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It began at least six months ago: junk mail by the barrel-full yes, far more than the usual amount that causes our recycle bins to overflow. All of the envelopes addressed to Dixie Sokolik had promises of something exciting to be found upon opening. If I were a gullible person, I would have thought I won a million dollars. Instead, I was being reminded of my “very special” birthday!
You see, I will turn 65 in September, and apparently this is the greatest thing to happen to a person since blowing out the candles on their first birthday cake. You know why this is so awesome? Because I will now be eligible for Medicare, and this opens the door for companies that sell Medicare supplement insurance to send me all these “Congratulations” and “Hallelujah” type cards and letters. They know I’ll certainly need more than Medicare to pay for my health care costs, and they will be more than happy to sell me that supplemental policy.
Fortunately, Jim and I already have a policy that is his supplemental insurance and, up until Sept. 1, has been my primary coverage. I’ve become familiar with it and even understand the information booklet that comes to us every fall describing the coverage and cost for the coming year.
When dealing with health insurance and medical bills, there are always hoops to jump through, and I have become pretty agile at jumping through them. I have learned how to call and discuss a particular claim; if I know they have done something incorrectly regarding one of our bills, I don’t rest until it is resolved. It has been working well for both Jim and myself.
While my bills have usually been paid by the insurance company fairly quickly, Jim’s would lag far behind, because claims had to go through Medicare first, and believe me, this is no quick process. Therefore, it was critical to examine each and every bill he received to make certain it hadn’t already been paid or that at least it had been sent to the “rapid response team” at Medicare. You can understand why I dreaded the day that Medicare would become my primary health insurance.
Some of you may be asking yourselves: “Why doesn’t she just have her husband take care of it? He was in the insurance and finance business for years.”
Well, for one thing, he steered away from dealing with health insurance if at all possible; not because he couldn’t, but because it is generally a real pain in the neck.
Besides, he has plenty to do just managing the finances. Bless him for that because that’s one area I avoid like the plaque.
But getting back to my letters of “Congratulations on living long enough to get Medicare and now we want to sell you stuff.”
I was so used to shredding anything that resembled them that I almost shredded that little red, white and blue booklet welcoming me to Medicare, along with the flimsy little card which I am now supposed to carry with me at all times.
When I received these items, September was several months away, so I “filed” them somewhere. Now with less than a month to go, I had to dig around and find where I put that card. I’m pretty certain that if I lost it, I would be put on some sort of “government watch list.”
So, come Sept. 1, I will have the flimsy red, white & blue card with me at all times, and I suppose I’ll skim through the booklet sometime. For now, I’m just going to plan on celebrating my birthday concentrating on the good things about it.
Hmmm. What are they again?
Sokolik lives in Winona and has been a community columnist for the Winona Daily News for more than a decade.
