I tried the website route just to try to figure out what the better deal was. MIL and I were not completely comfortable with the decision. If I were designing this choice program, I would have set up the website so that you plug in the plan choices and ONE comes up: This is cheapest, This has the best coverage, This is cheapest for your particular prescription needs. The back and forth and formulary and blah, blah, blah…I hate insurance-speak to begin with. This just amplified the noise. I don’t want to try to figure out what’s best. I don’t KNOW what’s best. I want someone to tell ME!
See, we’re not allowed to tell you what’s “best.” We can give you factual information but we’re not allowed to express an opinion or say anything that could potentially sway your decision.
I know. Because it’s all privatized ‘n’ shit. But I still think it’s wrong. I want the best deal to pop up and Bingo! I sign up.
Hopefully they’ll straighten it out before I have to make a decision for myself. Mr. K has it made…VA, baby! Come to think of it, I don’t know if they have a drug plan for combat vets or not…(note to self)
Fortunately, my insurance through the school system was allowed to tell retirees that staying with their plan was more beneficial and we didn’t have to figure it out for ourselves. We could rely on this information because we are represented by a professional organization which negotiates our contract. Despite what many have claimed here, it is not a union.
I did try to read through the Medicare material that was sent by the government. It was horrible. I understand why people have run from it.
Otto, I’m sorry that you were on the receiving end. (Now you know what it’s like being the teacher who enforces the school rules!) But remember that in the long run, you were able to do a lot of good for some anxious people. And older people sometimes can’t help being irritable. GOT IT?
Just wait until you have to have patience with an older parent for years on end. (heh, heh)
…and thats the first and last time I do a search for “old wrinkled asses” on the SDMB.
It all worked out well–Otto, was the guy I talked to yesterday you? He kept apologizing for putting me on hold and thanking me for being so patient, and I kept apologizing for calling so late and thanking him for being so helpful. It was like a Somerset Maugham teacup drama.
Eh, if you owe money April 15th, I could understand.
These people are supposed to be receiving benefits. It’s their loss.
???
I enrolled my mom with no issues whatsoever. And yes, I’m her legal.medical POA.
Re: You waited too long to have the right to bitch
I thought this would be about conservative former defenders of the Bush Admin. who are now pissed off at same.
Aren’t we talking about old people here? Shit, give them a fucking break. Of course, I know nothing about the specifics, since it doesn’t affect me. 
Why is there a deadline anyway?
There is a deadline because this is insurance. Specifically, in order to make money you need more people paying in than are getting money out. Without any kind of deadline healthy people will wait until they would be receiving more benefits than they pay out in premiums (possibly several years) before signing up. By having a deadline and then placing a penalty on people who sign up late they are trying to convince more people who do not necessarily need the benefits at this moment to join up and contribute to the plan.
Yep, that was me all right.
I only wish. No, I got the crazy lady who wanted to talk for a half an hour about how the acid in coffee will eventually destroy one’s stomach, bladder and liver but not the Chinese because they all drink tea, and the other crazy lady who got mad at me for, and I only wish I were kidding, breathing too loudly.
Glad you got your mom signed up and I hope she benefits from it.
Which is what Paul Krugman asks in today’s NY Times (subscription needed). He says that Medicare should have automatically been changed to cover prescriptions, there’s no reason why it was farmed off onto a baffling variety of private-insurance companies, except the lobbying by said companies to the government. This whole damned Part D plan is to benefit insurance companies, not Medicare recipients.
It’s also a huge giveaway to the pharmaceutical companies, don’t forget about them!