shAARP Talk: Observations from AARP

What you have stated is true. But, what about needing more health insurance? A plan that pays your Part B, no preimums, and no copays? This is a big advantage for people that is on a fixed income. It is like nobody wants to help, everybody is for themselves. What information can be given to resolve this issues? Thank you and have a blessed day.

I am really tired of hearing of hearing about Medicare! Part D: how much are they charging you? The person I live with has Medicare and is still paying 20% of the prescriptions he needs. Medicare takes a nice chunk from his Social Security. Enough already!

What do you do when S.S. sends you a letter stating that you owe them $33,000 because of something(an error on their part)that happen in July 2008? I have been to the local office(many times), filed papers, they reinstated me (after I had to pay 3 months of insurance)and now they sent me yet another letter! They are stopping the payments again, and I won't get anything from them until 2011 and I can't make any insurance payments, because I have less than $500 a month in income! Any suggestions? One medication alone is over $200 a month and I am on 6.

That whole Part D is bullsh*t plain and simple. If Congress had to have a plan that works like Part D does (and Congress most certainly doesn't!), they wouldn't have passed it. And your simpleminded posting swallows their half-truths and passes them on.

You pay a deductible with most plans - $250 to $350 is common - or else you pay very high premiums. As with most insurance plans, your drugs are listed in tiers, and how much is reimbursed or what your copay is depends on the tier - and other than a list Medicare requires all plans to cover, they may or may not cover specialty drugs you need, and if they do, they may require "step therapy" for you to try other (cheaper) drugs first, or limit the number you can get at a time. Lucky the person who only needs generics - you needn't bother with Medicare Part D, because they are cheap enough at most pharmacies that paying the premiums to get them is counter-productive.

Once you meet your deductible, then you get your drugs at your copay amount - up to the mandated annual limit for total amount spent for drugs by you and your pharmacy/plan combined for that phase. Then - bang! - suddenly you are in The Gap, the donut hole in coverage that is actually bigger than the coverage. During this time you pay retail, the entire cost of the drugs, or your plan might give you a 15-20% discount on the drugs if you use one of their pharmacies or mail order pharmacy they specify. During this phase, you must pay thousands and thousands out of pocket for your prescriptions, the plan pays nothing, except maybe generics you can get for cheap at the chain pharmacies anyhow. I thought on reading all the plan material that the gap lasted until all spending totaled $4050 for 2008, but then I discovered that it was my personal spending totaled $4050, not plan spending. They only counted spending in the gap towards the total, not the earlier phases! And you still must continue to pay premiums during this period! I entered the gap in April or May, and will meet the spending limit just about the end of the year, eligible for that "catastrophic coverage" at low copays having had no coverage all that time, but with premiums paid in monthly - just in time to start a new plan year with a whole new spending cycle, with higher numbers for 2009. Where's the benefit there for me? Except to the credit card companies I use to pay for my prescriptions?!!?

As for the Extra Help, if you have any kind of assets beyond your home, or you have above the poverty level income (I believe it was around $14,000+- annual in 2008 for an individual), then you don't qualify. If you try to get your meds from the manufacturers through one of their patient assistance programs, you get turned down because you have prescription coverage, try again in a year! Even though you are not covered in The Gap!

I see no reason to get Part D this year. Then I can get my prescriptions from the manufacturers as a poor person just above the limit for Extra Help. Or maybe now that the people defaulted on the 2nd mortgage I had to take back to sell my previous house, since I no longer get that small monthly income or have that equity, I'll qualify for Extra Help. Gee, what a bonus for losing that $40k equity, while my IRAs were also busying losing half their value from the whole credit/banking/lending fiasco's effects on the stock market!

When will the United States stop treating its elderly like step-children? These are the people who have made this country great. Other developed nations do not force their elderly to choose between an impossible to understand list of health rip-offs, or to go into bandruptcy to pay for their medical bills! It is a humiliation to this country! And, the folks who support seniors should be lobbying to stop this insanity.

Doctors insurance companies, billing companies, hospitals, etc. have all proven they are only doing it for the bucks. When more and more elderly travel overseas to get good care move overseas for it, will the government step in?

When you have to write huge articles to explain the choices the poor, sick elderly have for their care, it is time for a new system.

I understand all the comments that have been made. I have completely lost my faith in our government and our SSA’s ability to help those in need of health care cost.

I got a viral infection when I was 34 and ended up with Cardiomyopathy with Congestive Heart Failure. At that time, there wasn’t much help for Prescription Drugs except going on SSI. Then ten years later to the month, I had to have a Heart Transplant. The medical costs were exorbitant and if I had to pay out of pocket without insurance for my prescription drugs, it would be over $5,000.00 a month…yes you read that correctly…a month!!! Fortunately, I qualified for a charity program at Saint Joseph’s Hospital, and I do not have to pay a copay for prescriptions as they take care of me. After all, if I did not get my anti-rejection medication I would die.

But my problem is now that I have to see doctor’s all the time. I am in and out of hospital’s and doctor’s offices too many times to count. Every one of them always wants a copay, and I do not received enough Social Security Disability to pay the copays. I struggle every month to just take care of myself, and I have my living expenses as low as I can go. The last visit to my Cardiologist I was supposed to have a Thallium Stress Test. But because they wanted a copay, which I could not afford, I was turned away. This is beginning to have a huge affect of my health both physically and emotionally.

I have been disabled for 15 years, and I am only 49 years old. I tried to go back to work after my Heart Transplant, as I have a Bachelor of Industrial Design and made really good money, but I could not keep up with the work load after three months later I lost my job this was in 2005. Then three years later, I was billed over $43,000.00 by Social Security Disability because the day I went back to work my SSDI ended. The Georgia Transplant Foundation found the job for me and had all my information. They did not tell me that I was going back to work in an extended trial work trial period. I was under the impression as they GTF that I had a new nine month trial work period. I have been fighting this since March of 2008. When I call SSA, I get conflicting information by their representatives. I have finally gotten Congressional help to help resolve this issue as they stopped my disability check and everything without notice. I have found that SSA has no idea what they are doing. I think President-Elect Obama should take a close look at the system because as we all know it is broken.

I am tired of hearing about the Bail-Out Program. What about the Senior Citizens and the Disabled…where is our bail out…after all we paid into the system. What happened to my American Dream??? It is as if I was drowning in a pond, the doctor’s pulled me out and fixed me, and then threw me back into the pond.