Retirement Healthcare and Medicare
Retirement expert Bob Carlson’s research and knowledge on how to get the most out of healthcare options
Found 325 Articles.
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Some Good News on Medicare
While Medicare still has long-term funding problems because of the coming baby boom eligibility, there is some good news. The cost the program spends per beneficiary actually has been declining. This article has the details. The article is short on explanations, and it is difficult to generate them with confidence. But mostly people are using […]
Enhancing Your Medicare Benefits
Many people get Medicare wrong. That’s a shame, because it is the main retirement medical insurance for most Americans. Fortunately, you can fix most of the problems, and we’re entering the time of year for shaping up your Medicare benefits. In the last couple of years I’ve seen a lot of research revealing the mistakes […]
Building the Case for Medicare Advantage
The Medicare Advantage alternative to traditional Medicare is increasing in popularity among beneficiaries but it isn’t popular among many Washington politicians. They’ve been trying to strangle the system for several years. They claim it costs too much. But that might not be the case. Take a look at this piece by someone who used to […]
Medicare Looking Better; Social Security Slightly Worse
The annual report of the Trustees of Social Security and Medicare is out. The report really is from the actuaries. It presents the financial condition of the “trust funds” based on current assumptions. The headline from the report almost always is the changes in the dates when the funds are estimated to be exhausted. In […]
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Changing Medicare
Traditional Medicare still rules the roost, and the current administration wants to keep it that way. But more and more beneficiaries prefer the Medicare Advantage alternative. When they have a choice older Americans prefer these more structured plans, often with greater benefits, than the more chaotic traditional Medicare. Read more here. Today, 30 percent of […]
Why People Don’t Switch Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans
A few months back I reported on a survey that found many Medicare beneficiaries are paying about double the premiums they should be for their coverage under Part D Prescription Drug plans. Here’s a report on a recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation seeking to find reasons why people don’t switch Part D plans […]
Prevailing in the Long-Term Care Crisis
The good news about long-term care is that the cost is rising at a slower rate. Yet, LTC still is ex-pensive and its cost is rising at a faster rate than general inflation. The latest annual Cost of Care Survey from Genworth, the leading LTC insurer, at www.genworth.com, found that when LTC is needed the […]
Estimating Retirement Medical Expenses
The ability to handle lifetime medical expenses is the key to a sustainable retirement, according to new studies such as one by the Employee Benefits Research Institute. Yet, medical expenses also are the wild card in retirement finance, because they are the hardest expenses to estimate. To handle the issue successfully, don’t fudge the numbers, […]
