Medicare

Most people know that medicare provides medical coverage for people who are retirement age.  It also provides medical coverage for those who are disabled, but there are a few requirements you have to meet first.

• Be at least 18 years of age
• Qualify for Social Security Disability
• Wait two years after you have qualified with SS

If you don't have insurance, you are two years with no coverage.  If you do have insurance, usually they will change the way they pay after the two years.  Once the 2 years are up, the insurance will pay as if you had Medicare, even if you don't have it, so you better get it or you will be paying a lot out of pocket.  

In our case, if Medicare pays the claim, our insurance will cover the difference between what Medicare pays and the amount of the bill.  There are exceptions, but they are pretty rare.  

This is a double edged sword though because if Medicare doesn't pay for some reason, (and it can be all kinds of crazy reasons) then your private insurance will not pay.  For us this is true for diabetic shoes (because the office has not billed it with the right codes according to Medicare).  It is also true for certain types of treatments like experimental treatments.  

Generally though, if you have Medicare and another insurance, you won't pay much in out of pocket expenses for doctor visits.  Medical equipment is also covered.  

My children and myself have continued to be on our health insurance that was provided by Richard's work at the time of the accident. We do not have a secondary insurance, but like I have said before, his insurance was good. We pay more of the premiums ourselves, which ends up being a pretty significant amount of our income, but we have it, and that is worth a lot.

There are some doctors and facilities that do not take Medicare.  Medicare has rates that they feel a service is worth, and they pay 80% of that amount.  Either you cover the other 20%, or your secondary insurance picks up some, or all of it.  Some doctors will not take that amount paid by both insurances together because they don't feel that Medicare's fee of what it is worth is correct. This could limit the choice of doctors that you have.