“Consumers Aren’t Spending Even In a Booming Job Market”

[SheilaT]

64. I believe it's because of the ACA, which requires various routine office visits be free.

Or maybe it's my fabulous Advantage Plan. At least so far, every office visit I've had has been zero co-pay. And I have no co-pay on my meds either, probably because those are also generic, but it's mainly because I'm getting them via mail-order, 90 supply at a time. All this is covered in the $104.50 that gets sent to Medicare every month. I'm not yet collecting SS, so it's an electronic deduction from my checking account.

Which is why I keep on being so surprised at the reports some people have of such high out-of-pocket costs when on Medicare. But then, there are all sorts of procedures and meds and so on that are more expensive than what I'm dealing with.

A good friend, a woman a bit older than I am, two years ago had a pulmonary embolism. was in ICU for more than a week, the first part of which she was in an induced coma. She recovered completely, after about two weeks altogether in the hospital. She only paid a few hundred dollars out of pocket, and her Advantage plan is also with Humana, but she has an additional monthly fee to be in a plan that allows her to see any doctor she wants. She even had a couple of visits from a home health nurse during her recovery. No charge to her.

I guess I should simply realize that my extraordinarily low out of pocket costs are because I'm so healthy, just an issue with high blood pressure, which I'm not as panicked about as is my doctor.