Health

We are a couple who retired early (early 60s) and like many are facing a big jump in our Healthcare costs (California residents). Has anyone here looked at alternatives to the marketplace, such as insurance brokers, for Healthcare? Any recommendation or insight would be welcome. Also, I searched the articles and couldn’t find anything about this. Thank you.

Healthcare can be one of the biggest expenses you’ll face in retirement. That’s why it’s so important to make the right Medicare decision when you turn 65.
Medicare’s open enrollment for 2026  is October 15 to December 7, 2025 or 3 months before you turn 65. If you’re approaching 65 — or helping a loved one — here’s what you need to know before making a choice.
You Have Two Options at 65
When you sign up for Medicare,

This is from my blog, but I thought interesting. You may recognize the doctors name from recent posts.
The idea of health insurance is generally said to have begun in the 1940s, but consider this.
Early in his career (around 1815) in an attempt to build his practice in Philadelphia, Dr. Philip Physick offered the first healthcare insurance package in the country. He advertised that he could take care of an entire family for a year for $20.

Predictions  are the trend to enroll in Medicare Advantage plans will slow and MA plans will be forced to trim benefits. A recent article on MarketWatch provides more analysis.  
Many seniors still like MA plans for their extra benefits and generally lower premium costs, but they don’t like limited networks, required referrals, deductibles and co-pays in some cases. 
But that is not the problem. 
According to the (10/4/25) article, “The market (for insurers) remains lucrative as the government pays 22% more per Medicare Advantage enrollee,

HUMBLEDOLLAR FOUNDER and longtime Wall Street Journal columnist Jonathan Clements passed away earlier this week. He was 62.
I reached out to several of Jonathan’s close friends and colleagues to ask for their remembrances. Taken together, they paint a picture of someone who was as beloved by his peers as he was by his readers.
As Jason Zweig put it, “I have just lost a friend, and so have you.”
Christine Benz,

About 5% of the population accounts for nearly half of total health spending, and many of these are older adults with multiple conditions.
Do seniors (65+) pay as much as perceived for health care?
Seniors pay a lot for health care, but it is not that simple. Many, perhaps most, seniors pay no more, even less, out of pocket, than many younger families. 
The bulk of spending by seniors is premiums, not the actual cost of care.

When my cardiologist called, she used words I rarely hear. I asked her to hold on as I put my cell phone on speaker so my wife could hear. She repeated, “You were right!”
Many weeks before, after my Apple watch suggested I had Afib, I called my cardiologist, who happened to be on vacation. The doctor on call suggested that I go to a trauma-equipped ER hospital.
I arrived unannounced and explained the reason for my visit.

The other day, I believe I was bitten on the arm by an insect, which left a fairly large red blotch with a couple of small puncture marks. I assumed it happened while working in our yard. I bought some over-the-counter hydrocortisone to apply to it. After a week, though, it started to look more like a rash.
I decided to visit a walk-in clinic. The physician assistant examined it and advised me to mix hydrocortisone cream with Benadryl cream and cover the area with plastic wrap twice a day.

How long will we live? Based on an article I just read, I’m guessing that it is probably longer than we think. Here’s why.
The authors pointed out that statistics (and I suspect my intuition) are based on death rates, which only take into account the people who have…wait for it…already died. Those still alive are living longer than they used to, based on the trend of longer, healthier life that has persisted up until now.

I was reading an article focusing on the caregiving burden on adult children. 
 Shocking statistics: 63 million Americans — nearly 1 in 4 adults — now provide care to an adult with health or functional needs, or to a child with a serious medical condition or disability — a record high. 
 Nearly half of caregivers are struggling with finances.  More than 20% have taken on more debt, about a third have used up short-term savings, 30% have stopped saving,

Chris tripped and fell a few Sundays back. Her radius and ulna bones broke and the elbow was beyond repair. We were on a little day trip, to visit the Cleveland Aquarium. 
Come the next day, the anticipated 2-3 hour surgery stretched to 7 hours. Afterwards, the surgeon, allegedly among the finest in the country for this particular procedure, reported good results. However, coming out of the long anesthesia, Chris had difficulty communicating, so was quickly rushed down the hall for an MRI.

After just being hit with an almost 30% premium increase from Mutual of Omaha (MOO), I’m shopping around for a new Medicare Supplement carrier.
I actually like MOO for their generally good customer service, user friendly website, and fast claims processing. Twice in past years, I’ve been able to stay with MOO but avoid a price hike by switching to one of their sister companies, which I wrote about here.
It seems that option is no longer available,

Before I say what it is, let’s consider all the things Americans don’t like about health care – cost, availability, insurance companies, third-party involvement, high deductibles, premiums, etc.
🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 
NOW, the challenge.
Tell us why you will or will not support a form of Medicare for All replacing all the payment systems currently in place, public, employer and private plans to be funded by a combination of employer and individual taxes, income based premiums and cost sharing at the point of service. 

Key Medicare benefits are being stripped away, and patient care is being handed over to profit-driven corporations.

On June 25, 2025, in an unprecedented move, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), announced that Original Medicare will now require prior authorization for a list of 17 services.
This marks a major shift—and a serious rollback of a key protection retirees have relied on for decades.
What’s Changing?

With my wife Suzie away visiting her dad in Spain, I’ve been keeping myself busy, and I must say I’ve had a pretty active few days! On Wednesday, I played two hours of pickleball in the morning and then did a 5k fun run with my grandson in the evening. Thursday saw me walking the shoreline of Belfast Lough from Bangor to Holywood – about 12k. Then on Friday, after driving to my holiday home on the North Coast,