Medicare Being Required To Add Part B To Service Connected Vets

[conla]

Is it true that now the Government and VA require service connected vets to pay for part B?

[john999]

You can suspend your family coverage under FEHB when your wife gets Medicare. If you die while it is suspended she can't get it back. You can change back to family from Self Only during open season. Here is the thing: If your wife has Medicare Part A and B and has FEHB and ChampVA you are paying for insurance you don't need. ChampVA pays for drugs and for Medicare co-pays and deductibles. Blue Cross does the same thing. I can't see paying $460 a month for family FEHB if your wife has ChampVA. However, if I am wrong I can change back to the family plan in open season. The FEHB shreds my OPM pension as it is. My wife had BC/BS as her primary now and ChampVA pays all the rest. It will do that when she gets medicare. One of my best buddies and the USPS had Medicare and Tricare. When his wife reached 65 she got Medicare and dumped the FEHB and kept Tricare.

I will keep FEHB for myself as secondary payer. Medicare pays for almost all doctor visits and hospital stays and BC pays for pills. If I am paying 200-300 a month for that as medigap that is OK, but not $460 a month with the premiums headed for outer space. I know where people are coming from who want to keep it all. I got a bill from the hospital where I got Inspire implant and it was $98,000 before the medicare kicked in along with BC. If a person can't afford medigap the best thing is probably medicare advantage. That doughnut hole has to go away. Medicare Part D is an outrageous gift to the drug companies. No negotiations over drug prices?????? Even the VA negotiates with drug companies. You don't need to got to a Thai massage parlor to get *&&^^&*(, just go to the hospital and stay a few days. The Sons of Liberty would be rolling in their graves if they knew how average people were being served in the USA today. Time to revolt ( the common people are revolting, and they stink too).