FYI for you al in your 50's and early 60's...social security info.

[DDD]

As I think you know husband and I are reasonably educated and intelligent..."reasonably", lol. Somehow we did not grasp social security retirement in a comprehensive way. Since I wish we had known more a decade or so ago, I'm sharing "ah hah" moments with those of you who are planning. Maybe you are on top of it but just in case I'm going to share a couple of things.

Like everyone we checked to see what our benefits would be upon retirement. That was a given. In our minds we perceived those projected checks as income. We did not grasp that Medicare premiums are deducted from that amount. We did not grasp that for health protection in our old age that it would be necessary to purchase supplemental insurance which would (with our authorization since it is private) be deducted monthly from our bank account. There has just been another rate increase on all fronts. We now will be spending close to $10,000 a year in 2012 to assure we have care and no unexpected bills for medical care.

There are cheaper plans that are all inclusive but the hospitals and health care facilities we use do not accept those cheaper options...plus many remove your choice of providers. I just want you guys to have a heads up as you are planning. Looking at the annual statement projections can lead to a false sense of security. Yep...we just got notice of the increases and are not happy campers. You might want to delay your retirement, increase your private savings plan etc. but at least you will be aware.
DDD

 

[Hound dog]

DDD I discovered this with mother in law. I'm not even counting on mine being there when the time comes, neither are my kids.

But did find out that AARP has a great supplemental insurance plan via mother in law who was desperate to find mother in law a good one due to her health issues especially that last year. They paid everything they were supposed to without a bit of hassle. She was greatly impressed. Since she did medical billing/insurance for a doctor for years, that she was impressed says a lot.

 

[DDD]

Many honorable companies have good plans including AARP. I just never thought we would pay more for health insurance in our twilight years than we did when we had private insurance through our company. Sigh. DDD

PS: We also did not know that many life insurance policies come to a halt at 80. My psychiatrist knew because he got a notice and husband didn't believe me. Yeah, I know, nobody thinks they are going to live to 80 but recent stats show it is very common now. My Dad died at 70. I was 29 at the time and thought "he lived a good long life". Now, lol, my perspective is a little different.

 

[DammitJanet]

Well I know not all life insurance policies come to a halt at 80. I got one that was taken out in the 50s and just paid out.

DDD, that seems like an awful lot. I get all the notices every year too. Obviously Im not retired but I am disabled and I have to go through the same medicare/ medicare part b/ medicare advantage decisions. You can put in your doctors in the medicare program online and find out which plan services those doctors and which hospitals you would want to use. Now of course when you consider long term care...and I am sure that MAY be one of the things that is concerning you, for either you or your hubby, thats a different thing. Medicare part C might cover that, not sure. never dealt with that one. But if it gets to that, I think you said something about spending it all now and just saying to heck with everyone else. Might be the way to go. Or...you might want to think about putting the house in one of your kids names now. Just in case. just sayin.

 

[Marcie Mac]

I think it absolute hovers that I can retire at 62, but Medi Care doesn't kick in till 65 My mother had AARP and it seemed like a good plan - you really have to research the supplementals cause once to pick one, you have to wait a certain time period to change. SO is on SSDI and has a supplemental - he pays nothing since he makes a whopping 930.00 a month - they automatically change his Plan B supplemental every time it comes up - which is a good thing for them I guess since his health costs are astronomical, and it would help to share his costs with a new company every year.

I have no clue as to whether or not I could keep my current health coverage IF something happened and I retired at 62. I think I would get like 1,800 a month if I did that, and figure almost half of that would go to medical insurance premiums. Have been throwing every spare penny into my 401 K so when the retirement time comes, I can pay the house off and at least I could maybe manage with what is left after insurance

Marcie

 

[DammitJanet]

I know Im destined to be right where I am right now. It is sort of frightening to think about the fact that this is as good as it gets but it is what it is.

 

[donna723]

Yeah, I found all that out the hard way too! I retired a little over a year ago. Between my Medicare and the supplement and the prescription plan, I'm spending about twice as much as I spent on insurance coverage for my group plan insurance when I was working, and for less coverage than I used to have. Mine actually would be a lot more but since I am on no prescription medications, I just got the bare minimum Rx plan for now. And my supplement would be a lot more but I was lucky enough to get on a supplement plan for retired State employees where the State pays a portion of the premium. And I am still kicking myself for not going to the eye doctor and getting new glasses while I still had vision coverage!

Still though, before I retired, when I estimated my benefits myself, what I came up with was a lot less than what I'm actually getting. On my State pension too. Turns out that going so long without raises worked to my advantage. When they figure your highest years of salary, they adjust your previous years to today's dollars, so it turns out that my piddly little paychecks of 10 or 15 years ago were worth a lot more then than the more recent ones are now! Gee, and all that time when we suspected that our paychecks weren't going as far as they used to ... they really weren't!

 

[donna723]

Marcie, it might be different with yours but I was able to keep my group insurance after I retired until I turned 65 and went on Medicare. But the hangup was that, even though it was the same insurance I always had, they charged me almost twice as much for it as they did before! It was only from August, 2010 to Feb. 2011, but it was still less than what I'm paying now for Medicare, the supplement and the Rx plan.

