With four weeks (more or less) to go in the open enrollment season, many Medicare beneficiaries are shopping for plans for the first time. One of the biggest surprises for those who haven’t done their homework is the discovery that basic Medicare doesn’t cover dental, vision or hearing services: these important benefits require additional policies…
As if there weren’t enough to worry about in the arena of personal privacy, now comes one more red flag. This just-published article on the Politico website reveals that companies are secretly gathering your health care information and selling it to doctors, hospitals and insurance companies, all without your consent and – for now, at…
Medicare open enrollment came and went last fall, and now you’re a few weeks into the New Year – and that new Medicare Advantage plan you selected. We hope you’re happy with the coverage you’re getting, but if you’re not, this article from the CNBC website contains some good news: you have a chance to…
Just last week, according to this article on the NextAvenue website, President Donald Trump unveiled a plan the administration claims will allow more Americans to retire securely. Released by executive order, the new proposal does two things that may affect the retirement future for millions of Americans, including you. Significant Changes “President Trump last week…
Pick up almost any retirement-related publication these days and there’s bound to be an article about how today’s boomers plan to work well past what used to be called “retirement age.” Experts say that workers today, either out of preference or necessity, expect to work at least to age 70 or even longer, but they…
It seems like the rumors never stop flying: Social Security is going broke, they say, so you’d better start claiming benefits now because the program isn’t likely to be around much longer. Somebody in your circle of friends, probably your cousin’s next-door neighbor, always claims to have the inside scoop about how this benefit that…
These days it seems like Democrats and Republicans seldom agree on anything. So it makes the news when two prominent Senators, one a conservative from the GOP and the other a progressive Democrat, come together to advocate publicly for a top-level federal commission to address what they call a retirement crisis in America. We discovered…
Much has been written – but not enough has been done – about the plight of the nation’s estimated 42 million people, almost all untrained family members, who are serving as primary caregivers for a loved one with chronic health problems. Some of these are caring for children with disabilities, but many more are at…
Starting this fall, your ride to the doctor’s office or your home-delivered meal might be covered by your Medicare Advantage plan. The same goes for that air conditioner you need to help deal with your chronic asthma or the grab bar you needed installed in your shower for safety. Indeed, the popular Medicare Advantage programs…
Every so often here at AgingOptions we encounter information that causes us to scratch our heads in amazement, and here’s the most recent example: in the United States, we seem to have perfected the art of paying more for our health care – and getting less to show for it – than any other industrialized…