5 Big Financial Changes for Retirees in 2010

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Basic medicare has no out-of-pocket limit cost on either the hospital (Part A) or Outpatient Expenses (Part B). This means very high co-payments for long hospital stays ($267.00 per day co-pay & up) and a 20% co-insurance on expensive cancer treatments with no limit. Yes, many people can and do buy full coverage medicare supplement plans. (I know because I have sold plenty of them). But these plans run from an average of about $130.00 - $180.00 per month for a 65 year old to those over 80 who will likely pay $225 - $300.00 per month. This cost does not include the average $37.00 per month of Part D prescription coverage. Plus this is not even considering the massive fraud Medicare has with the medical eguipment & home health care industry every year whose estimated cost I have seen put at 15-60 billion dollars a year.
I agree Medicare Advantage is far from perfect, but it especially helps those in the lower middle to middle income bracket who have a hard time paying for the above mentioned supplements. Medicare's own website points out that the sicker a person gets the more likely a person will save considerable $ on a medicare advantage plan.
Another issued not considered here is that Medicare Part D is 6 Billion under budget in it's first three years. The insurance companies are largely responsible for this. I am a high level manager in the business and have talked to others in the business. My company and others have all lost millions on Part D. I know of only one company last year who made a little profit off of Part D. The Insurance companies have been subsidizing Part D with the payments their receiving on Part C (Medicare Advantage). That's why the premium's went up so much on Part D last year after Medicare's first round of cuts to Medicare Advantage in 2009.
Also, I have read every detail of every proposed plan I can get a hold of and none of them have fully considered what is going to happen to these 10 million plus people who can't afford medicare supplements if they lose medicare advantage. Are they going to go on Medicaid? How much is that going to cost?

Chris of CO 2:42PM April 23, 2009

on Estate Tax, but you've got to admit, having 2010 with no estate tax and a reversion to much higher levels in 2011 makes absolutely no sense. But getting the "recommendations" in December? With a few days left to pass something before 12/31/09? Mercy. Why would anyone want such a cliffhanger for planning? They ought to be passing the current levels of estate tax as permanent right now. And they ought to be doing it on the "reconciliation" model that bypasses the Senate 60-vote requirement---just as Bush passed his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that way---cuts that created the -0- at 2010 problem. No need to wait here for the tea baggers (very few of whom actually HAVE estates over 3.5 MM) to get energized further

Muser of NM 11:12AM April 17, 2009

Even if subsidies to MA Plans weren't cut, their prices to subscribers would still continue to rise. We've already seen it happen. Let's face it - MA plans can't compete with traditional Medicare. The private health care market is an overpriced mess but Medicare does a pretty good job of providing coverage and with low administrative costs. When Congress begins drafting healthcare reform legislation and finally eliminates those ridiculous subsidies to MA plans, they need to put some of that money back into Medicare to make some of the improvements needed to help seniors. A good source of updates on this at www.ncpssm.org

Petie of MD 11:08AM April 17, 2009