Re: Pearls Before Swine: Uncle Is Not Good With Money

On 1/29/2025 11:14 AM, Paul S Person wrote:

Older folks generally have Medicare. Comes right out of their Social
Security.
 Retired Federal Employees have (or should have) their FEHBA plan.
Unless something has changed, for anything Social Security covers,
/all/ costs left to the patient are paid by the FEHBA plan. Including
the SSA deductible. And no FEHBA deductible or copay or coinsurance
either. For items not covered by Social Security, however, the usual
health insurance nonsense applies, including a deductible. These plans
also satisfy the Part D requirements, AFAIK.
 Pretty much all Federal Employees have one or another of the FEHBA
plans, which means a lot of young, healthy people to help keep the
premiums down.

As a retired federal employee...
I think you're saying Social Security where it should be Medicare.  If you retire before you're Medicare eligible you continue FEBH coverage. Once Medicare kicks in anything not covered or not fully covered is generally covered by FEHB (Blue Cross Blue Shield in my case) but there are exceptions. Personally have not had one but I know they are in there. And as there are at least 10 different plans in my area alone, YMMV. Yes, they satisfy Part D.
My BCBS does cover any Medicare copay. Perhaps it just works out that way because BCBS pays whatever Medicare doesn't. I retired before I was Medicare eligible and had BCBS co-pays at that point.
Medicare (and FEHBA) come out of my Social Security payment. I do get a yearly partial reimbursement from BCBS for my SS payment. Personally I think this is to make it more attractive than getting a Medical advantage plan.
I'm not sure what you mean by one or the other FEHB plans. If you're talking about the actual insurance plans there are several providers, each having different plans. Some are regional providers, some national.