALS. It was a shock and terribly sad, but hard to argue with her choice.
This is an important discussion and worth having well in advance. One decision we made for my 96 year old mom was to continue anti coagulation for her A fib. Often it is stopped due to fall risk in advanced age. As she had stroked previously, a fall and brain bleed in my book was preferable to lingering with another stroke.
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Congrats on your retirement! Youâve planned carefully and are ready for this. Hope your last day went well.
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Worked 10 hours - not an easy night but not the roughest. Left the office key and took my box of personal items, and card/balloon and Crumbli treat (gourmet cookie). Last paycheck on the 24th.
Great feeling today except still having to contact Social Security on starting DHâs Medicare B. Will call twice a day starting next Monday for âcorrectâ form dropped off by appointment last Tuesday morning after gaining the form from email after phone call on Monday. Have a different story on Part B start date from representative I spoke to today. It seems they will give their name and title (which I didnât ask for on Monday). The supervisor today said the scanning in of the document can take up to next Tuesday to show up on their system.
Those approaching age 65 - beware if you donât sign up initially for Medicare A and B at the same time during initial period. Right now one person says we have to pay for Sept to have in place for Oct 1; other person says we have to pay for Ju/Jl/Aug/Sept for in place for Oct 1.
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Congratulations @SOSConcern.
We are doing the same thing with ShawWife. We have to decide when she starts SS and then sign up for Medicare.
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My recommendation for signing up for Social Security is to make a phone appointment. I believe I got on SSA.gov to do so or to gain the 800 number or local 800 number to do so. They give you a choice of time frame for them to call you on that date (I chose 9 - 12 and they called me a few minutes after 9 am). That way you can have a discussion of choices/options and knowing exactly what SS amount will be (mine will have Medicare B automatically deducted - they will do this if you are 65 and you are signed up for Medicare B). I chose to start SS Oct 1 and get my first check for Oct in Nov.
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The online system works pretty well. If SS would put a little more money into the IT interface (of course thatâs true for every government agency), they could reduce their designed need for phone calls.
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Right now I think the age group for Social Security are comfortable making phone calls and the phone may be preferable to an online system for them.
Of course that will change as people age who are comfortable with navigating on line systems.
Saying this as Iâve tried to help my mom navigate changing her air flights. She couldnât figure out what to do even though it was right there and very easy for me.
And my kids hate making phone calls and much prefer doing things on line as thatâs what they grew up doing.
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It sure let me down in this application. And the people on the phone give different answers.
There is a chat feature with Medicare and Medicareâs web site is 24/7. However SSA is not, does not have chat feature.
THEY make it difficult with their rules with Medicare B, and rules on if you sign up at different time during credible period for A and B, and for them to not know answers on having credible coverage and using those rules???
To know exactly what you are getting with SS - you do not find out with on line application. To be sure about SS and to be sure with some things with Medicare, on line is not the wayâŠ
Just be aware that whatever they tell you on the phone may not be accurate and they will not be held to it if they provide incorrect info.
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Well when they are processing the form that is in their system, and then I can see what is done at medicare.gov â I was told as soon as it is on SSAâs system it will also show up on medicare.gov. I will be signed in and will talk to them as soon as they see the form on the system. I plan to stay on the phone when they complete their âprocessingâ.
Yes they can tell you crud. They donât offer you their name but our local office does tell their name when asked.
When they donât know the rules and they are processing the stuff, how do they expect us to know the rules when they are not accessible on their web site?
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Reminder to folks dreading Medicare etc enrollment: You can opt to use a Medicare broker. It will be free to you, same monthly cost either way.
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Miraculously, we had no trouble dealing with Medicare sign up and we did it different ways.
I started collecting SS at 62. So I automatically got my Medicare card when I turned 65âŠand all I had to do was indicate whether I wanted part B. It was then deducted automatically from my measly SS benefit.
My husband signed up for part A at 65. He retired two years later and did Part B. He did it all online and it was not an issue. He isnât collecting SS yet, so we get a nice monthly bill from Medicare each month for him. And yes, he did have to show that he had credible coverage between 65 and 67.
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You have to have Medicare A and B in place with SSA/Medicare first.
We know what plan we want with supplement and drug. Just have to get SSA/Medicare to finally process the âcorrectâ form.
