On Sat, 3 Apr 2021 07:02:11 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Friday, April 2, 2021 at 11:53:47 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Fri, 2 Apr 2021 22:45:43 -0400, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:

wrote in message ...

On Fri, 2 Apr 2021 00:45:33 -0400, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:


Yes it is scary... being frugal and staying healthy so you don't outlive
your income is important and challenging. Let us hope we all succeed at
that...

OTOH, I don't expect to live forever. There is something to living
well. I think we'll be fine, in fact all things considered I figure
we'll have about a $5K lower income and that'll be all but made up by
the state tax reduction (elimination) on retirement income.

As long as inflation stays moderate we will probably be OK. With all the
deductions for insurance, savings, retirement plan, and commuting costs
going away I'm ahead for now. I'll have to reassess every year... I haven't
figured out how to predict the future so I cannot do it now!
Well, insurance is still there. That can be expensive. My drugs,
alone, are a fortune. List is around $1K/mo. They're relatively cheap
now because of rebate cards but that all goes away with Medicare. The
drug plans (Part-D) aren't all that great. I still have a lot to
figure out about Medicare. It's almost like it was designed by
politicians.

I’ve been talking with 2 different Medicare “brokers”. One is
an independent, the other works for my current insurer. I’m
currently covered by SWMBO’s plan with her employer. It’s better
than my company’s offering.

I'd certainly go for an independent broker. It's a very complicated
system and you could easily be led into a "non optimal" situation. The
differences are huge and do depend on where you live.

My former employer will kick in some ($3K per year, IIRC) towards MC
but I think I have to go trough their broker. I have to get that done
soon so that I can plan better.

They have been very helpful in comparing her 2 adult coverage
plan vs. her dropping to single and me going full Medicare. It looks
like we could save around $2K in premiums if I sign up for Plan B.
Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how much the co-pays and
other items will eat into (or eat up) that savings under the various
Advantage plans, Part D, etc. An exact match of her coverage would
almost be a wash cost wise but we don’t need everything that her
plan covers by default.

Medigap Plan-B isn't great at all (check out the differences for
yourself). There are a lot of situations that it doesn't cover.
Perhaps not all are important but some are. Plan-G is a much better
plan and can even be cheaper for me (al this stuff is zip-code
dependent). Medicare-D really sucks. That donut-hole is big enough
to drive a Suez killer through.


My shoulder surgery was just about free under SWMBO’s plan and
I’m pretty sure I’ll need the other one done next year. We need to
decide on the best way to get that covered, her plan or Medicare.

My GABG cost me less than $1000 (of $250K), and that was only because
I had two trips to the ER ($250 each). My pacemaker cost me nothing
out of pocket. I pay about $2K a year for coverage for the two of us.
My employer's benefits are fantastic. It's a (very well known)
Japanese mega-company, so tend to take care of employees.