Hi ALL! Im not posting much these days..sooo many 'situations' Im trying to cope with..but let me explain... I work at an Insurance Co. that is self-funded. I have been here for 19 yrs. in March. I have seen the Medicare go thru so many changes...meaning..things they use to pay for they won't IF you have another Ins (supplemental). I think Govmnt has really hit the Ins. industry hard..but what they are not hitting hard is the cost the Hospitals and Doctors charge... This is what makes Ins premiums so high.. When I first started working, if you took your child in for their immunizations it would cost average of $150.00 for everything... These days...they break every single charge down...office visit, to inject the imm. the imm. itself..and again inject the imm. another imm. etc...the average cost now for a regular well child visit is $650.-$800.00 (sometimes more) Same as a hospital stay..if you take one of their regular tylenol they charge you on average between $12.00-18.00 per pill! Sick office visits have soared from an average of $75.00 when I first started to average of $120.- $450. and prescriptions have gone too far!!! Medicare is able to only allow so much for these charges which is majorly lower than the actal charge.. (example: office visit: Dr charge $125.00 Medicare will allow $48.00, and pay 80% of that) but Ins. company's do not have this same right...IF all Ins. companies were to be able to allow the same thing Medicare allows, medical would be so much less expensive...I don't mean to cheat the great Dr's or Hospitals, but their charges have gone to the extreme now days...I see it everyday..and Im absolutely dumb founded..and Ive been there so long, I would think nothing would surprise me anymore...you should just sit and look at a hospital itemized billing... I do agree there is nothing out there that ppl can afford when they are on Medicare or more so when they retire and or not yet on Medicare (age 62).....its very scary!! My mom and dad are going thru this right now..and it is so sad to me! Why don't we fight the medical offices and hospitals to quit quadriple charging for everything, and then have the ability to fight soaring ins. costs... sighhh....its very sad to see this every day... Anyway...Im sorry If I offended anyone I really am not on the side of expensive insurance..but Im really not on the side of nothing being regulated for cost towards doctors or hospitals.... I know long post.. Hi EVERYONE! Dena

patti43, after much research we decided on UHC Plan J as our supplement plan and the AARP Rx plan also through UHC. And you're right...if you don't sign up for a Rx plan now then if you sigh up later the premiums will be higher. At this point in time I'm not on any medications, but that will likely change in the future. So, caught between a rock and a hard spot, I signed up for a Rx plan. mcmann, all insurance reimbursements to Doctors are based on the allowable amounts designated by Medicare. Other insurance companies only pay a % of what Medicare would pay and the balance is simply a non-collectible write-off. This is a shame because the elderly segment of our population is left out in the cold trying to find doctors that will accept them as new patients because their doctor has stopped accepting Medicare or has retired. And I can't really blame them for not wanting to work long hours only to find that they've collected less than their expenses.

For me, issues like these are like political ones. People can choose to get involved, voice their opinions and be active concerning "problems" they feel strongly about. Or, failing to do that, indirect support for such conduct is given and so is assumed because the disapprovals remain unheard. Like so many other people, I have investments in stock of public companies directly and through funds. As some have expressed above. I think executive compensation in too many cases is at unjustifiable levels. It doesn't bother me enough to say or do anything, because for most companies it doesn't amount to much or make any difference, and so I don't. My silence, along of that of my fellow shareholders in any particular company, will be viewed as my approval. I'm okay with that - it's my choice to do and say nothing.

In prior years, the medical deduction was limited to the only the expense amount in excess of either 7.5% or 10% of adjusted gross income (I forget which). So people needed to have some combination of low income and relatively high medical expenses to get any deduction for medical costs. Starting in 2018, the federal standard deduction will be $12K for single filers and $24K for joint returns. With the state tax deduction haircut to $10K in total and the same continuing limit on medical expenses, far fewer people will be itemizing deductions on their federal returns. For many people's state income taxes, changes corresponding to these federal changes have not been made and many may have a federal standard deduction while still itemizing for state taxes. I expect that when we have regime change in the US, the tax rules will be changed to revert to something closer to what they were before this latest round of nonsensical and deficit bloating changes. The upshot is that even for those who did deduct medical expenses (and insurance premiums) in prior years, far fewer will do so in the future. If there's no deduction for the current year (which you'll see when your return is prepared), there's no need to keep bills and correspondence beyond when each individual claim has been resolved.