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Health & Fitness

When It Comes to Medicare, Don't Believe What You Read in the Newspaper

This is going to sound like odd advice from someone that writes a Medicare advice blog but basically...

  • When it comes to Medicare -- don't believe me...
  • AND don't believe anything you read in the newspaper, or on an AARP or senior-center web site, or from a political candidate, or the Massachusetts state government, or anywhere else... 
  • EXCEPT what you read in the "Medicare and You" booklet that seniors will receive shortly or on the medicare.gov website. 
Everything I write here is based on the "Medicare and You" booklet, medicare.gov, and a website called medpac.gov (the home of a Congressional organization similar to the Congressional Budget Office and Congressional Research Service but just for Medicare). But I might read them incorrectly and therefore write something stupid. Don't believe what you read about Medicare in the newspaper for the reason your father told you.  Don't believe what politicians say about Medicare for the usual reason.

The advantage of depending on medicare.gov and "Medicare and You" is that if they are wrong (and it happens occasionally--see Note), and you make a bad financial or medical decision based on what you read in one of those two official sources, you might get a do-over from the government.  That is not true of any of the other sources -- including me -- on which I am warning you not to depend.

NOTE: As described here, back in 2011 the Medicare bureaucracy said the then new Medicare Annual Wellness Visit (AWV) was a physical exam. Some seniors on Original Medicare and Medigap were then surprised when they got a bill after their next annual physical. Or they were surprised when they signed up for an AWV and nothing physical took place. Unfortunately this is is an example of how medicare.gov can make a mistake. it is not an example of how a do-over works.
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