Hey, it’s March 3!
Time to get up and check your account to see if your Social Security money is in there yet.
Yes, that is what this semi-retired person does each third day of the month, when the government pays me to be retired, or in my case, kind of retired.
The money goes in, and then I wait another month for my next payment.
It is just such fun to be retired and only have to worry about your money being where it should be!
And what makes it even more exciting for me is that this is the final month that I will have my money go into my account with just my taxes taken out—yes, you do pay tax on your Social Security money.
Starting next month, and on April Fool’s Day, the first day of April no less, I will be officially on Medicare, and that payment will be taken out of the money I get from the government too!
Oh, how happy I am!
Well, I am … kinda.
Even though I don’t like the money being taken out—which went up about $30 this year, wiping out whatever historic cost of living increase that people on Social Security received—it also means that I can dump the stop-gap insurance that I had to get after my wife retired in November.
For roughly five months, I needed health insurance to fill in the gap between the period I was dropped from her insurance after she retired to the time that I could start Medicare, as I was not eligible for Medicare when I retired because I was too young, and I am still too young at age 64.
Anyway, due to Obamacare—another story for another time—I had to go through New York State’s “New York State of Health” web site to get this stop-gap insurance for myself, which is exactly what I did, but there were so many variables attached to his insurance that I did not know about even though I did the right thing by getting it.
First off, no matter what plan you choose, what they give you is absolutely horrible. Just let me say that God forbid you get really sick using this insurance, you are in major, major trouble. The deductibles are ridiculous, and what they provide is really the most basic of care, and nothing more, so it is about 20 steps down from what I had when I was insured by my wife’s health insurance.
Second is that while New York State will help you out in paying for this insurance—the monthly premiums are completely ridiculous—you get hit later on when you do your taxes.
This is a little complicated, so let me explain this as best I can.
The state takes a lot of information into account when they decide how much they are going to give you as a monthly stipend to help pay for this over-inflated insurance.
They take into account such things as family income and where you live as determinants about what they will give you each month, and it can change as your circumstances change, as mine did as we went from 2021 into 2022, as my wife had a salary from her job for most of 2021 but will have no salary for 2022, and thus, our family income diminished, allowing me to have New York State uptick what they were giving me as a stipend, or credit, for my insurance.
However, what they don’t tell you is that while New York State recognizes this monthly credit for what it is, a stipend to help you pay for your health insurance, the federal government does not think the same way as the state does, and looks at that stipend as earned income.
That’s right, as earned income, and as with any income, you have to pay taxes on that money that New York State gives you to help you to pay for your health insurance!
So if you live in New York State and see all those happy people in the New York State of Health commercial with their toothy grins telling you that they pay nothing for their health insurance, I am sure those grins turn to frowns when tax time comes and they learn that yes, they DO pay for this insurance through their federal taxes.
And what is worse, nobody tells you this when you apply for your insurance. The accountant my family used was the one who gave us this bad news, and it added onto our federal tax that we had to pay.
Besides that, you can't always use your regular doctors with this type of insurance, and not only that, but you have to be on top of the errors that New York State of Health and your new insurance company will inevitably make on your insurance, and you will sit on the phone for hours trying to rectify those mistakes, just like I had to do.
So you add everything up, and you will see why I am looking forward to Medicare, which just has to be better than what I have right now.
Not only my wife is on Medicare in my family, but my son is, too, because of his disabled status, and at least with my son, I have seen how Medicare works, and at least for him, it has worked out just fine.
I can only hope for the same outcome for myself and my wife, but there always seems to be a fly in the ointment to ruin things.
But I have to keep a positive attitude—
Medicare, here I come—
And on April Fool’s Day yet!
Time to get up and check your account to see if your Social Security money is in there yet.
Yes, that is what this semi-retired person does each third day of the month, when the government pays me to be retired, or in my case, kind of retired.
The money goes in, and then I wait another month for my next payment.
It is just such fun to be retired and only have to worry about your money being where it should be!
And what makes it even more exciting for me is that this is the final month that I will have my money go into my account with just my taxes taken out—yes, you do pay tax on your Social Security money.
Starting next month, and on April Fool’s Day, the first day of April no less, I will be officially on Medicare, and that payment will be taken out of the money I get from the government too!
Oh, how happy I am!
Well, I am … kinda.
Even though I don’t like the money being taken out—which went up about $30 this year, wiping out whatever historic cost of living increase that people on Social Security received—it also means that I can dump the stop-gap insurance that I had to get after my wife retired in November.
For roughly five months, I needed health insurance to fill in the gap between the period I was dropped from her insurance after she retired to the time that I could start Medicare, as I was not eligible for Medicare when I retired because I was too young, and I am still too young at age 64.
Anyway, due to Obamacare—another story for another time—I had to go through New York State’s “New York State of Health” web site to get this stop-gap insurance for myself, which is exactly what I did, but there were so many variables attached to his insurance that I did not know about even though I did the right thing by getting it.
First off, no matter what plan you choose, what they give you is absolutely horrible. Just let me say that God forbid you get really sick using this insurance, you are in major, major trouble. The deductibles are ridiculous, and what they provide is really the most basic of care, and nothing more, so it is about 20 steps down from what I had when I was insured by my wife’s health insurance.
Second is that while New York State will help you out in paying for this insurance—the monthly premiums are completely ridiculous—you get hit later on when you do your taxes.
This is a little complicated, so let me explain this as best I can.
The state takes a lot of information into account when they decide how much they are going to give you as a monthly stipend to help pay for this over-inflated insurance.
They take into account such things as family income and where you live as determinants about what they will give you each month, and it can change as your circumstances change, as mine did as we went from 2021 into 2022, as my wife had a salary from her job for most of 2021 but will have no salary for 2022, and thus, our family income diminished, allowing me to have New York State uptick what they were giving me as a stipend, or credit, for my insurance.
However, what they don’t tell you is that while New York State recognizes this monthly credit for what it is, a stipend to help you pay for your health insurance, the federal government does not think the same way as the state does, and looks at that stipend as earned income.
That’s right, as earned income, and as with any income, you have to pay taxes on that money that New York State gives you to help you to pay for your health insurance!
So if you live in New York State and see all those happy people in the New York State of Health commercial with their toothy grins telling you that they pay nothing for their health insurance, I am sure those grins turn to frowns when tax time comes and they learn that yes, they DO pay for this insurance through their federal taxes.
And what is worse, nobody tells you this when you apply for your insurance. The accountant my family used was the one who gave us this bad news, and it added onto our federal tax that we had to pay.
Besides that, you can't always use your regular doctors with this type of insurance, and not only that, but you have to be on top of the errors that New York State of Health and your new insurance company will inevitably make on your insurance, and you will sit on the phone for hours trying to rectify those mistakes, just like I had to do.
So you add everything up, and you will see why I am looking forward to Medicare, which just has to be better than what I have right now.
Not only my wife is on Medicare in my family, but my son is, too, because of his disabled status, and at least with my son, I have seen how Medicare works, and at least for him, it has worked out just fine.
I can only hope for the same outcome for myself and my wife, but there always seems to be a fly in the ointment to ruin things.
But I have to keep a positive attitude—
Medicare, here I come—
And on April Fool’s Day yet!
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