Thursday, October 3, 2024

Response from My Insurance

 "Thank you for reaching out. We certainly understand your concerns and frustrations. There was a redesign done of the pharmacy side of things made by Medicare that we had to accommodate for. I’m sorry you are dissatisfied with our plan offerings in 2025. I will document your dissatisfaction with our 2025 benefit offerings. Our product manager does review feedback/complaints to take into

consideration when reviewing benefits for upcoming years. These are our Medicare approved benefits for 2025, we encourage you to compare plans and choose a plan that best fits your needs. This is your time to look at other plan options available, consider premiums, copays, network and make a choice that best fits your needs for the upcoming year."

So, I will repeat, the Inflation Reduction Act has broken Medicare. This so-called redesign that Medicare stuck us with will make my medication MORE EXPENSIVE. 
 

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

I'm Trying

 It's not usual for me to post twice in a day. I'm trying to stay positive. At least we took a nice walk on Sunday. We went to Lapham Peak State Park. It was sunny, a little warm but not humid, the breeze was lovely and the pines and wild flowers smelled heavenly. We just stood there and took deep breaths. Here are some pictures, starting with the patio.


Sheltered from the wind. I think they will be ok for awhile. I will bring in the oxalis, or part of it, and the geranium, which was my daughter's.


I really like the small-leaved creeping coleus. I might try a cutting.


I think this looks like a painting. The woods at Lapham Peak


This and the two below are the pines at Lapham Peak.




Again My Question is, What The H*ll Did They Do to Medicare?

 I downloaded my drug summary from Walmart. I added the costs for Oct. Nov. and Dec. 2024. Total $1212.33. That's my total out of pocket for 2024.

Now, for 2025 I will have a $325 upfront drug co-pay and medication will cost more so my total cost for the year will be $1706.48, that's almost $500 MORE. What the hay is going on? All this talk of no more donut hole and drug cost being capped at $2000 per year and oh woopie insulin is only $35 a month. Well, fine. But I have never had insulin or drug costs more than $2000 per year. Why do I have to pay $500 MORE? I looked at "Extra Help". Income limit for a family of 2 is $30,660. That in itself is a joke. I would already need to be on Section 8 and Medicaid for us to have an income that low. The best I can do is use their new plan that doesn't save you a feakin dime but lets you spread their outrageous costs throughout the year. Lower drug costs my ass.



I am so sick and tired of being kicked down and down and down by this economy. 

WHAT????????

 What in the freakin hell have they done with Medicare? My medications have doubled in price. No more $47 per month till the donut hole. Now just outlandishly high prices and only 3 plans to choose from. I'm just freaked out right now. More research going on.....will report back later but right now this sucks.

Monday, September 30, 2024

Tomorrow

 Tomorrow the long-awaited Medicare plans for 2025 come out. I will be reviewing closely. Unless I am missing something, it looks like my medication is going to cost more, at least through Quartz. I sincerely hope I can stay with Quartz because any doctors I need to see and all the Aurora clinics and hospitals are on the plan, and coverage extends through several counties.

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Random Updates

My son-in-law is in the hospital now for outpatient surgery for that kidney stone. He was on antibiotics for 2 weeks to recover from the infection and swelling that happened when his kidney backed up. They put a stent in place to allow his kidney to drain around the 9 MM stone. My daughter is at the hospital now.  Updates later.

Yesterday I pulled all the bins and boxes out of the big closet so I can go through them. All that's left in there are a few clothes hanging and a bunch of books on the shelf. I was a little sore yesterday and hubby said I'm doing too much. I told him, "No, somebody needs to do it and you're doing the garage." My back was sore yesterday but today I feel fine, just discouraged.

The job situation is dismal. Apparently most companies like to wait until after the elections to hire, maybe even until after the holidays. It's a sad state in this country that companies want to jump ship and move operations to Mexico or other countries. They are just running from paying their fair share in taxes. I watched a clip yesterday of the traitor former orange in chief talking to John Deere. He told them if they move their operations to Mexico he will put $400 tariffs on everything they produce and they won't sell any of it here in the US. So John Deere said, if he gets elected they will keep their plants open here in the US, but if Harris is elected they are leaving. They announced earlier this year their intent to close 3 plants here in the US and open them in Mexico. What does that say about our country? Where are all those jobs and the booming economy we keep hearing about? 

Government, Hospitality and Healthcare/Education. Well, there you go. Manufacturing is loosing. 


My son-in-law is prepped and waiting now, time 10:35 am.

Back to politics. Hubby and I are voting for Democracy and for protecting the Constitution and for protecting Kosovo and Europe from the onslaught of dictatorship from Russia. But I reluctantly understand why people choose orange because they view him as stronger on the economy, as in keeping jobs here in the US and not watching them flee our tax system. It's complicated. I can't pretend I can understand it all or even debate or explain it. It is what it is. 

Right now I don't know how we will move forward in this mess. All I can do is continue to pack, so if hubby gets hired for a good job, we can move. Or maybe a good job will happen locally, and we can stay. But I need to be prepared. At least my spring cleaning will be done. Our lease is up the end of April, then our rent will go up AGAIN. Our rent was $995 in 2019. It might have been the same when we moved here in April 2018. It's now $1115, and I'm sure it will increase again in June. So, $120 in 6 years may not seem like a lot, but everything else has risen horribly. Insurance, Internet, FOOD.....need I continue, and his job is getting cut by SEVEN dollars per hour. That's $1120 less per month, like a whole rent payment. 

We keep dumbing our budget down. And it's not just us. My son-in-law is an engineer, he and my daughter (who also works) are paying for the house they built. He's putting one kid through college and the other starts next year. He is the hospital and his out of pocket max is $8000. My daughter said he hasn't had any overtime in years.

My daughter said they took him into surgery at 10:55 am
11:32 am, he's done. They had to break up the stone, it was too big to pull out. One hour in recovery and she gets to see him.

I'm happy my son-in-law's surgery went well and he can recover and not be in pain all the time. 

Here are some pictures, the first two are from today. I was going to bring more plants in but it's just too beautiful out. The other three pictures are Sandhill Cranes. They stop in to eat birdseed I put out for them.








Friday, September 20, 2024

Budget

 I went over our budget with a fine tooth comb. We can do this for the time being, if we don't do anything or buy anything and stick to simple food. Will only need an extra $200 or so out of savings by the end of the year, which would be cheaper than breaking our lease and moving. In January one bill goes away and one will lower by $100. Maybe by spring some jobs will turn up before our rent goes up again in June.