[Evans, Marv]

When I was working, my insurance covered me & my wife. When I retired, I went onto my wife's insurance, which she had to activate since she was on mine before. When she changed to a different district that didn't offer free coverage for family members, I went onto Medicare. There wasn't any penalty since I was covered under a private plan up to that point. I've been with Kaiser for decades, and chose it when I went onto Medicare and signed up for the Advantage plan. Medicare premium is something like $153/mo. and an additional $20/mo. for that Advantage add on. These are taken out of my social security monthly. So for me, I haven't noticed any difference in coverage, except for one thing.

When I had commercial coverage, I was always getting tested for several things every three to six months (at least it seemed that way). Now it's a routine visit once a year. However I can email my doc, and he schedules whatever he thinks I need based on my description (same doc for 22+ years) or an appointment he schedules usually within a couple of days. Copays are more but not excessive (I paid a $160 copay for a CT scan several months ago). Labs are more - maybe $40-$60. However it seems like they aren't as concerned about me in general as they used to be. I'm supposing it's because they get lower payments from Medicare. I did comment to a nurse one time it seemed like I'd been kicked to the curb since going on Medicare. She answered that observation might deserve some merit.