Medicare coverage is for adults in the United States 65 and older or younger adults that have been collecting social security disability benefits for a period of 24 months.

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Medicare is free to those that qualify, but what many people don't know until they are covered under Medicare is that it is a very basic insurance that does not cover medications. As we age, we become more and more dependent on medications. Does it make sense that Medicare doesn't cover medications?

How does a person over 65 get their medications paid for by insurance?

It depends on the Medicare rider that is purchased by the insured. Medicare might be free, but it is such a basic insurance that few people have Medicare insurance only. Rider policies can range anywhere from $100 a month to $600 and beyond for a single person.

How does a senior on a fixed income afford a rider plan to cover the cost of medications?

A senior citizen on a fixed income will have to pay for a cheap (100$) a month rider to get any prescription medication coverage at all. Some plans offer $800 worth of medication a year, so if a Medicare recipient pays for their medications anyway, $800 a year of medication will cover eight months of a cheap Medicare rider.

There are programs available for those on a fixed income such as prescription advantage, that will offer medications at a reduced or free rate, but just try as a senior citizen to figure out how to qualify for such programs.

From personal experience, I give you the example of my grandmother, who earned about $900 a month from Social Security.

She paid $105 a month for Blue Care 65. This covered $800 a year in medications. She was on six medications and this $800 ran out every February.

It took my sister and I months to apply for prescription advantage programs and you have to reapply every six months. She continued to pay anywhere from $100-$250 every month for prescription medications.

So her monthly budget was 900-105=795. Subtract the minimum 100 for medications. $695. This is before food, rent, phone or cable. Thankfully she was on a subsidized rent program and only paid $300 a month. This left her with $395 a month for food, phone, cable and entertainment.

My grandmother worked her entire adult life. She pinched pennies everywhere she could. She never relied on any government assistance until the subsidized rental which didn't start until she was 85 years old. From 65-85 she paid for all her bills out of her social security, including her medical costs.

I believe that my grandmother was not out of the ordinary. She did not take an excessive amount of medications during her "senior" years. She worked hard in her lifetime and saved all she could. It was ridiculous that money was so tight because she had to pay for her medications and a Medicare rider plan. 20-30% of her income went every month for health related costs, and she was a healthy senior.

What are we doing?

When buying medical insurance you will find that you have lots of different types of policy that you can choose from. Some systems let you select the doctor you want to care for you and your family and the hospital you want to use but others limit you to certain ones so that you do not have a choice of health care provider.

Preferred Provider Organization is a policy which lets you choose which doctor you want to you and you do not have to use a specialized allocated one. This costs much more than opting for a system of insurance where you join a medical health scheme organized by a big company.

There are a number of increasingly complex systems out there to choose from and a medical insurance provider will be able to tell you the costs for each different level of care and exactly what options you have when it comes to selecting a doctor, or hospital.

Make sure that you ask the right questions and find out exactly what care you are getting for your premium each month and which doctors and hospitals you are permitted to use. A mistake can be quite costly and you really do need to be prepared and know what your options are in case the worst happens on the spur of the moment.

the last person most people do not ask is the one that understands the most about what type of cover you need. Do you know who that is? It is your doctor, they may not be allowed to mention companies by name but they can tell you exactly what type of cover is right for you.

The best thing to do once you have decided what level of care you need for yourself and your family is to go onto an internet price comparison site, type in what you are looking for and your personal details and you will get a list of suitable insurance policies within a very short time. You will then be able to select which one you want at a price that you can afford.

Once you have decided what you want ask questions. Do not assume that all the information is there for you to see. You need all the details about restrictions and limitations on your health insurance firmly in your mind just in case they are needed quickly. The only way to get real peace of mind is to ensure that you know what you are buying and more importantly, what is not covered.

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I don't know where we are headed, but I know that we are in desperate need of changes in our health care system. Right now my family pays close to a thousand dollars a month for health insurance. Some months we can barely make the payments and I worry that if one of us gets sick, we won't be able to keep up with the premiums.

We pay a high amount because we are self employed and don't have an employer who picks up part of the insurance premium bill as part of our benefit package. What many people don't realize is just how much of a benefit health insurance is when they work for a company.

We joined a local group in order to get a "group" discount on health insurance. Our $1,000 a month is a discounted rate for a family of three. I don't know what we are supposed to do if we are no longer able to pay the premiums. Here in Massachusetts health insurance is mandatory.

We don't qualify for Masshealth, we make too much money. We don't qualify for Medicare, because we are not disabled. We are hard working citizens of the United States and we are looking at financial ruin if we can't keep up with our high insurance rates.

Add in the costs of monthly prescriptions, and we pay close to $1100 a month for health related care. I am starting this site in an effort to bring awareness to this very scary, very real situation.

What is COBRA?

COBRA, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, was initiated to provide emergency coverage for employees who receive health insurance through their employer, and for one reason or another, lose their job (for example, have been laid off) and find themselves without any health coverage. COBRA allows these employees to continue their group insurance coverage if they chose to even after they leave their position.

How Do You Apply For Cobra Coverage?
After you have been terminated, your employer should provide you with details as to how you can obtain COBRA coverage.

Any Specific COBRA Rules?
First, COBRA coverage also applies to the employee's family. In addition, an employee can either choose to continue with COBRA or choose not to from the moment he has lost his job - he cannot use this coverage intermittently (i.e. start COBRA three months after he lost his job - in this case he will pay retroactively for those three months).

How Long Can I Carry COBRA coverage After My Job Loss?
COBRA coverage can last only a limited amount of time, typically about 18 months. This should give enough time to obtain a different source of health insurance. Hopefully by then the recession will be over as well, and the number of employed people would be on the rise.

What are the Advantages of Cobra?
The advantage of COBRA is that it is prevents an ex-employee from the need of obtaining a new health insurance - at least for a while. There problem is that getting such insurance can prevent one from getting treatment for pre-existing conditions. For example, a pregnant woman who is laid off and loses her insurance will have a hard time obtaining a new insurance. Thanks to COBRA, however, this is no longer an issue, as she can simply continue her existing coverage.

And the Disadvantages?
Note that depending on the employer, although employees are eligible to continue their previous health, dental and vision coverage, the employer no longer needs to sponsor this. This effectively means that the ex-employee pays the full cost of his health coverage, which will be much greater than what it used to be.

Personally speaking, I was using the COBRA scheme for a while, and as far as I remember, I paid about four times as much as I paid before, and this is after limiting the coverage to myself only. This truly makes one realize how big of a benefit health insurance is, and how much companies pay for health coverage for their employees.

COBRA Health Insurance and the Stimulus Plan
Thanks to the economic stimulus package (which started in February 17, 2009), certain people who lost their jobs are eligible to receive partial payment for their COBRA premium. We will discuss the eligibility criteria in the next article in this series.

In this article we introduced described what the COBRA plan is, its rules, its advantages and disadvantages. To read more interesting articles that will help you better understand our health insurance system, please visit our web site, The Guide To Health : A Comprehensive Resource For Health and Dental Insurance.

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