OT. Medicare ?

[Ed Pawlowski]

This is true. But. . . . In nine years my wife has had hundreds of thousands of $$$ in medical bills. rehab, hospice. My cost aside from the premium was $0. My time to do paperwork or appeal claims is 0 minutes. The premium cost compared to others was the same or slightly less.

I have no complaints and will not change.

My son had a medical equipment business. He billed medicare, various insurance companies, patients. The fastest pay was UHC.

I don't know how they are as an independent insurance company but as a Medicare supplement with AARP they do a fine job.

[Anonymous]

UHC, as a Medigap supplement insurer, MUST pay its 20% if Medicare pays its 80% of a claim. No questions asked.

This applies to all Medigap plans. They cannot deny claims under Medigap, like they can with a Part C Advantage plan.

[dpb]

On 9/24/2019 11:11 AM, "\"Retired"@home.com wrote: ...

There are rules to cover such cases of what is, in essence, emergency care. They will be specifically spelled out in each plan.

--

[micky]

And one more thing, Medicare doesn't apply when you are out of the USA, and aiui all of the supplemental plans only apply when Medicare applies.

How does that compare with union or employer insurance?

Travel insurance sometimes includes lost luggage, cancelled tickets**, probably hotels if the airline doesn't pay for the hotel, and also medical, but you can get medical-only travel insurance.

However after age 70, I think some US and foreign companies won't insure you and for those that do, the rate goes up and there may be substantial limits on coverage compared to people under 70, or 75. And even rentacar companies may either want a letter from your doctor or refuse to rent altogether. What a pain. I'm looking into getting a new passport that says I'm 30 y.o.

**The one time the airline lost my luggage, they delivered to my home the next day. I wish they would lose it like that every time. I've never had a cancelled flight but I did have one leave late because they were changing a flat tire. I got to England too late for my connection and they gave me a room at an airport hotel, 5 minute walk, from 10AM to 5 or 6PM until the next flight. So I've never needed more than medical insurance, and not even that.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Some medigap plans do have some coverage out of the US.

[Anonymous]

snip

While Medicare itself does not cover outside the US, some Medigap "letter" plans do provide *emergency* coverage outside the US.

This from

"Medigap coverage outside the U.S.

If you have Medigap Plan C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, M or N, your plan:

Covers foreign travel emergency care if it begins during the first

60 days of your trip, and if Medicare doesn't otherwise cover the care.

Pays 80% of the billed charges for certain Medically necessary emergency care outside the U.S. after you meet a $250 Deductible for the year.

Foreign travel emergency coverage with Medigap policies has a lifetime limit of $50,000.

Find out before you go

Before you travel outside the U.S., talk with your Medigap plan or insurance agent to get more information about your Medigap coverage while traveling."

Even with that, it is still good to get medical travel insurance for any NON-emergency need that may arise. When I went to the UK 3 years ago, I got a good travel & health policy for less than $300 at age 72.

[Dean Hoffman]

That's one thing I don't have to consider. There is so much to see and do in the U.S. that traveling outside the country doesn't appeal to me. I have a trike and riding that thing is a completely different experience that in a closed vehicle.

[invalid unparseable]

I have no objection with the insurance company and you do get what you pay for. My beef is with AARP. They take advantage of their membership to sell them insurance. It is not coming from AARP. They are not an insurance company themselves. I think most of it is from the Hartford.

[Ed Pawlowski]

So what? Every insurance (and car) salesman I ever knew did the same thing. They belonged to the VFW, Lions, American Legion, church group, etc. They prey on fellow members.

My electric company wants to sell me insurance for my water main, my credit card company wants to sell me insurance for life and other things, Joe Namath wants me to get what I deserve. . . . you see the trend?

[invalid unparseable]

I read what AARP supports and they supported Obamacare for example.

Nothing wrong with salesman.

I just think that AARP executives are doing what is best for their members but what is best for their bottom line by selling insurance.

[Dan Espen]

I agree, attaching the AARP logo to a United Healthcare policy is just marketing.

