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

On Wed, 29 Jan 2025 17:01:50 -0600, Jay Morris <morrisj@epsilon3.me>
wrote:

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.

Yes, I should be saying "Medicare". Social Security enrolled me
automatically at the appropriate time, so there is no event where I
applied for Medicare to stick in my mind. Even to stick theoretically.

I haven't used either for some time. My interaction with the "medical
system" is minimal (I did get three jabs during the pandemic, though).

It's been a while since I read the booklet. The "Part D" equivalence
does involve costs paid by the insured, but that's the drug plan.
Other than that, and the treatment of items not covered by Medicare, I
don't recall any exceptions. But things may have changed.

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.

So did I. I noticed the difference immediately. Especially the End of
the Deductible (for things covered by Medicare, because BCBS paid
whatever Medicare wanted me to).

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.

My FEHBA (and income tax WH) comes out of the OPM pension. I get no
partial reimbursement. But I like this way of doing it.

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.

And they are what I was referring to. My house co-owner/brother has
what was Group Health and I believe is now Kaiser, so I have (as it
were) indirect personal awareness of the "other" plans.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"