Medicare – Why I Partied at 65…and the Hangover

by Roberta Ness

The True Cost of Coverage

So sweet of you to swing by again. Hope last week gave you a lot of “meat” to chew on. This will be much the same – lots to learn, lots to digest, some Yummies and some Yucks. When I turned 65, I partied. Into a bonfire, I threw my much-hated private insurance card, while friends and I danced around the flames. A recent hospitalization cost me a fortune in premiums, deductibles, and uncovered services (my luck – emergency surgery just 4 months before I became Medicare eligible). Now I had my shiny new “free” Medicare card – which turned out not to be free, as you’ll soon see. But, for sure, I now have coverage that is much better than what came before it.

Why do I love Medicare?

The sad fact is that over 40% of American bankruptcies are due to medical expenditures. But seniors, shielded by Medicare, are not the ones most at risk. The big advantage Medicare provides is what’s called catastrophic coverage – ensuring that hospital bills don’t put you in the poor house. Catastrophic insurance is covered by Medicare Part A, which is entirely without premiums but does have deductibles. You pay for Medicare while you are working by automatically contributing to the FICA part of your taxes (like Social Security).

The Yuck is that anything beyond this is partying only goes so far…