Just the Essentials: Deciding on Medicare Coverage Plans

We stumbed across this very informative piece this morning by Allsup on MarketWatch that details the 10 most important things that indivudals/caretakers must ask themselves when figuring out appropriate Medicare coverage.

The article stresses that knowing one's healthcare needs is the key to understanding what plans are solid for their needs.

We highly recommend that you print out this list, available here.

Economy likely to move up Medicare's insolvency

From WashingtonPost.com:

Federal health officials estimate that the struggling economy will speed up by one to three years the exhaustion of the Medicare trust fund covering hospital and nursing home care.
Trustees for the Social Security and Medicare programs warned last March that the trust fund for Medicare Part A would become insolvent in 2019. But the chief actuary for Medicare said Monday the economy will likely generate less revenue through payroll taxes than the trustees had projected.

Once the trust fund is exhausted, the federal government will continue to pay for hospital care and other services, but it initially would only have enough money coming in to cover 78 percent of estimated costs.

Trustees issue a once-a-year report on the financial conditions for Social Security and Medicare. In the fall, the trustees get an update that tells them what's happening versus what their latest projection indicated. In the latest update, Medicare's top actuary braced the trustees for a deterioration in Medicare's finances.

For the rest of this article, please click here.

6 Wks for Seniors to Sign up For Medicare Drug Plan

From the Chicago Sun Times

Starting today, seniors have six weeks to sign up for another year of Medicare Part D -- the prescription drug benefit -- that goes along with Medicare Part A (hospitalization), Part B (outpatient and doctor costs) and Medigap (the supplement that covers other costs including co-payments and deductibles).

For more information click on the US Government's website.