Complicated and Dark

For my Black and White Weekend photo, I chose one that stands for how I feel about the mess that is Medicare, and my efforts to make sense of it. It is way more complicated than it should be. 

Yesterday I wrote about how they are raising my Medicare rates dramatically. This would make more sense if it wasn’t something that I had invested in over the years. I worked, I paid into the system. Now they try to penalize me for selling a house. I already paid taxes on that. Yet they say I am going to pay $485.50 extra every month for a year. This penalty is called IRMAA. 

So after I got this notice, I went down to the Social Security office and filled out a form to ask them to reevaluate it. They are supposed to consider the fact that I am now living on one income. This is supposed to make a difference, but there are no guarantees.

Yesterday was the deadline for choosing my Medicare plan for 2024. I felt unsure because of the apparent extra expense and the strain that this puts on my budget. If you have never had to choose a Medicare plan, you probably don’t realize that it is complicated. I don’t know how they expect older people to understand it. Many people lose their ability to handle complex math as they get older. I think I still understand enough of it so far. I’ve compared insurance plans many times over the years, and I realize that insurance companies make a profit from their customers. They have done their calculations so that no matter what you do, they are going to make money and you’re going to lose it. Unless you stay extremely healthy, all the plans will cost you pretty much the same amount over the course of the year. 

I decided to stick with the plan that I had already. I compared options and it’s still the best deal. I’m also sticking with my cheap prescription plan (Part D) because all of the prescription plans must use the same list of covered medications. Most of my regular prescriptions aren’t even on the list so I have to pay for them myself. It is possible to get some of them covered by jumping through hoops, but the reimbursement amount would be small. Unfortunately, the result of all this is that I am paying an awful lot for medical expenses when you include prescriptions and insurance payments. If I had known how expensive retirement was going to be, I might have worked longer.

Medical insurance in the USA is pretty much a necessity because medical costs are exorbitantly high. The system is broken.