Big Blue Huddle

Quote from: gregf on November 14, 2024, 09:56:37 PMLen, great stuff. Thanks! I love cruising!  I've done Alaska , Panama Canal, east and west Caribbean, Mexico etc. ironically I did 2 med floats while in Marine corp. I'm eyeballing a 30 day world cruise too down the road.  Before that though, I want to buy a boat in Florida and do the 6300 mile great loop over a year. Up the east coast, up the Hudson, 130 locks through Great Lakes, down Ohio and missipi rivers, across the Gulf of Mexico!

WOW, that sounds great. We have always talked about maybe doing a world cruise but the ones we did look at were way over 90 days at t he minimum. Though we LOVE cruising, that many days on a ship, well might be a bit too much even for me.
Ourselves, we LOVE trans-Atlantic cruises, we have done about 8 of them now. They are longer and we love the sea days. As I said be fore, anytime you are looking for company, just holler.       

Quote from: Bill Brown on November 15, 2024, 06:43:27 AMIn the vein of retirement, I'm curious about what you have for health insurance. We have a Medicare advantage plan. Overall I am pretty happy with it. We are in pretty good health so fortunately we haven't had to use it that often. A couple of downfalls is it doesn't do much for eye or dental issues.  Next year the plan I chose will cover 1 eye exam. The only real issue is that I have 1 prescription for my COPD inhaler cost me a couple of hundred a month because it's a high tier drug. But other than we are pretty happy with it. No monthly cost is a good thing.

Bill

I mentioned Morningstar.  Here is one on Medicare


https://www.morningstar.com/podcasts/investing-insights/8e9693eb-f145-4e1f-995b-23f0d616559e

Quote from: Bill Brown on November 15, 2024, 06:43:27 AMIn the vein of retirement, I'm curious about what you have for health insurance. We have a Medicare advantage plan. Overall I am pretty happy with it. We are in pretty good health so fortunately we haven't had to use it that often. A couple of downfalls is it doesn't do much for eye or dental issues.  Next year the plan I chose will cover 1 eye exam. The only real issue is that I have 1 prescription for my COPD inhaler cost me a couple of hundred a month because it's a high tier drug. But other than we are pretty happy with it. No monthly cost is a good thing.

Bill

Bill, covered California plans supplement based on income. I currently have VA coverage. I'm not very impressed with it so far, definitely appears a downgrade from Kaiser. My employer provided a medical cash account. Plan is to use VA for 2 years, then possibly switch back to Kaiser through California covered and budget my cash plan .  At 65 Medicare kicks in. 62 extra money from ss available

Quote from: gregf on November 15, 2024, 04:20:58 PMBill, covered California plans supplement based on income. I currently have VA coverage. I'm not very impressed with it so far, definitely appears a downgrade from Kaiser. My employer provided a medical cash account. Plan is to use VA for 2 years, then possibly switch back to Kaiser through California covered and budget my cash plan .  At 65 Medicare kicks in. 62 extra money from ss available

After 35+ years I was laid off from IBM in 2012, but with enough time to qualify for full retirement, including pension). As part of my severance I also got a check for 6 months salary and  like you Greg, I was provided with a medical cash account. I can buy into IBM's retirees Medicare Advantage PPO plan with UHC. But I can only access the medical cash account if I use the insurance IBM contracts with, (UHC). So far it's been good with just a $5 co-pay for my Dr. visits and a $30 co-pay for any specialist visit. Also comes with vision, dental, and eyeglass coverage. I can also use the medical cash account to reimburse myself for Medicare part B that SS automatically takes out. My wife has excellent healthcare as well through NYS schools (she was a Librarian). Her Medicare Advantage plan only costs about $200 per year, with excellent coverage, PLUS they reimburse her Medicare Part B cost.

Although I'm grateful that we both receive very good healthcare benefits in retirement, the vast differences and overall unfairness regarding healthcare costs across this country is very disturbing to me.

Sem, you are very fortunate for great coverage. All the money in the world is meaningless if your health is at risk