 

[Marcie Mac]

Donna, right now I pay 5.50 every two weeks for a Blue Shield HMO with my employer paying 210.00 for the same period, and that is because we belong to a HR group for small businesses and the advantages for them to handle that kind of stuff are worth it. BUT, when he was thinking about dumping the HR people due to increase in costs, he agreed to pay for only one health insurance company, one that I wouldn't insure my dog with, and to get the same Blue Shield HMO, for me alone was a little over 740.00 per month. I hate HMO's, but wasn't willing to absorbe 20% of bills with a PPO - I just spent 5 days in the hospital - first time ever for anything - and I shutter to think what my share would have been, not to mention am still not out of the woods as far as surgery goes. Prior to this, only thing was a trip to the doctor here and there for kidney infections and blood pressure medications.

From what I understand, in Ca. there is a program if you have no insurance for 6 months, you can get regular cost insurance and they have to take you with pre existing conditions. Might be in all states, don't know - my eyes start to glaze over if I have to do any research for medical insurance

Marcie

 

[DammitJanet]

Donna, cant you do a Medicare advantage plan which covers both the part B and D and it really shouldnt cost you much more than you are already paying for your part B. You live in a small enough area that the doctor's there would all most likely be medicare approved.

Oh and the eye glasses. You may have to look for this place but Im sure you can find one somewhere Glasses, Eye Exams & Contact Lenses | America's Best Contacts & Eyeglasses at least that is what I think the www is. I know they have them in SC so if nothing else you may have to get them when you go see your dtr. In fact, let me go look for you. Okay, that is the right website but since I dont know where you live in TN I couldnt find out if there is one near you but there is a location near your dtr. I have to go to Myrtle beach to get my glasses. 69 bucks for 2 pair of glasses and a free eye exam. Not bad.

LOL...it changed my www to the actual name of the site!

 

[hearts and roses]

My mom had to get housing subsidies to afford her apt in PA before we moved her into the nursing home. She was into her 80's by then, but for years she and my dad and then later, she and her second h lived on SS only. I don't know how they did it. Oh wait, I do know, they lived on my sisters land for free and paid $300/year for sisters property taxes!

I also do not anticipate there being anything left when and if I ever get to retire. Hopefully there will be a betteer health plan in place by then. Fingers crossed. H and I are sooooo not prepared for anything as of right now.

And what I've learned is that even mother in law, who has a very nice monthly income from SS and annuities STILL can't afford assisted living with their rising costs! Aggghhhh. Touring and speaking with one local assisted living community the other day was an eye opener for us. And my mother in law is waaaaay better off financially than my mom was, so I'm sort of wringing my hands over this. Apparently, like you said, DDD, she's paying so much for supplemental medical care (rx coverages for her insulin) that it really bites into her monthly income.

It's good that you brought this up as many of us are not that far off from having to think about what comes next and between raising kids and living life, we didn't plan all that well, or, in many cases, simply didn't have the resources available to do so!

 

[DammitJanet]

Well, I havent looked into them since they would laugh at me but there are the reverse mortgages. Of course, you wouldnt be able to leave your house to the kids then but with some of our kids, do you want to? Im not sure my house is going to be standing by the time I pass. Its only a double wide.

You guys do know that once money is gone, medicaid does step in right? You arent going to be on the streets. Your home is an asset that they wont consider until its time for long term care. Then they can go after it as settlement after you pass but only if a spouse isnt still living in it. One tidbit for you.

 

[donna723]

Wow, Janet! I'll have to check in to that with the glasses! Thank you! My frames are still good - I just need the exam and probably different lenses.

When you're within a few months of going on Medicare, they absolutely bombard you with brochures and advertising for different plans and it gets so confusing! In fact, a year later, I'm still getting junk mail and offers from several different companies. Total info overload! I went through everything and figured and refigured and refigured again. Anything "HMO-like" where you have to go to their doctors is no good for me. This is a very small town and I would have had to drive an hour and a half to get to anything! None of the supplement plans I checked were less than $130-$140 a month. I had almost decided on one when, at the very last minute, I got a letter about a supplement plan for retired State employees - didn't know they even had one! It's $120 a month but the State picks up $37 of that so I only pay $83 a month and they take that out of my pension check each month. But counting the Medicare costs, the supplement and Rx plan, I'm still paying over $200 a month for less coverage than I had when I paid $90 a month for medical insurance when I was working. Later on I might need something more but I think that for right now, I'm OK.

 

[klmno]

If I respond to this, does it mean I have to admit my age?

;}

 

[donna723]

No k, it doesn't. I just means you are "pre-planning" for when you do get to that age!

 

[klmno]

LOL! I'll try to catch up with all the posts later then- after I check my tire and see if I can purchase some furniture.

 

[DDD]

It is a scarey subject. None of us wants to envision a life where our health is in jeopardy because we didn't preplan for the later cycle of years. The reverse mortgage costs alot up front (my elderly neighbor got one) and then..if you have to move to assisted living or whatever the contract does not continue once you don't reside in your residence. I'm glad that I had nothing to do with that choice...her truly wonderful daughter and she decided on it but didn't understand the fine print. DDD