Joan’s Boomer Blog

Baby boomers are at the age when they will deal not only with their own medical issues and the maze of Medicare requirements, but also with their parents’ who will suffer different health crisis requiring care and oversight. Recently, I planned a visit to my parent’s home to help out after my dad’s hip replacement surgery and as things fell apart, I am seeing first hand how difficult it is to navigate this maze. If you are not aware right now of what Medicare covers and how it works, and what proposed deep cuts will do to this program which will affect you personally, it might be a good time to find out.

My own home is nearly 2,000 miles away from my parents and as we get older and our parents get older, this becomes problematic. Up until now, my 80+ year old parents have been in good health for the most part. Last month, though, my dad had a hip replacement. He was doing very well getting back on his feet, and then he suffered a mild stroke.

We are lucky in that the stroke wasn’t as bad as it could have been but at 86 years of age, the comeback road will be very long for him. I personally, am also lucky that my parents have my two sisters and their husbands living close by who are able and willing to devote time to seeing that my parents now get the help they need. While I’ve been here, though, it’s become my responsibility as the oldest in the family, to help them.

My dad was on the local fire department board for 40 years of his life and they vowed he would never pay for ambulance service. When we called them at 230 am after my dad woke up completely numb on his left side, the guys who came out knew my dad and they gave him wonderful care. So back to the hospital we went.

We spent several early morning hours waiting to see what tests found and what would be done. At first, they even contemplated sending my dad home with us, until he showed he couldn’t even walk with a walker. They admitted him for 48 hours observations status for more tests.

Here lies the rub with Medicare. By Monday, even before a proposed MRI was done, the “discharge specialist” had visited with a dizzying array of options but the bottom line was, dad would be discharged and since he was on observation status and not inpatient status, Medicare would not pay for further care, ie transfer to a rehabilitation facility (read nursing home with name change). Medicare would also not pay for him to stay in the hospital to see if he would regain some ground and we could manage at home. Forty-eight hours was all he was allowed.

I decided very quickly that my dad couldn’t be left at the hospital alone. The doctor had come in Monday morning, without us there, and asked him where he wanted to be discharged to and Dad said “home.” It was perfectly obvious to me, he couldn’t come home yet but the people at the hospital, with their little Medicare forms, were not above talking to a very sick and befuddled 86 year old man and demanding solutions from him.

My advice to anyone who lands in this situation, whether it is a spouse or parent, be present, be observant, ask questions! In the guise of routing out “medicare fraud and abuse” very sick old people are being put out onto the street with few options. My parents pay $10,000 a year for insurance and yet, if my dad was to receive more care, it would be up to my parents to pay, upfront, the $250 a day out of pocket. My parents, luckily for our family, have money saved for this situation but for those who have no resources, or even a family to fall back on, would actually be put out onto the sidewalk, I guess.

What saved our family, and I’m forever grateful for this, was my father’s physical therapist at the hospital. She said my dad seemed very motivated to get better and she recommended an intense inpatient therapy program at a larger hospital about 35 miles away. She spoke to the discharge planner and the doctor and on her recommendation, they all agreed if he could get into this program, it would help him.

So, as luck would have it now, since everyone recommended this intense therapy, then Medicare will pay for that. The discharge specialist at the hospital hadn’t even thought of this option so we were lucky.

So now my dad is in this program for at least 2 weeks, then after that, Medicare will cease to pay for any other care facility and he will come home. The staff at the hospital did tell us, however, if he needs home care or more out-patient therapy, then Medicare would pay, at least as far as we know.

(My dad was told at the inpatient rehab facility that to get in there the patient needed motivation to get better, doctor’s recommendations and good insurance! Which means my parent’s supplemental insurance is kicking in,)

If you’re a baby boomer or have parents who are on Medicare, it would be wise for you to keep abreast of the coming changes to funding. President Obama is proposing $320 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, programs which have already seen serious cuts.

Here is an article I found which lays out the coming cuts.

I know first hand, at the little fire department in our town where my dad was on the board, they have had cuts to the Medicare funding of ambulance service runs. Since there are many seniors on Medicare in this community, and since the fire department’s operations depended on Medicare funding, they are now tittering on the edge of serious financial problems.

My niece works at the hospital my dad was in and she said everyone is bracing for cuts to services after the Medicare cuts go into effect. Departments have already laid off personnel so they are operating on less staff.

My husband and I have kept up somewhat with Medicare funding issues because we are on Tricare and Tricare’s funding levels are tied to Medicare. I can tell you that even living in a very large area, we have trouble finding primary care doctors who will take Tricare patients because of red tape and low rates of re-embursement. The doctors we do get are overworked and push pills just to get you out of their offices (my personal opinion!)

I think many times we don’t keep abreast of these issues because they are daunting and confusing and we feel there isn’t anything we can do anyway. I’m not sure myself what can be done except to write to your Congressmen and tell they they will be voted out if they don’t stand up against cuts to Medicare funding.

If you’ve had experience with Medicare and Medicaid on either a personal or professional level, I’d love to hear from you. If you have any ideas of what readers can do to become involved, please feel free to comment. Medicare funding and getting older are issues we all need to be informed about.

They Can’t Tax Voluntary Simplicity - Yet!

What is Voluntary Simplicity and How Can it Help You Avoid the Coming Economic Crisis?

Voluntary simplicity has a different meaning to each person who practices it. In a nutshell, voluntary simplicity goes against the commercial culture of America which equates material possessions with happiness and fulfillment. Advocates find fulfillment in saving money, downsizing, living simply and finding ways to do for themselves.

