As I prepared my 2011 taxes I experienced a brief freak out. I couldn’t find medical receipts. But my “Aha” moment came very quickly.
“That’s right, I’m on Medicare!”
My transition to Medicare has been as simple as it’s been beneficial. Medical insurance is so important to me it’s a factor in choosing where I live.
I’m a Kaiser Permanente member and my home is within their coverage area. Everyone in my household —including my 93 year old mother-- is a Kaiser member and we share primary care physicians and cardiologists, which makes doctors’ appointments simple and helps our physicians understand family medical histories.
My medical history is complex. I’ve had a debilitating stroke and two heart attacks. But my prior conditions didn’t stop my HMO from welcoming me to its coverage.
Like everyone else I’ve heard the urban legends and half-truths about Medicare. But to put a point on this, I’ve never had better medical care in my life.
The biggest obstacle I’ve encountered is one of my own and of society’s making. Very damn few men see a doctor regularly. A regular doctor visit by men in our society just is abnormal. MY HMO changed this very quickly and I now have yearly checkups and regular exams by my cardiologist. And my co-pays are only $25. Let’s see $25 for a co-pay for a physical or a consult with a cardiologist?
I can afford that easily and I think it’s on hell of a bargain.
It hasn’t taken very long for my Medicare provider to make me a very informed patient that’s actively involved in my own health. My HMO is about prevention and its medical staff may have the best communications skills I’ve ever seen among doctors, nurses and technicians. All of this has combined to help me thrive and become a more balanced person whose life isn’t constrained by deadlines and erroneous misconceptions that taking time to see a doctor regularly could negatively impact my career.
One of the most important things I’ve learned about dealing with my docs is to answer their ”how do you feel” questions using the same observational powers I used in my reporting career. It was my answer to one such question from my cardiologist that resulted in my having a combination pacemaker/defibrillator in my chest in 2009. In other circumstances, I may have deferred the procedure because of its price. However under Medicare, the surgery, the device and the hospital stay cost me a whopping $350.
Yes, I like Medicare.
My HMO doesn’t like foreign metal in my body and it has removed several pieces of shrapnel I picked up as a young man while raveling on behalf of my Uncle Samuel in Southeast Asia.
But, the most important thing that’s happened to me under Medicare is that I’ve become an active participant in my healthcare and improved the quality of my life.
If I think I need to see a doc, I call and most often get an appointment that afternoon or the next morning— a whole lot faster than when I didn’t have Medicare coverage. Ive never had a better relationship with my doctors than I have today as a Medicare patient.
So don’t worry my fellow Boomers. If you become an informed patient, you can thrive under Medicare.—Jim Forbes ten years and two weeks post stroke on 02/21/2012.
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