Health insurance.
It is a bugaboo that we all have to have for ourselves and our families.
Not that I did not know this, but it has become a load of quicksand for me, and I am sure that I am not alone.
Let me explain to you what is going on with me and my health insurance, and I will cut away as much of the fat as possible.
My wife has announced her retirement date. Like me, she is retiring early, but she is retiring just about when she turns 65 years of age, when you can dovetail right into Medicare and get all the Part Bs and add-ons that you want.
Me, I was forced to retire early, and the situation that I was thrown into once again is biting me in the backside.
I receive my health insurance under my wife’s plan, and once she retires, that goes up in smoke.
I won’t turn 65 until late April 2022, and I cannot apply for Medicare before January 1, or about three months before.
Since my wife is retiring at the end of October, I will be insurance-less by the end of next month, so I have to get something to protect myself during the roughly six months that I am going to need health insurance before getting Medicare.
A few days ago, I went on the New York State of Health website, https://info.nystateofhealth.ny.gov/, which stands as one of the most confusing web sites in the history of the Internet.
Before doing anything, I called the number supplied by the site, spoke to an operator, told her my plight, and she said that it would take “hours” to fill out the form over the phone, and that it would be easier for me to do it online, so I followed her suggestion.
I filled out everything I thought I needed to fill out regarding health coverage during this period that I need it—the site insists that this is the easiest way to apply for such insurance, rather than go through an operator on the phone, so it backs up what the operator told me—and I chose a plan (which I have been told by more than one person that all the plans offered on the site are horrible, with high deductibles) which I will use as something of a "Band-Aid" until I can get Medicare.
Anyway, the state says that it wants you to have health insurance so badly that it will help you pay for the plan you choose, based on your income and, if you filed you taxes jointly, your spouse’s income.
I did all the calculations, and I put in for the insurance, but lo and behold, it rejected me for one reason or another.
I later found out that it rejected me because it read that I still have health insurance—which I do until the end of next month when my wife retires. I was just trying to be proactive so there would be no lapses in health insurance coverage, but the site is not intuitive enough to know this.
In fact, I even received an official document from New York State stating that I actually applied too early.
I wondered why the original operator told me that it would be easier for me to fill out the form online with my situation at hand, and I chalked it up to laziness and incompetency on her part, which I later found out to be 1,000 percent true.
Anyway, with time a’wastin’ I decided to try again late yesterday afternoon, so I called them up, and I was attached to an operator who walked me through the entire process, which took about an hour and a half.
I got a plan that begins in November, and based on the scads of money that my wife and I will be making during 2021, it will prove to be very costly to me—and I have to re-up in January, because our salary totals will change when my wife retires, as she is really going to retire, and will live on Social Security only.
Well, getting that done with someone who wasn’t lazy was a relief, but I will be paying so much for this health insurance that I have to change some other things in my life, such as the percent of taxes taken out of my Social Security payment each month.
That is another hassle, it has to be done on a form that you can only send to your local office through the mail, and I found out it can take two or three months to be changed, so I am really screwed here.
And then I got to thinking … would it be more prudent for me to take COBRA, and retain the insurance my wife has?
Honestly, I don’t know how that works—I am not the primary person on that plan, of course, can I get COBRA too, and how much will that cost versus what I am going to have to pay for the insurance that I now have—so today, I am going to have to call my wife's Human Resources Department, something I have done before and which is akin to cutting your throat numerous times before you reach the proper vein.
Yes, you can be on the phone for hours before someone picks up your call, but heck, I’m retired and have nothing else to do, so why not waste a day on the phone?
I will let you know what happens, but my name has changed. It used to be Larry, and now it is Agita.
There is nothing more to say on this matter, but it appears that in this case, the cure really is worse than the disease.
It is a bugaboo that we all have to have for ourselves and our families.
Not that I did not know this, but it has become a load of quicksand for me, and I am sure that I am not alone.
Let me explain to you what is going on with me and my health insurance, and I will cut away as much of the fat as possible.
My wife has announced her retirement date. Like me, she is retiring early, but she is retiring just about when she turns 65 years of age, when you can dovetail right into Medicare and get all the Part Bs and add-ons that you want.
Me, I was forced to retire early, and the situation that I was thrown into once again is biting me in the backside.
I receive my health insurance under my wife’s plan, and once she retires, that goes up in smoke.
I won’t turn 65 until late April 2022, and I cannot apply for Medicare before January 1, or about three months before.
Since my wife is retiring at the end of October, I will be insurance-less by the end of next month, so I have to get something to protect myself during the roughly six months that I am going to need health insurance before getting Medicare.
A few days ago, I went on the New York State of Health website, https://info.nystateofhealth.ny.gov/, which stands as one of the most confusing web sites in the history of the Internet.
Before doing anything, I called the number supplied by the site, spoke to an operator, told her my plight, and she said that it would take “hours” to fill out the form over the phone, and that it would be easier for me to do it online, so I followed her suggestion.
I filled out everything I thought I needed to fill out regarding health coverage during this period that I need it—the site insists that this is the easiest way to apply for such insurance, rather than go through an operator on the phone, so it backs up what the operator told me—and I chose a plan (which I have been told by more than one person that all the plans offered on the site are horrible, with high deductibles) which I will use as something of a "Band-Aid" until I can get Medicare.
Anyway, the state says that it wants you to have health insurance so badly that it will help you pay for the plan you choose, based on your income and, if you filed you taxes jointly, your spouse’s income.
I did all the calculations, and I put in for the insurance, but lo and behold, it rejected me for one reason or another.
I later found out that it rejected me because it read that I still have health insurance—which I do until the end of next month when my wife retires. I was just trying to be proactive so there would be no lapses in health insurance coverage, but the site is not intuitive enough to know this.
In fact, I even received an official document from New York State stating that I actually applied too early.
I wondered why the original operator told me that it would be easier for me to fill out the form online with my situation at hand, and I chalked it up to laziness and incompetency on her part, which I later found out to be 1,000 percent true.
Anyway, with time a’wastin’ I decided to try again late yesterday afternoon, so I called them up, and I was attached to an operator who walked me through the entire process, which took about an hour and a half.
I got a plan that begins in November, and based on the scads of money that my wife and I will be making during 2021, it will prove to be very costly to me—and I have to re-up in January, because our salary totals will change when my wife retires, as she is really going to retire, and will live on Social Security only.
Well, getting that done with someone who wasn’t lazy was a relief, but I will be paying so much for this health insurance that I have to change some other things in my life, such as the percent of taxes taken out of my Social Security payment each month.
That is another hassle, it has to be done on a form that you can only send to your local office through the mail, and I found out it can take two or three months to be changed, so I am really screwed here.
And then I got to thinking … would it be more prudent for me to take COBRA, and retain the insurance my wife has?
Honestly, I don’t know how that works—I am not the primary person on that plan, of course, can I get COBRA too, and how much will that cost versus what I am going to have to pay for the insurance that I now have—so today, I am going to have to call my wife's Human Resources Department, something I have done before and which is akin to cutting your throat numerous times before you reach the proper vein.
Yes, you can be on the phone for hours before someone picks up your call, but heck, I’m retired and have nothing else to do, so why not waste a day on the phone?
I will let you know what happens, but my name has changed. It used to be Larry, and now it is Agita.
There is nothing more to say on this matter, but it appears that in this case, the cure really is worse than the disease.
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