Insurance rabbit hole

[susandennis]

The good news is choices. The bad news is choices. Because I'm old in the United States, I get my medical expenses (most of them) taken care of my Medicare plus additional insurance.  The additional insurance, in my case, is paid for by Medicare (yeah, it's as confusing as it sounds) but in October and November, I can change to a different insurer. 

My insurance company pisses me off a lot. So I thought maybe I'd change. I've kind of looked at options and weighed choices on and off over the past 6 weeks. Finally today, I took a deep dive into all the plans available and the pros and cons for me.

A lot are the same but... my current one will no longer provide Silver Sneakers. Silver Sneakers is what gets me into my swimming pool every day for free. So, BIG old minus there.

And some of the per visit/per drug/per etc. charges are different. None real killers and, if they hadn't pissed me off and/or deleted Silver Sneakers, I'd probably just fold and keep them. Easier to do.

But, I decided to switch. To a company that is here in the northwest and does not have other insurance. My current provider has about 579 different kinds of insurance and so it is difficult to maneuver through their telephone tree and other options. Also this new outfit has far more good options for getting drugs. I'm not that happy with Walgreens and should I decide to dump them, I need options.

I filled out the form online. It takes hold in January. I sure hope I didn't screw my own pooch on this.

So while I was at it, I updated the card I keep in my wallet of medications I'm on.

Yeah, I turned on the baseball game and got threw it all with that nice background and the Cubs are winning.

My back is definitely better. The skin is a little sore and there have been a couple of itchy periods but nothing as bad as yesterday. thankyoujeasus!

Comments

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

It really does sound like something in that lotion caused an allergic reaction.

[susandennis]

It does. I'd love that because the stuff is expensive and doesn't even smell nice. I'm happy to have an excuse to toss it!

[notdefined.livejournal.com]

I'm going to enroll in a medicare plan when our enrollment period starts in about a month or so. UC has a contract with Kaiser who in turn has one with Medicaid to let them manage the whole shooting match. The Senior Advantage program, as it is called, is a lot more flexible than the non-medicaid Kaiser plan in that it does not have the geographic restrictions. They also take care of administering the part a,b,c whatever and as a result there is usually no out of pocket expense regardless of the procedure or medication. I've been with Kaiser for about 15 years, and I'm quite pleased with them.

[susandennis]

No Kaiser here... But we do have a bunch of advantage plans with $0 premiums here and I'm cool with not paying anything.

[one-raido.livejournal.com]

We have Silver Sneakers at the community center I work at. Great program!

[susandennis]

It sure is! All I did was show them my silver sneakers card and BAM! totally free membership in the gym that open every day of the year with a lovely lovely pool.

The year before I was eligible, I found out about it and looked into what it offered. And then, the year I joined it was dropped by about half of the locations locally BUT turns out, it's still available for what I need so I'm all silver thumbs up!

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the pool! I hope you can still find a way to do it!