PHARMACIST STEVE

When I was first eligible for Medicare and went to purchase a Medicare supplement… I knew that Congress had defined abt 8-10 different supplement programs as to what they cover…  they are defined something like A thru N…  and no insurance company can offer any Medicare supplement other than what Congress has defined and a insurance company doesn’t have to offer every plan that Congress has defined.

AARP endorses United Health, a for profit publicly held company.  Many people don’t realize that there is two different profit structures for insurance companies

“mutual companies” are typically not-for-profit , which means that the policy holders “own the company” and those that are publicly held FOR PROFIT companies and who has shares of stock listed on the stock market. Like some 8000-9000 for profit companies that are listed on the various stock exchanges.

When I first started looking for a Medicare supplement for myself back in 2012… I found that a mutual insurance company and that endorsed by AARP… a FOR PROFIT company… in comparing the same “plan letter”. Found that AARP’s endorsed plan was $20 MORE PER MONTH

I also found that the mutual company offered a plan that the only difference of the previous plan was that I had to pay the annual Part B deductible – some $140 each year but the premium dropped another $20/month.  The math of paying $240 less/yr and having to pay out $140 deductible out of pocket – only if I had to use some medical services during the year.  So I was able to save abt $680/yr – for the two of us – becoming a policy holder of the mutual insurance company.

I guess the first $20 difference between the mutual company the AARP endorsed program…  AARP does not “give” their endorsement away.. they get some $$$ for a company being able to promote the fact that they are endorsed by AARP.

So it would appear that AARP is concerned about Seniors and what they have to pay out of pocket for medical care… doesn’t seem to apply when a higher price… puts some money back in AARP’s coffer ?

For those chronic painers that read this blog… if you go to https://www.aarp.org/ and do a search for “chronic pain” you will get back some 400 different articles and the few that I scanned … have a definite anti-opiate lean and promoting a lot of non-opiate therapies that by and large are not paid for by health insurance. So they don’t seem to have much of a concern of what people pay out of pocket – especially if their endorsed Medicare part D insurance company doesn’t have to pay for opiates.

They even have a article – that most chronic painers understand is not really truthful  Opioids Don’t Ease Chronic Pain More Than Other Drugs

A study that “proved” that non-opiates will work as well as opiates

Filed under: General Problems