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@thumper1 - somehow Medicare doesnât want to look at credible coverage for DH to start Medicare B. He is in the window for his initial enrollment. Having Medicare A already signed up is confusing them.
Because you were already on SS, yes, easy to sign up for Medicare A and B with your initial enrollment time. I signed up for Medicare A and B for me with my initial enrollment, and then I had a phone appt for starting my SS.
DH is not starting SS until later. They have told us we have to pay for Medicare B for him from June, another told us for Sept (both people were from our local office, but didnât know we could get the first personâs name). We need his in place for Oct. Both were âfuzzyâ on his enrollment opportunity for Medicare B after September (the end of his initial enrollment window). So when they indeed see his scanned in form that will show up in their Medicare system on Mon or Tues, we will pay whatever they tell us so it is in place. They donât know how to handle all their rules nor how to evaluate - and they donât spell out things for our situation with Medicare B. I will call Mon am, then Mon pm, then Tues am, then Tues pm - the fellow on Friday said what was dropped off in their office Tues morning should be electronically showing up by then - he thinks their office didnât scan in that same day (Ugh for terrible service!) He did see the scan from our Sunday fax on Friday.
IDK when your H got Medicare B at 67 if they told him what month he was able to start. I am getting the impression that there are quarterly periods.
I regret not talking to our local Medicare/SSA last March with DHâs scenario (DH is always on the phone as he needs to be). Then I could have had more info/foresight and not have left things to whoever after electronic submission - and being specifically told to apply in Sept for Oct (by the phone caller from their center in our regional SSA/Medicare office but she didnât give her name and then did hang up on us) â at that time the gal on the phone said it could get processed to start Sept 1 with what we had submitted. Shame we didnât go with that at that point.
I am just sick of having to have LEARNED the flaws in their âsystemâ. SICK.
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My husband filed for Medicare Part B 90 days before he retired. He actually put the date he wanted Medicare to start on his application, I think. He wanted June 1. Applied March 2 or so. He had his card with A and B on it very quicklyâŠ.with a start date of his first day of retirement,âŠJune 1. This was this year. He says it was actually a lot easier than he thought. He DID have to show the coverage he had from his work more than once.
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Well I think we didnât have the opportunity to use a 90 day window with DHâs Medicare B - through their misinformation to us. We certainly would have put in the form with the start date to open a window for DH with a start date of Medicare B for Oct, or if we were informed differently in advance.
We thought we had the Medicare B application correct (electronically submitted July 13) - and we received a call July 19 telling us he needs to resubmit in Sept for Oct. I think the July application could have had the 90 day window for Medicare B, but we were told wrong. That caller was not providing the correct info but would not give us a supervisor and hung up on us w/o of course giving her name. So based on what we currently understand, the Sept 2 electronic application would then have a later window for their rules (??) - the local office told us Monday that was an erroneous application.
I am hoping we only pay Sept and not back to June. We surmise it has to do with the application âwindowâ.
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I left my job two years ago this month, after giving the place far too much time and attention. I needed to focus on myself for awhile. I had intended it to be a sabbatical, assuming I would get another job after a few months. The pandemic hit, and I initially panicked, thinking that I would have to return to work right away to make ends meet. Instead, I discovered that we were fine without my income. I still figured I would get a job at some point, because I really hadnât intended to retire. Then my granddaughter was born, and I watch her half the week. She will eventually go to daycare, but I will still watch her once a week. I figured I would look for something part time when that happens.
Then I talked with my former coworker on Friday. I realized that I have absolutely no interest in being in the workforce again. I will never again put up with everything that goes along with that. I updated my LinkedIn to âHappily retired.â It took me two years to truly understand that I am done. Ahhhhhhhh!!!
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Congratulations, @kelsmom! Sometimes it takes a period of unemployment or some part-time, WFH gig to make us understand that we really donât want to go back to the olden days.
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Social Security is definitely a big factor in retirement. There are discussions about upping the retirement age/cutting down on payments.
Under the current circumstances⊠pandemic, lost jobs, high immigration⊠what if anything do you all think will occur?
I will be 62, and DH a few years younger. Trying to decide how to approach retirement, specifically as it applies to SS. Those payments are definitely needed in every scenario we have looked at.