@Htas
I contributed to SS during high school, college and my first seven years of teaching…I worked in a state where teachers contributed to SS as well as to the state teachers retirement plan. I also contributed to SS during my many summer jobs while teaching.
Then I moved to a state where teachers don’t contribute to SS…and worked there the rest of my working career…over 30 years.
My pension is fine.
My SS benefit would have been over $600 based on what I actually contributed to the SS system. Due to the provisions…my actual benefit is about $220. I don’t want anything special…but I do think I should be able to collect my entire benefit…not a reduced one.
In addition, I can never collect on my husbands SS earnings. Oddly, spouses who have never worked can collect on their spouse’s earnings…but I can’t because of these provisions.
We took all of this into consideration when we did our retirement planning.
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Before going on Medicare - be sure you are up to date with your vaccinations. Most health insurance plans will cover full cost of vaccinations – Medicare will for a few (like flu shot and Covid). DH needed his TDAP (Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis) booster - w/o prescription he would have needed to pay $126; with prescription $42 - it ran through his Medicare D Drug Plan. Friend had shingles shot under regular health insurance plan (no cost) while her DH who had Medicare first and had a co-pay similar to what my DH had.
Always areas to save money or spend less with knowledge!
Our water bill has a senior discount - all DH had to do was show his billing account and his driver’s license. Sadly no property tax discount or other utility discount.
I believe the longer we have sluggish or downturn stock market, the more investors will be buying up properties - making it challenging for some home/condo purchasing.
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My Medicare Advantage plan covered most of the cost of the shingles shot set.
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our medicare plan paid for TDAP in full, as well as shingles. (and we have the cheapest Rx plan.)
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My friend and her DH are covered under very good employee plan - he has their supplement after Medicare kicks in. If he had the shingles immunizations before Medicare, he would not have paid anything either. Friend had to pay no copay for her shingles immunizations.
Medicare Advantage plans for some are very good - just not for us at this point in time as we won’t probably live in local area through retirement but for a while and current supplement and supplemental drug plans are good for us. It all depends on what state one lives in and particulars on desire for supplement VS Advantage plan.
We spoke with former neighbors in home state, and she was able to get fairly decent insurance coverage through the open market to cover her before she is 65 (lower cost than COBRA with her former employer) - she used an insurance broker and had her husband there at the meetings so he could understand the various coverage (he had veteran’s benefits and also is now under Medicare - so his situation was different). As a RN, her body was just wearing out - she recently had a knee replacement and has some low back issues that are treated when needed by a chiropractor which has a reasonable fee for her. So now she can do some gardening - has the time and mobility.
We are very happy with our health care at our current location. DH had a spine MD intervention/treatments in 2018, so now that he has other back issues was able to get in pretty much right away due to being a return patient. Happy with the plan of care.
So on place to retire - making sure about health care, health care coverage. Also contingencies like one spouse decline in health - what are new options. Lots on making ‘big’ moves in retirement.
Many retirees do move to be closer to children/grandchildren. Sometimes having younger family members helping with options/finding help or respite care/transitioning to assisted living etc.
This is the first time when we traveled to take along some of our health care records - and we needed it to set up a MD appointment as soon as we returned from travel for DH due to scan result call from PCP. Also with some floating kidney stones, brought along CT scan results in case of high fever and flank pain (a medical emergency due to kidney stone causing infection and lodging). Something else to think about with travel for those of us who are use to having good/excellent health.
My husband has yet to pay for anything, his retiree insurance plus Medicare covers everything, I still have to pay for copay for doctor’s visit, except for well check. Luckily I don’t see them that often except for the eye specialist, once a year.
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We both have the Medicare Co-pay of the Annual Deductible before supplement (a bit over $300 for each of us from what I remember) covered other billing. Benefit of some retiree insurances.
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I’m entirely baffled by the Medicare deductible and co-pays. I called as ShawWife had some of what seemed like big co-pays. The co-pay for a tier 3 drug is capped at $126 this year but may change next year but first you have to hit the deductible of $480 (you are at Stage 1 before you hit the deductible total). Then you are at Stage 2 until something like $4400 in total co-pays. Then in Stage 3, you pay some much higher percentage of the cost (35%(?)) until you have $7K in total payments and then Stage 4 has very small co-pays 3% or 5%. I’m not at all clear how this system was created. Nor am I sure why the insurance plans don’t seem to shield one from Stage 3.
It is still probably less than my company would have paid for the same insurance (and it is a tax deductible expense). But, this could be a) pretty costly for someone on a fixed income; and b) incredibly confusing to an 85 or 90 year old.
Speaking of confusing, i just found out that my colonoscopy is going to cost at least $1,800! Five years ago at my first one, they found polyps so now they aren’t considered preventative so aren’t covered. Does this sound correct, and does anyone have any ideas for how to lower that cost?
