(For more on the national implications of health care reform on United States Medicare, and information on other Medicare issues, see theabcsofmedicare blog here.)
Massachusetts seniors, I'd be very leery of any advice column you see from a Massachusetts insurance company called Commonweatlh Care (not to be confused with the original RomneyCare insurance of the same name, now called Connector Care) for three reasons:
- Commonwealth Care's advice is skewed to its insurance offering
- It is written from an odd age perspective given that it is about joining Medicare rather than changing Medicare options (which is what is going on currently until December 7). Most people join Medicare when they are 65 and are fully capable of making decisions such as these and have been making such decisions for 50 years. If for some reason a person at age 65 cannot make these simple decisions, they should not be deciding about anything, never mind Medicare
- It's just plain wrong that choices among HMOs, PPOs and indemnity fee-for-service insurance are at all unusual or confusing for someone just now joining Medicare. We baby boomers have been making this decision (including for our children) for 45-55 years. Such choices are confusing for our childrens' grandparents -- if you are lucky enough that they are still alive -- but not us