You can get AARP Medicare without being an AARP member. I'm not an AARP member, never have been, and I have AARP Medicare.

[gfretwell]

I still haven't figured out what AARP has to do with it. I get the "AARP plan" from United Health Care and I am not an AARP member, nor did I use them to find the plan. It was an offering presented by IBM. (who is not chipping in a dime). Perhaps UHC put the plan together for AARP (or IBM and maybe a dozen other companies) but they will sell it to anyone with exactly the same terms and conditions.

[micky]

Wow, 36K. May I ask, did it work?

[dpb]

...

Wow, 36K. May I ask, did it work?

He's still posting isn't he? :)

That's cheap for many of the newer cancer or others...a friend is on one that is >$60K/mo. But, it's kept him going for almost 10 yr now when before started his prognosis was < 6 mo.

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[dpb]

On 9/24/2019 8:27 PM, [e-mail] wrote: ...

He's complaining about the Hartford ripoff whole life plans AARP gets kickback on.

AARP is a scam preying on the older generation.

[rbowman]

How do you like it? I getting close to the point where three wheels might be better than two. The last time I picked up the VStrom it was a lot of work. (no drama, I just lost it taking it off the center stand)

[micky]

I gave my complaints about them yesterday. This one doesn't bother me too much because I thought it was clear, at least to someone who is not totally naive.

The AARP was only $5 or $3 a year. That's cheap because they want big numbers so they can claim to represent millions. And they send me a magazine whilch probalby has advertising, so they can claim a large circulation. It's almost interesting enough to read. (and if I had nothing else in my life, I would read it.) If I can keep the UHC and don't have to renew the AARP, I might cancel it.

I think I tried the AARP discount at motels between Balt. and Florida a couple years ago and I think I could get the same discount just by asking for a senior citizen discount. Plus I don't stay in motels often.

Isn't United Health Care an insurance company? Or is it just another name for Hartford or something? They might reinsure for large losses with Hartford (well, that's if Hartford is a reinsurer.)

It's a church group, so they prey.

The one I don't like is the Hawaii detective who lived in Robin Masters big house and had a helicopter buddy, and he says "Some people think a reverse mortgage is just another way to get your house. It's not." but if you don't have enough money to pay off the mortage when you die, they get the house**. So maybe it's not "JUST another way" but it's a way. Not a real difference afaic.

**I considered it for a while and the thing he denies was the advantage of a reverse mortgage. Instead of having a house that no one wanted in my estate, there would either be money that everyone wants, or money I would have already spent. (I considered an annuity too, but then I'd still be dead and stuck with a house. It's very hard to fix up your house for sale, and to sell it, when you're dead.)

[micky]

But what is the scam? Dues are $5 or less a year. That's not going to break many people.

That people take too seriously an AARP endorsement? I don't konow how many do but they are free to compare prioces.

I'm glad to hear from 2 or 3 of you that I don't have to continue the AARP. It's not the money.

[micky]

I already thought about that, but that doesn't actually mean it worked (if what Frank had was not fatal), or maybe it worked some but not much. I was hoping fof details.

Wow. I guess this is why I save my money. If I get to be 95 and haven't spent much on drugs and doctors, I'll have to spend 60K on I don't know what. Maybe I'll fly in some malted milks from indiana.

[invalid unparseable]

Not really. It was a blood thinner, Lovenox, that was injected, two shots a day at $50 a pop. I had a pulmonary embolism which would not resolve with Coumadin so they put me on Lovenox to no avail. I had to have it surgically removed. That was nearly 20 years ago and the hospital bill itself was $130,000. I think the doctor wanted $20,000 but they would only pay him $10,000.

Doctors in Delaware could not do the surgery and I was lucky to find a surgeon in PA, a professor at Penn. that had done it maybe 50 times. Otherwise I would have had to go to San Diego. Scary time. There was a

10-15% chance of not surviving the surgery and then a chance that the surgery would not fully resolve the problem.