Two Common Medicare Mistakes To Avoid

Medicare is uncharted territory for most of the 10,000 people who become eligible for the program each day. There are some pitfalls lurking in the undergrowth and traps that can cost plenty unless people take care to avoid them.. Mistake #1: Believing you don’t need Medicare Part B if you have retiree or COBRA health […]

Is Kindness and Compassion Too Expensive?

(This article first appeared in the March 2002 issue of California Broker Magazine as an open letter to fellow health insurance professionals.  Reprinted with permission from Dave Leveque.) I am mourning the loss of my mother to pancreatic cancer.  She was diagnosed on October 30, 2001 and died three months later.  You are probably wondering […]

2016 Changes To Social Security and Medicare

President Obama signed into law a bipartisan budget bill in October that, among other things, changes – for better and worse –  Social Security and Medicare laws. Here’s a wrap-up. File and Suspend: Currently, a married person, typically the higher wage earner in a couple who’s at least full retirement age could file for his […]

‘SINGLE-PAYER’ – What Does That mean?

Health care has emerged as one of the flash points in the Democratic presidential race. Sen. Bernie Sanders calls for “Medicare for All,” a health system that falls under the heading of ‘Single-payer”. Just to be clear, a Single-payer system is not the same thing as socialized medicine. In truly socialized medicine system, the government […]

Part D Prescriptions Not Covered

There has been a recurring problem that many Medicare beneficiaries discover in January of each year. Most people assume that if their Part D plan covered their medications in 2015 that it will cover the same way in 2016. Wrong! You may remember what they say about assuming? In the fall of each year, the […]