Life, Love and Part D – Medicare Prescription Coverage
This isn’t a complaint because I don’t have any reason to complain. BlueCross takes the best care of us of any health care insurer I’ve ever known. They are vastly better than any other group, so “Thank you, thank you” to all of them for trying as hard as they do to be as good as they are.
But. The rules of the road for prescriptions are insane. And confusing.
They wanted feedback and all I could say was “This is really confusing and I’m not easily confused.” This is true. Although I forget things, I have no problem understanding complexity including stuff that’s way outside my normal realm. I may not understand every detail, but there are very few things so complicated I can’t understand them.
Except prescriptions and Medicare. They are rules within rules within rules. I don’t even know if by the end of this month I’ll still have a “Part D” functioning or I’m going to run out of money and dive into that donut hole. I think I’m going to run out of money by the end of this month, but I can’t figure it out how they deduct which part of what — or when — and I have given up trying to figure it out.
If I’m confused by this, does anyone really know what’s going on? Garry refuses to even think about it. As far as he is concerned, this is my department. I figure it out and tell him what he should do, then he tells me to do it. He’s not exactly dull about things, but Medicare and prescriptions are far out of his realm. When I talk about prescriptions and Part D “allowances” his eyes go glassy. I might as well be trying to explain to him that the browser isn’t “the computer” but is a separate application that lives on a computer — and a computer is a physical thing, but an application is…
In 32 years of marriage and 60 years of knowing each other as friends and lovers, only two things have eluded his understanding: computers and Medicare.
As for me?
Just Medicare and prescriptions under Part D. I’m not even sure the people at Medicare are entirely sure what is going on.
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Categories: #Health, #HealthInsurance, #Medicare, Anecdote, medication
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Small correction to your last remark. They don’t CARE. I paid a whopping amount for a ‘necessary’ medication, and when I mentioned that recent news (via AARP) said drug prices were on the decline, except for those who CAN’T pay of course, the pharmacy worker got quite snippy. I said “I wasn’t trying to shoot the messenger, I know you hear gripes all day” but he remained P.O.d at me.
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Some people do care, but unfortunately, it isn’t the majority. It used to be that all of them cared, but something happened and now? Well…
I’m glad you are feeling well enough to write. I have missed you very much!
I got snippy with AARP. Two years before the “changes” occur? How many of us will die before those changes make a difference?
For reasons best known to BC, their prices are definitely LOWER this year than last year — in some cases a lot lower. But now they have an automated system that drives me nuts. If I can’t find my way through the AI, I’m pretty sure no one else can either. They also assume everyone has good, clean wi-fi and a lot of us don’t. WE sure don’t!
I don’t even know if I’m out of Part D Part I and in the donut hole. I’m not sure anyone else knows, either. I’ve given up trying to make sense of it. It doesn’t make sense. At least I’m getting most of the medications I need — finally. Unfortunately, some have arrived too late and asthma became serious and morphed into COPD. So now, I can never breathe ANY time of the year. It’s not BC’s fault, but whoever designed this “system” should have to actually find a way to live while using it!
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I agree…probably NO ONE really knows what’s going on with this!
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The rules are so complicated that unless you are getting Medicaid in addition to Medicare, there is a point in the year when you have no way to know if you will survive until your funds come back in January. It’s a stupidly complicated system. Donut hole? Seriously? So every year, you have to hope you’ll survive a few more months? That is insane!
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Very crazy.
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I have no idea what any of this means but it sounds bewildering if it has you foxed. What on earth is part D?! I realise again how fortunate I am to have our NHS, however broken it is at the moment. Everyone over 60 in the UK gets all prescription medication for free, so I haven’t paid a penny for it for years!
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If we were poorer, we WOULD get all our medications for free. Unfortunately, we have too much money to qualify for getting it free and not enough money to pay for it. It is a really STUPID system designed by people who probably never imagined they might have to personally USE it.
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It does indeed sound stupid
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it is incredibly confusing and I am just dealing with part a at this point, but looking ahead…
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Make sure you are signed up for part D whether you need it now or not — because if you aren’t, they will charge you a lot more when you do sign up. Medicare works — sort of. But it’s so complicated and there are so many intricate rules within rules, I’m not sure the people AT Medicare have a grip on it.
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thanks for the tip
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We are in the donut hole due to my husband’s prescriptions. It is hell. We are dosing it out our way because the amount they expect us to pay is ridiculous. Then the doctor said, ‘Try this instead.’ It costs twice as much as the other medicine–thanks to the donut hole. Luckily, it didn’t work as well, so we have to pay a ridiculous amount for one, as opposed to a crazy ridiculous amount for the other.
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Who DESIGNED this system? You are probably like us. You have too much money to get Medicaid, but not enough to pay the price of medications. It’s an appalling system. The new bill they passed won’t be in effect for two more years. How many of us will be dead by then?
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I wonder the same things, Marilyn. We’re playing with our health because we almost can’t afford not to. Who would ever have thought.
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Not exactly what we expected from “retirement.” I try not to get too depressed about it because that doesn’t help. And all the changes they made are two years away. How many of us will still be alive by then?
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I was told by a person who has to file Medicare stuff (my word for complicated stuff) that Medicare has been taken over by private enterprise. Therefore it is now a “for profit” organization. I think he knows this because he files Medicare claims for the company he works for. Scary thought, huh? Makes me wonder about the future of healthcare! How much longer can I afford my prescriptions? And if I break another bone will I be able to have it set by a doctor or have to get a branch from a tree and tie it to the break! I think I watch too many Westerns!
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That’s not true. It has not been taken over by anyone. There are private groups that offer Advantage plans that supposedly give you a better deal. Some really do give you a better deal — as does BlueCross. Many others sound good on the surface, but are a disaster otherwise. BUT if you take plain straight Medicare, it is straight from the federal government. It is NOT a for profit enterprise. Your information is a partial truth based on a specific aspect of Medicare — “Advantage” plans. Some are good, many others are NOT. If you can’t get BlueCross or some other trusted company, you’re better off taking straight Medicare (all the parts) and buying a backup plan to pay for everything else. The backup plans are expensive, but they DO pay for everything else so it’s a balancing act.
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I’m the worst person to ask. The only thing my memory functions 100 percent on any more is my blogging. After that I’ve exhausted my supply of brain cells.
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Garry won’t deal with any of this, so I don’t have much of a choice. He doesn’t take a lot of medications, but I do and if I want to stay alive, I have to keep focused on it. But oh there are days — and this is one of them — where I just want someone to help me. Unfortunately, most of the people in my life are looking at me to help them, probably because I’ve been dealing with the system for a long time and know more about than they do.
The problem is not what I know. There’s a lot I DON’T know. That’s what worries me!
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