MOST PEOPLE ON Medicare report that they’re very satisfied with their health care coverage—but the program is undoubtedly complicated. There’s an alphabet soup of plans, coverage choices, premium levels and enrollment rules.

While it’s easy to be flummoxed by the ins and outs of Medicare, think of it as “eating an elephant.” The only way to start is one bite at a time. Learn the basics first—by deciding whether you want original Medicare or Medicare Advantage.

PERHAPS YOU’RE TOYING with seeing a therapist to help you cope with, say, the transition to retirement or the loss of a loved one. How can you get the best return for the time and money you’ll invest? Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer.
Early in my career, I was an academic psychologist whose area of specialty was the effectiveness of psychotherapy. I published many papers on the topic, and also presented several at the proceedings of the Society for Psychotherapy Research.

I JUST HAD ANOTHER reminder that, when managing our health and the costs that come with it, we need to be our own best advocates.
Last September, I started developing headaches. Every day, I’d wake up with a dull ache in my left temple area. The headache would often build during the day and, by evening, I was feeling washed out and pretty miserable.
I’m fortunate not to suffer from migraines, but tension headaches have been the bane of my existence for many years.

HOW MUCH DO WE PAY for Medicare? You might think that premiums would be fixed, like the prices on a restaurant menu. But instead, the correct answer is “it all depends”—on your income, which isn’t necessarily a good thing in our case.
It’s a fact of life: The more you make, the more you may have to pay for Medicare, the health insurance program for older Americans. Medicare calls its variable pricing system the income-related monthly adjustment amount,

IF MEDICARE’S A MAZE, its Part D drug plan is a maze within a maze, with no one good path and plenty of so-so choices, along with a couple of potential “gotchas.”

Until 2006, Medicare offered no coverage for outpatient drugs, so today’s situation—however imperfect—is certainly an improvement. It’ll improve even more for people with high drug costs in 2024 and 2025, as I’ll explain at the end of this article.

What if you have Medicare Advantage,

I NEVER SAW THE NEED to buy prescriptions from anywhere other than the local pharmacy until—for reasons that still aren’t clear—a medication I’ve been taking for years jumped in price.
Until January, I’d been paying $8.86 a month for the medication through my Humana Medicare Advantage plan. Suddenly, it jumped 200% to $26.85. In a series of calls, Humana agents gave me the following varied reasons:

The manufacturer increased the price.
I’d reached my donut limit for co-pays,

FOR MOST SENIORS, purchasing Medicare Part D prescription drug insurance is the right move—even if they don’t require any expensive medicines right now. The coverage insures against the risk of someday needing prescription medication that costs thousands of dollars and might be otherwise unaffordable.

The federal government subsidizes Part D, so it’s cheaper than purchasing stand-alone private drug insurance. Another good reason to enroll in Part D at the first opportunity: You avoid the penalty associated with a late sign-up.

I’LL BE TURNING 65 this year, so I’ve been researching my Medicare options. Even though I work in health care—and many of my patients are on Medicare—the task of choosing a plan is no less onerous for me.
I’ve read the information provided on Medicare.gov and watched numerous YouTube videos from insurance brokers. These brokers tend to support two types of Medicare coverage. Retirees might opt for a bundle that includes Medicare Part A,

I CAN’T TAKE IT ANY more: I need to rant about health care.

There’s absolutely no reason to continue the current health-care payment system, none, not one. Where’s the rationale for having private insurance, Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)? Each was developed to deal with the same issue—paying for health care.

Some form of Medicare for all, or M4A as it’s sometimes known, is the only system that makes sense.

IN THE 1980s, I SPENT nearly 12 weeks in an Australian hospital. I learned that language is not always universal. I was a corporate auditor for General Electric, and the company had sent me to Australia for a three-month assignment. To Yankee ears, Australians have an accent. But at least we speak the same language. Or so I thought.
Within a week of getting to Australia, I was diagnosed with subacute bacterial endocarditis (SBE),

I GREW UP IN ENGLAND, with health-care coverage provided by the National Health Service, so I’m extremely sympathetic to people calling for “Medicare for All.” Still, I do wonder whether they realize that Medicare is neither cheap nor simple. My medical costs in 2021 were more than $10,000, with half of that for a single drug. And it would have been even more without the $3,000 a year kicked in by my former employer.

AS A FAMILY MEDICINE physician associate, I frequently meet with patients early in the new year who are upset. The reason: They just learned their medications are no longer covered by their insurance or will cost significantly more than before. Many times, the insurance company will send them a letter providing other options to consider. I work with patients to find a generic substitute that isn’t as costly.
Several years ago, I had an elderly gentleman in our office one morning complaining that he was having difficulty urinating.

WE HAVE A MEDICAL profession apparently wedded to the notion that quantity trumps quality. That’s why, although I have no problem with being dead, I have serious concerns about the process of becoming dead. I have no wish to linger for months attached to tubes, or to disappear for years into the mists of dementia.

I have few childhood memories, and I wouldn’t swear to the accuracy of those I have. Still, one from my teens has remained with me.

PUBLIC SPEAKING WAS my nemesis throughout my academic career. Though I found it frightening, I’d always been able to tough my way through the lectures and avoid a full-blown anxiety attack. Then, during a theories of psychotherapy seminar for psychiatry residents, the panic broke through.
Though only my first diagnosable episode, it portended an affliction far more sinister. It was a premorbid symptom of an underlying depression that would topple my career, derail my investment ambitions,

JOINT REPLACEMENT surgery is a rite of passage for many retirees. I’d be willing to wager that a majority of HumbleDollar readers have either had one themselves or know someone who has.
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says hip and knee replacements are the most common types of total joint replacement. From 2012 to 2021, 2.55 million of these procedures were performed, according to the American Joint Replacement Registry, which is the academy’s data repository.