Are We There Yet? Yes, Lucy, We Are There

Almost every day something happens to remind me that I am now in the ranks of seniorhood. I received my Medicare enrollment card a few weeks ago, and today we spoke with our insurance person about the additional coverage I will need. All of this becomes effective October 1.

There are several benefits to reaching the age requirement for Medicare. Mr. Fixit will be able to retire again since we no longer have to depend on regular insurance for my coverage. It has been eight years since he was eligible to retire, but he had to work for the little insurance offered by his employer. He hated every minute of it, and, of course, I felt guilty because I knew he hated it. He deserves retirement. Also Medicare and the additional coverage is much better than the coverage offered to part-time employees by his employer. The cost of my insulin is over $200.00 per month. With the Part D I will have to pay $39.00 a month.

The bad part is that when he retires again we will take a financial hit. I will have to pay for Medicare coverage, and we won’t have the extra income from his job. That means a few more sacrifices just to get by.

On the plus side, I have now lived long (almost) enough to collect Social Security and to have Medicare coverage. I am the only one in my immediate family to have reached this milestone. I am always surprised when I think about that; I didn’t think I would make it this long.

In the last few months, I have been trying to take advantage of the insurance coverage we have now. The dentist said I needed two fillings. One fell out and had to be replaced, and I had the other one done yesterday. The insurance didn’t cover replacing the one that fell out. Tomorrow we have appointments to have our vision checked; I think we both need to have our glasses replaced.

Mr. Fixit is counting the days until Oct. l.