The Japanese have a term, muda, which refers to
activity that doesn't add value.
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activity that doesn't add value.
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It's about 2 am. I've spent the past several hours reading up on Medicare stuff. I've got to make some decisions in the next week or so. I've got material from The Company, from various medi-gap folks, and guides I printed off from the Medicare website. I have a thousand questions, and I haven't even started comparing options yet.
The material from The Company arrived in Saturday's mail. I glanced through it quickly at the mailbox, and from just a brief look, it appears that between The Company and the government, I'm going to end up paying a LOT more for a LOT less coverage and a LOT more complication.
It figures. Don't know why I'm surprised.
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3 comments:
Yes, it sounds like you understand it. You pay more for less with more paperwork involved. I did the same research in May and came to the same conclusion. If Medicare hadn't have interfered, could we just have stayed indefinitely with the plan we had? That's what I kept thinking, but at the same time realized that would have been too simplistic and therefore not acceptable.
The Company has declared that I durn well better get Medicare, A, B, and D, because they will pay as if I have it. If I don't have Medicare, the difference comes out of my pocket. The Company self-funds the medical insurance (they use MVP to administer it), so their main concern is saving money.
If we ever go to a single-payer system, I know The Company will stop providing medical insurance altogether.
Update - when the ACA came in, The Company got out entirely. They did set up a fund for retirees with $5K/year/family, which you can tap to pay out-of-pocket or premiums, but they warned that the fund would exist only temporarily (no commitment on how long). Yep. I called it.
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