This should get a few laughs.......
My wife and I both turn 65 next year.
Linda January 2, and me February 5.
65 is Medicare age; the time our ever-beneficent healthcare insurance industry, so abhorrent of nationwide gumint healthcare, pawn us off on the dreaded gumint they abhor to reduce their outlay to the aging.
Healthcare insurance compensation is already a joke.
Even before we were on Medicare, healthcare insurance compensation went on for years and years.
We still get notifications of claims for colonoscopies performed two years ago.
Five years after my stroke we were still getting billed for my medical transport from one hospital to another.
But of course my healthcare insurance was supposed to pay that.
Around-and-around we went: phonecalls, letters, contacts.
It’s like the private (“private,” everyone) insurance carriers were stalling.
When my wife had cancer we used Finger Lakes Ambulance one night.
Her medical insurance was supposed to pay that.
Around-and-around we went.
We eventually paid it ourselves; it was only $125.
All the private carriers were stalling.
125 smackaroos out of our pocket stopped a blizzard of contacts: hour-long “Please hold during the silence: Boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom-chicka. We value your call; please continue holding.”
I.e. Our time was more valuable than that $125.
So the private carriers won one; by stalling they got the client to pay.
So now the question was what happens when we get forced into Medicare?
Linda received a blizzard of communications from Blue Cross, including a Part D prescription-coverage she didn’t want.
This is because she has Aetna® pensioners’ health coverage from her long-time employer. If she signed up for Part D from anyone it canceled Aetna.
Complications arose.
Our dreaded bus-union negotiated continuing healthcare insurance for us retirees. That includes coverage for my wife — so the question is should we switch to Transit healthcare insurance from Aetna? If I kick the bucket, Linda no longer has healthcare coverage, unless she sticks with Aetna.
If Linda goes first, it doesn’t matter, because I still have Transit healthcare insurance.
Meanwhile, Linda is getting this blizzard of stuff from Blue Cross, which we thought was Transit forcing her to switch. —Plus I hadn’t received anything yet. I thought I was supposed to be getting a sign-up.
So, begin fevered calls to Transit; “Please hold; please leave message,” etc., etc.
No call-backs whatsoever.
“Ya won’t need to do anything,” said Joe Carey, president of our bus-union.
“They change ya to Medicare coverage automatically when ya turn 65. Your wife is covered too.”
“Wait a minute,” we thought.
“What if they’re forcing us into a Part D that cancels Aetna?”
“The best time to call that Christie lady is at 8 o’clock in the morning; I have no idea what they do after that,” Joe said.
(“Christie” is Transit’s healthcare “generalist;” what we used to call “mindless management minions.”)
“From 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. must be donut-break,” I observed.
So my wife calls “Christie” at 8 a.m. — got her, live; miracle of miracles.
She explains the whole sorry mess; including the blizzard of material we got from Blue Cross.
Also that we switched to another healthcare insurance provider (“Preferred Care”) a year ago because Blue Cross was ending our healthcare insurance plan.
That rang a bell: “Wait a minute,” Christie says.
“I’ll have to check into that. Sounds like you’re covered by both Blue Cross and Preferred Care.”
So Linda has both Blue Cross and Preferred Care, but me only Preferred Care. She’s supposed to be only Preferred Care.
RE: “I’ll have to check into that.” —Um; hello. Prior messages and questions went nowhere, but the possibility of duplicate coverage rang a bell — the possibility of Transit shelling out to Blue Cross for coverage not intended.
“I’ll have to check into that.”
This still doesn’t answer if -a) I need to sign up for Preferred Care Medicare coverage, and -b) if Linda should just dump Preferred Care so she can continue Aetna.......
And of course, January 2 is only two days away.
Linda January 2, and me February 5.
65 is Medicare age; the time our ever-beneficent healthcare insurance industry, so abhorrent of nationwide gumint healthcare, pawn us off on the dreaded gumint they abhor to reduce their outlay to the aging.
Healthcare insurance compensation is already a joke.
Even before we were on Medicare, healthcare insurance compensation went on for years and years.
We still get notifications of claims for colonoscopies performed two years ago.
Five years after my stroke we were still getting billed for my medical transport from one hospital to another.
But of course my healthcare insurance was supposed to pay that.
Around-and-around we went: phonecalls, letters, contacts.
It’s like the private (“private,” everyone) insurance carriers were stalling.
When my wife had cancer we used Finger Lakes Ambulance one night.
Her medical insurance was supposed to pay that.
Around-and-around we went.
We eventually paid it ourselves; it was only $125.
All the private carriers were stalling.
125 smackaroos out of our pocket stopped a blizzard of contacts: hour-long “Please hold during the silence: Boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom-chicka. We value your call; please continue holding.”
I.e. Our time was more valuable than that $125.
So the private carriers won one; by stalling they got the client to pay.
So now the question was what happens when we get forced into Medicare?
Linda received a blizzard of communications from Blue Cross, including a Part D prescription-coverage she didn’t want.
This is because she has Aetna® pensioners’ health coverage from her long-time employer. If she signed up for Part D from anyone it canceled Aetna.
Complications arose.
Our dreaded bus-union negotiated continuing healthcare insurance for us retirees. That includes coverage for my wife — so the question is should we switch to Transit healthcare insurance from Aetna? If I kick the bucket, Linda no longer has healthcare coverage, unless she sticks with Aetna.
If Linda goes first, it doesn’t matter, because I still have Transit healthcare insurance.
Meanwhile, Linda is getting this blizzard of stuff from Blue Cross, which we thought was Transit forcing her to switch. —Plus I hadn’t received anything yet. I thought I was supposed to be getting a sign-up.
So, begin fevered calls to Transit; “Please hold; please leave message,” etc., etc.
No call-backs whatsoever.
“Ya won’t need to do anything,” said Joe Carey, president of our bus-union.
“They change ya to Medicare coverage automatically when ya turn 65. Your wife is covered too.”
“Wait a minute,” we thought.
“What if they’re forcing us into a Part D that cancels Aetna?”
“The best time to call that Christie lady is at 8 o’clock in the morning; I have no idea what they do after that,” Joe said.
(“Christie” is Transit’s healthcare “generalist;” what we used to call “mindless management minions.”)
“From 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. must be donut-break,” I observed.
So my wife calls “Christie” at 8 a.m. — got her, live; miracle of miracles.
She explains the whole sorry mess; including the blizzard of material we got from Blue Cross.
Also that we switched to another healthcare insurance provider (“Preferred Care”) a year ago because Blue Cross was ending our healthcare insurance plan.
That rang a bell: “Wait a minute,” Christie says.
“I’ll have to check into that. Sounds like you’re covered by both Blue Cross and Preferred Care.”
So Linda has both Blue Cross and Preferred Care, but me only Preferred Care. She’s supposed to be only Preferred Care.
RE: “I’ll have to check into that.” —Um; hello. Prior messages and questions went nowhere, but the possibility of duplicate coverage rang a bell — the possibility of Transit shelling out to Blue Cross for coverage not intended.
“I’ll have to check into that.”
This still doesn’t answer if -a) I need to sign up for Preferred Care Medicare coverage, and -b) if Linda should just dump Preferred Care so she can continue Aetna.......
And of course, January 2 is only two days away.
posted by BobbaLew at 8:33 AM
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