I think it’s free for my husband, I had to pay something, best doctor, highly recommended, but not $1800, but I really forgot what I had to pay.
Edit, I finally checked the bill, it’s less than $1000 from the doctor, not sure what the hospital charged, but my copay was $100, I remember they took that out upfront at the reception desk at the hospital. My husband did it the previous week but he paid nothing, no copays whatsoever.
We have a similar tier system - so I am on a more expensive drug plan because I have two nasal sprays for allergies (and still have ‘copay’ portions after an annual deductible) - after only being on the plan for a couple of months, got the ‘outlook’ amounts for 2022 and decided to just stay with it and see at the end of 2022 what ‘the system’ tells me is the best/low cost drug plan for me. DH had to have Xarelto during his A Fib time, which is not in generic yet, so he has a $42/mo ‘cost sharing’ after he had to pay a $300 deductible - and we did not know he would need the drug when we purchased his Medicare D Drug plan, but I believe he will be off it soon. So if he is again down to his normal drugs at the end of the year, he will stay on the same plan.
I am now just on 4 prescriptions, so Walgreen’s is going to coordinate so all of them get filled for 90 day period at the same time - some will get ‘short filled’ this week to get everything lined up. It seemed every other week we were going to pick up a prescription. Soon we can do this with DH’s prescriptions.
@Youdon_tsay - it depends on your insurance plan about your colonoscopy – I would talk to your MD’s insurance department to see about your plan and how this is the case. You may have a HMO kind of plan model which has some screening things w/o co-pay but have a different scenario for non-screening.
We got a small bill for anesthesia service from recent procedure for DH - I see Medicare paid (from our Medicare payment summary) but the anesthesia group may not have our supplement insurance information – will call Tuesday during their billing hours.
It seems one needs the ‘time off from working’ just to do all the transitioning with health insurance, Medicare, SS, stream of payments from retirement funds (we have annuities and our financial advisor’s office provided us with the ‘sign only’ paperwork once we determined our monthly needs). It seems we both had a lot of medical work up that we did delay some and some was due to getting DH’s Medicare B in place (SSA messed up his electronic file and got his Medicare B card months late but ‘backdated’). In an emergency, DH would have sought services during the 3 month period - and it was bad enough that we had to delay his cardiac testing for his heart palpitations. We are tapering off on medical appointments, but in January it was heavy calendar time both of us with scheduled lab work, testing, MD visits. It was like we delayed planning most anything else to get all the medical stuff completed.
@Youdon_tsay is that on Medicare? Remember, your Medicare will process initially and your supplement will also/then process for the other 20%.
Which supplement plan are you on?
Google medicare and you 2022, the book goes over how it is supposed to work and IIR, gives a colonoscopy example.
I am evaluating G vs G-HD, seems to be that if the G premiums are $200, but the G-HD are $60, then if one who is now healthy ended up with some chronic condition they’d pay $557 more per year in premiums plus G-HD out of pocket.
There’s a chart that “explains” it here: The National Council on Aging. I can’t understand why programs for older folks are so intentionally confusing.
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When I got my colonoscopy in January, the doctor provided information that said every insurance carrier has its own rules on what they’ll cover. It specifically stated that some insurers won’t cover colonoscopies in full if there have ever been findings previously and/or if there is a finding during the procedure. They define “preventive” for their own plan. I did have a finding, but my insurance covered it 100%. I don’t know what Medicare will/won’t cover, and if you have a supplement or advantage plan, that has its own rules.
By the way, that can happen with mammograms, too.
@kelsmom, very helpful. Does this mean there is basically no cap to annual payments for drug costs because in Stage 4 (Catastrophic coverage), one would owe coinsurance of 5%. If one had a drug that was $100K per month (and there are some), one would owe $5K per month. Or is there some cap?
Not Medicare … teacher retirement insurance, which we knew wasn’t great when we signed up. 
Shaw (& everyone taking meds):
Drue tiers can and will change, as will copays, so its best to spend a few minutes every Part D open enrollment period to enter your current scripts into the medicare system to see which Rx plan is most beneficial for the upcoming year.
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I pay for my Medicare advantage (I could opt for a supplement instead) through our state teachers retirement board, and the coverage is excellent. I guess this varies from place to place…like everything else related to health insurance. Our Medicare advantage is a PPO and with a lot of extras negotiated into the package. It’s a very large group. Coverage is in all 50 states, and there is no in/out of network. If a doctor takes Medicare, they take our plan. And yes, I know some folks have difficulty finding Medicare providers.
We took the cost of this plan into consideration when planning our retirements. Both my husband and I are on this plan.
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how long has it been since your last colonoscopy? Did the doc say that this was a ‘follow-up’ exam? Preventive screenings should be covered 100% by ACA-approved plans.
Unfortunately, it looks like there is no cap for Part D. 5% sounds low until you have a ridiculously expensive medication.