by Margaret Shauers

Created on: March 29, 2009

Saving Money or Medicaid/Medicare

At this point, thank heaven, my income is high enough that I do not qualify for Medicaid. My mother did and it simply "took over" and paid everything that Medicare and her Blue Cross Plan 65 did not cover.

Mama's prescriptions alone ran almost $1000 a month. For the last 8 years of her 88 years she was in a nursing facility. Medicaid also paid what her small Social Security checks did not.

To qualify for Medicare, you basically have to own nothing of value. My mother had to sell her home. She was allowed to put "X" amount of dollars into a funeral fund. This helped a great deal eventually since it gained in value at better interest rates than most banks pay. If you need to qualify for Medicaid, ask about this.

After the home was sold Mama had to pay for her care until her bank account went below a certain amount. With nursing home costs at around $4000-$5000 or more a month, it didn't even take a year.

Medicare also paid for all real prescription items (the main reason she had no money left).

She only had about $50.00 a month to spend on "extras" after her Social Security account had been charged. She did have the couple-thousand allowable to keep and spend.

The nursing facility provided much of what she actually needed, including food, rent and utilities-which take up about 95% of actual living expenses. Later, items like clothing, skin lotions and other things were not covered, but family could gift her these with no problem for birthdays, Christmas, etc.

Medicare is something that at age 65 you get whether you want it or not. It becomes your prime insurance. And you need to read that massive volume you get to know what is and isn't covered.

Some things are not covered that formerly were covered under my private insurance plan-oral surgery, for one. I also have a supplementary policy so the office costs will be covered, but probably not the surgery itself (I'm still waiting to find out.). Major Medical covered it before; Medicare does not, and although I have a dental rider on my supplementary insurance, the surgeon's office thought not.

Saving money on Medicare is in reading that big book. I'm diabetic and Medicare does cover all supplies I need. This not only includes a glucose monitor, but also the horribly expensive testing strips. Mine run about $110 or more per 100...and I need to use 3 to 6 each day.

You must have a doctor's prescription in order to get the Medicare benefit, but doctors readily will give them on request.

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