Many who embrace voluntary simplicity live debt free, clip coupons, cook from scratch, live closer to nature and try their hand at pass times like gardening and sewing or raising their own chickens.

Maybe this isn’t you but each of us can simplify our lives and focus on saving money, rather than making money. They can’t tax you for saving $20 with grocery store coupons but that is $20 you still have in your pocket.

Is Economic Disaster and Double Dip Recession Coming?

Life as we’ve all gotten used to it may soon end. For the past 20 years, the economy has been booming mostly, real estate prices shot up, the stock market was going great guns. Then it all fell apart. My 82 year old mother recently told me when she hears the term “new normal” in relation to the high unemployment, volitile stock market and near depression-like economy, she can’t help but think that the years of the booming economy were the abnormal years.

Most of the years of my mother’s life, she knew depression, war, pinching pennies. I grew up learning thrift and tried to teach my kids the same thing, but young people really have no clue about living through a real depression.

Are you worried about what the looming economic crisis will mean for you? Are you worried about the huge tax hike coming in 2011 to pay for the exploding national debt and President Obama’s health care plan. Perhaps you have one of those “Cadillac” insurance plans, where your companies’ contribution will now be taxed as income. Dick Morris says America is facing the same financial disaster that is now occurring in Greece.

President Obama campaigned on the promise of tax cuts for those earning less than $250,000 (really all Congress would have to do is keep President Bush’s tax cuts in place - which saved our family $2,000 in taxes each year.) Yet, on June 22, 2011, House Majority Leader, Rep Steny Hoyer, acknowledged that it would be difficult to reduce long-term deficits without breaking President Obama’s pledge to protect families earning less than $250,000 a year. (See New York Times article)

My husband wants to retire. He has a military pension and a good job, which already puts us in a tax above $88,000. Anyone earning over $88,000 will be taxed to pay for the health care of those who cannot afford it. I am trying to earn extra income to supplement our retirement but unfortunately, the more I make, the more taxes we will pay.

So what is our plan? How will we protect ourselves from economic collapse? I’ve decided that I can limit my hours of working on my multiple streams of income (which is pretty much on autopilot now) and focus on pinching pennies.

• I search coupon websites and grocery ads for the best deals, buying only what we need and what is on sale.
• I rejoined our organic food co-op to get fresh organic produce for our green smoothies.
• I planted tomato plants in pots for the first time since we moved to Texas. We are currently buying land where we can grow a bigger garden.
• I dusted off my dehydrater so I can preserve food and not waste anything.
• I bought a sprouter to I can grow fresh sprouts for our smoothies. You can grow tons of sprouts for pennies, providing fresh greens for your diet.
• I am making my own kefir with kefir starter instead of buying sugar-laden and expensive yogurt.
• My husband and I are putting major purchases on hold and going on a spending fast, after reading Jeff Yeager’s Guide to Cheapskate Living (a great book with lots of voluntary simplicity tips and advice)
• We’re buying an RV to put on the land and if we need to live in it for a year or two to save money, we can do that.

We are in the process of purchasing 5 acres of land where we can have a huge garden, raise chickens and build an energy efficient house with wind and solar power. (President Obama admitted that his cap and trade bill will cause electricity prices to skyrocket and trying to break our dependence on oil could cause gas prices to go to $7 a gallon.)

All is not gloom and doom, whether the nation experiences economic disaster or not. What each person must do is be ready to live in the worst of conditions and become more self-sufficient. Try saving, not spending money. Try saving instead of increasing your income. Give voluntary simplicity a try and you will have the satisfaction of knowing you can face whatever happens.

One thing our government officials have not considered is what will happen when more and more people are willing to earn less, do more for themselves and pay less taxes? They’ve made it the sensible solution but how will the government machine survive once they’ve destroyed our economy?

Resources:

Making your own kefir is easier than you think.

Sprouting seeds at Home

Raising Chickens in Your own back yard.

Check out the many coupons and money saving articles on this blog as well.

Learn more about Living Simply

What Did Ronald Reagan Have to Say About Socialized Medicine? Here it in his own words.

I was young when Reagan was President and, to tell the truth, I didn’t pay much attention to what he had to say back then. In the present, however, I’ve started paying more attention to what Ronald Reagan had to say about socialism and socialized medicine.

Here’s a real commercial from the 1950’s about the dangers of socialized medicine by Ronald Reagan. His message has a lot of relevance for us today.

Listen to Ronald Reagan’s own words about socialism and socialized medicine.

After the AARP came out in support of President Obama’s health care plan, my husband and I chose to cancel our membership - which we’d had for the past 10 years. AARP has always taken a liberal stance, in our view, but this recent turn of events caused us to say, “Enough.”

Here is a quote from DickMorris.com from his article, “Day One: How Obamacare Will Alienate Americans” concerning the AARP and the health care reform bill:

“The first “no” will hit the ten million elderly who now rely on Medicare Advantage to pay for the care Medicare itself does not cover. In a payoff to AARP, Obama gutted this program in his bill, ending over $100 billion in federal premium subsidies. These ten million voters will get the grim news that their premiums are going up and their benefits dropping early in 2010. The goal, of course, is to force them to drop Medicare Advantage and sign up, instead, for Medigap insurance — offered, not coincidentally, by the AARP — which provides less coverage at higher cost.”

Read the entire article and see if you still want to be a member of AARP.