Friday, July 12, 2013

A long morning...

Yesterday Ray and I went to a Medicare class. I might have been more confused after the class - hard to tell! We are both turning 65 this fall. We are retired educators in Illinois under two different retirement systems and both of us pay for our health insurance through these systems. If we don't have Medicare, our insurance rates almost triple. Since we are retired educators in Illinois, we are a "special case" when it comes to Medicare.

We had to make sure that our insurance will continue as our supplemental insurance - no problem. The problem is with the prescription coverage - we have prescription coverage now and JUST need a letter saying that our prescription insurance is as good or better than Medicare Part D - a letter or note of credible coverage. Oh my - what a problem! I talked to people ALL morning.  After a couple of hours, I spent another 43 minutes with the last wonderful lady that hunted all of those 43 minutes, I finally had the number of the State of Illinois office that I needed. In case you ever need to call the State Medicare office, it is 800-442-1300 or 217-782-7007. 

Well I called the number and in less than one minute, I had the information I needed! We need to call and get a letter of credible coverage when, if ever, we leave our "just as good as" prescription coverage to go to Part D! Now, wouldn't you think at least 1 out of the 7 people I talked with earlier this morning would know that? Or maybe the person who taught the class? Or did I not know the right question to ask? Well, at least we know now!

All that is left for us to do is to sign up for Medicare. We fall into another "special case" and can't sign up online. So we have an  appointment in a few weeks. And we expect smooth sailing...

In other news: While I was on the phone today, Ray turned my recliner completely over and found the elusive knitting needle! Woo Hoo!

3 comments:

  1. Illinois govt is such a pain to deal with. There are actually 2 separate govts, and they don't like or talk to each other (ask us how we know this). It took us over 6 years to just deal with tags for our trailer. Grrr! Glad you found the knitting needle. I turned over hubby's chair to vacuum yesterday, and found an empty (clean) mayo jar. Hmmm...wonder why it was there?

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  2. I can't tell you the number of quilting related items that I've found when turning over/moving my recliner. ;-)

    I'll make a note of that phone number. I'm a retired State University employee so I suspect that the whole Medicare (including prescription coverage/Part D) will be a nightmare for me as well. I've got DH on my plan as he won't be eligible for Medicare for another 2 years (I'll be eligible in 2.5 years). I'm definitely NOT looking forward to that whole experience.

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  3. Yikes. Sounds like me trying to figure out how to get health insurance in Florida. Took me months to finally get it all taken care of.
    Hmmmm. I usually just find popcorn and whatever snack the kids have been eating in the living room when I move the recliner!
    Hope you have a good Monday.

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