Medicare Coverage

As an employee or the spouse of one I had to do next to nothing other than choose my plan.  If DuPont, my wife's employer covered me, my wife chose the plan and DuPont paid part and deducted the rest from the paycheck.  No checks or credit cards needed.  As I became eligible for coverage as a medical network physician, if my share was available for less that $100 a month of my contribution, which it technically was but not a plan I would want, DuPont required spouses to purchase their coverage from their own.  I signed up for a pretty decent plan, one notch from the most expensive and maintained it through retirement.  No money changed hands, no bills came my way.  The employer paid most, my share came off my pay stub, which I rarely looked at.  While I became eligible for Medicare while still working, the company plan was much more suitable but once I retired, I joined most seniors in the Medicare whirl.  There is a base premium, not excessive, a surcharge assigned to my earnings history.  Doctors get paid well so this came to real money.  I needed a supplement plan, opting for a Plan F which also comes to real money.  And a Part D for medicines.  While my current potions are all generic, generating no bill beyond the monthly premium, I spent decades prescribing needed but financially ruinous stuff so without insurance beyond what Medicare offers, an uncovered Donut Hole would far exceed an annual premium in very little time.

As a result, my out of pocket costs, which had remained hidden for most of my working years and paid for by organizations whose revenues would amount to billions, became my responsibility, partly defrayed by the Medicare deductions from each of he last 40 years of paychecks, but with a check writing dollar amount far in excess of what I've had in the past.  Good health into my Medicare years being my good fortune, I've not used any benefits since retiring other than my prescription refills.  For now, the G-Men and their insurance company delegates are coming out ahead.  But for the first time I can see how all that medical care that I generated directly and indirectly adds up, and it's a lot.  Not that I want to become ill to get my moneysworth.

A system that size can also become unwieldy.  My Medicare statement arrived in the mail four days before the due date.  My supplement and prescription statements for the coming year still have not arrived with only ten days to go.  I called everyone, authorized credit card payment as the path of least resistance, even though the supplement carrier's records show my statement mailed a week ago.

Considering the massive nature of this enterprise, it works rather well but monumentally complex and therefore prone to snafu.  I wouldn't be surprised if each Member of Congress had to hire a staffer just to resolve Medicare inquiries from baffled voters.  And the more complex it is, the more you have to pay the maybe 10,000 people in America who actually understand it at a professional level, be they government employees, financial mavens, or attorneys.  And that's before any provider has even asked to be paid for what he or she did.

Premiums now up to date once my credit authorization gets picked up by the Postal Service tomorrow and somebody at the receiving end processes my credit card authorization.  Much too cumbersome though.