Medicare Open Enrollment Period in October

[Yvonne Smith]

Every October is when Medicare has the open enrollment period for the year, which lasts until sometime in December. If you already have Medicare, you should receive an Annual Notice of Change letter or email, which explains what the company is changing for the upcoming year.
This is how you can learn what changes will be with each company program, and can decide if you want to stay with the same Medicare provider, or switch to either a different plan or a new provider.

If you have the original Medicare, and none of the extra benefits that company plans have, then you might not get the annual notice of change. I have always had a Medicare Advantage plan, so we always check the benefits for the upcoming year to see which plan offers the most for our needs.
We have a Medicare insurance agent, and he goes over the available plans with us each fall, so we can have all of the important information needed to make a decision, and this is a free service provided by insurance agents. We have a broker, so he is not connected to only one company, and we can learn about all of the available plans.

We have our notice of change, which explains some of the changes in benefits for 2026, but only for the plan we have right now; so talking with our agent will be how we compare the plans from both Devoted Health and other Medicare Advantage plans for next year.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

We have decided to change our Medicare advantage plan from Devoted Health back to Humana. We had it before, but then Devoted came into Alabama and had really good plans, so we changed to Devoted for the last 2 years. Next year, they dropped their vision coverage to only $100, which does not cover a pair of glasses and frames.
This year, we had a vision/dental card for $500 to use on either or both, but next year they are separate and most of the coverage is for dental, which nether of us use anyway; so we are changing back to Humana, which has the $500 vision and will cover new glasses.

Humana also has a Go365 program that gives you points for exercising and getting in steps every day, and then you can get gift cards with the reward points, and we really liked that before when we had it. It also covers our fitness program with Silver Sneakers, and we use that a lot, too.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

I get buried in advertising this time of year. But I really throw it out, since nobody would be as cheap for me as the narrow list of options that my former employer participates with. When I went on Medicare my retiree health coverage mutated into a cost-assisted set of discounted group plans to choose from. Depending on where I live I have 1 maybe 2 options.

If I don't take those then coverage costs me a lot more.

Thus the amount of junk mail I just toss.

 

[Don Alaska]

Every October is when Medicare has the open enrollment period for the year, which lasts until sometime in December. If you already have Medicare, you should receive an Annual Notice of Change letter or email, which explains what the company is changing for the upcoming year.
This is how you can learn what changes will be with each company program, and can decide if you want to stay with the same Medicare provider, or switch to either a different plan or a new provider.

If you have the original Medicare, and none of the extra benefits that company plans have, then you might not get the annual notice of change. I have always had a Medicare Advantage plan, so we always check the benefits for the upcoming year to see which plan offers the most for our needs.
We have a Medicare insurance agent, and he goes over the available plans with us each fall, so we can have all of the important information needed to make a decision, and this is a free service provided by insurance agents. We have a broker, so he is not connected to only one company, and we can learn about all of the available plans.

We have our notice of change, which explains some of the changes in benefits for 2026, but only for the plan we have right now; so talking with our agent will be how we compare the plans from both Devoted Health and other Medicare Advantage plans for next year.

@Yvonne Smith does @Bobby Cole use any of his VA benefits as far as healthcare goes?

 

[Marie Mallory]

Wonder who benefits from the high cost of our health insurance? It's sure not doctors so who's getting all this money?

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Wonder who benefits from the high cost of our health insurance? It's sure not doctors so who's getting all this money?

Some of the costs should be coming down before long. President Trump is making it so that prescription medications will be much cheaper soon, because they are sold to Americans at a much higher price than the same medicine is sold in many other countries. Once that is remedied , we should have lower prescription costs.
Doctors and hospitals have to worry about lawsuits, so their insurance costs help keep those appointment costs higher. And once we have the illegals off of the Medicare programs, American seniors should have better benefits and lower cost for insurance again.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

Americans are broadly treated as a cash cow.

I remember looking into cable TV costs in India. A "package" that would cost $200/month here was only around $7 over there.

Americans subsidize the hell out of the world.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Some of the costs should be coming down before long. President Trump is making it so that prescription medications will be much cheaper soon, because they are sold to Americans at a much higher price than the same medicine is sold in many other countries. Once that is remedied , we should have lower prescription costs.
Doctors and hospitals have to worry about lawsuits, so their insurance costs help keep those appointment costs higher. And once we have the illegals off of the Medicare programs, American seniors should have better benefits and lower cost for insurance again.

So true insurance for doctors is terrible from what one told me when I complained about co-pay. So sad what we have become. Some lawsuits are ridiculous, many because of attorney fees.
Then too some doctors aren't really qualified thanks to leftist universities.

 

[Bobby Cole]

@Yvonne Smith does @Bobby Cole use any of his VA benefits as far as healthcare goes?

I have in the past and if really needed, I will in the future…

The thing is, Medicare will NOT acknowledge a VA physician as a primary healthcare source hence my need for a civilian doctor. And…since in order to keep everything tidy and see the good civilian DR. every 6 months or so as ordered, that’s who I see.
If I have to see the civilian then what reason would I have to double up and see the VA physician for simple checkups and stuff ?

Seems to me that if Medicare let the VA do its job, there would be no need for a vet to have a civilian doctor.
I think Yvonne has already stated that we’re under an advantage plan which has some perks that the VA wouldn’t have but for Medicare to outright say that I have to have a civilian PHC physician is ludicrous.

Note: We have had 4 or so different civilian doctors for our Primary but even though I have signed the necessary paperwork several times, the civilian doctors have NOT tried to get my VA records which, if seen by them, they’d have a totally different view of my medical history.
As it is, the civilian side got me after the VA (and God) did the dirty work of keeping me alive.

 

[Nancy Hart]

Wonder who benefits from the high cost of our health insurance? It's sure not doctors so who's getting all this money?

The insurance companies

 

[Marie Mallory]

The insurance companies

Nancy I agree.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

The insurance companies

Largely true, but a lot of it goes into the hands of Wall Street brokers and investors.

I wonder sometimes. How much of increasing prices and other economic distortions stem from pushing so much money into Wall Street hands through things like IRAs and 401(k)s? Cheering for good market returns might be cutting our own throats.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

The insurance companies

Although they do benefit from providing insurance, I think that it is the pharmaceutical companies who are making the money. A lot of people nowadays are taking some kind of prescription, especially diabetes, blood pressure or cholesterol (because they keep telling us lower numbers are normal), and we seniors sometimes have a whole arsenal of medications, and some of these are hundreds of dollars per refill.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

I think of my medication bottles as a fleet.