Trying to make it all stretch

I hear what your saying been there still there and I can’t even by the T-shirt.

SSDI sucks! It’s hard to stay afloat for sure.

I'm on SSDI and was just hospitalized for 9 days in October. 2 hospitals were involved. I have the bill for one of them, but the other has not yet sent the bill.

So far I am surviving on my income, including a small stipend for being what is called a Senior Companion to an elderly man. I make $2.65 an hour, but it cannot be counted as wages, nor can it count against any of my benefits.

I don't know what will happen in the coming year, concerning all of this, however. I am feeling some anxiety about being able to keep my bill paying promises, so I can relate, even though I probably get less SSDI than you do and qualify for a few benefits.

One of my biggest expenses is food. I try only to eat fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains and not a lot of meat. I save on the meat end of it, because I prefer fresh to frozen or canned. I know this is probably not wise in terms of my budget, but I find if I obtain canned stuff or frozen stuff, I just cannot force myself to eat it and it goes to waste.

I am cutting back on vitamins and other things like that. When I was in the Hospital for those 9 days I did not have any of these and I felt just fine! So....

I am here to give you support and also to receive support. Thanks for this thread.

PS. I do like dried fruits also, such as raisins and prunes. I eat nuts and seeds as well.

I grew up on frozen veggies, and some fresh, like salads and summer squash. Rarely we had canned, but I do recall eating some back then, many years ago. I am not at all sure why I now have an aversion to canned and frozen. It might have to do with the fact that I was forced to eat everything on my plate as a child and I resented this. This is just a hunch.

I too can't stand canned vegetables and don't eat them. They are the least nutritious.

Well, I made a revised personal budget last night. And I called some of my billing companies and got extensions and created payment plans with them.

I'm laying off my focus of going back to work full-time for a while. I can make ends meet for a little while between SSDI and part-time freelance work. I want to focus on doing some treatment and recovery and learning better coping mechanisms.

It would be nice too if eventually my lawsuit pays off, because that income wouldn't affect my SSDI.

Seesaw

I hope that lawsuit works out for you. Sounds like you're trying awful hard to keep up with all your obligations. I'm glad your creditors were willing to work with you.

These Medicare Advantage plans have gotten greedy about wheedling more money out of subscribers, despite the many thousands of dollars they get from the federal government in premiums for each and every subscriber. Back in 2013 they (the insurance companies) were getting about $9600 a year from the federal government for each person they covered in a Medicare Advantage Plan (Part C Medicare.) Four years later, it's probably gone up. Those premiums are that large because healthcare in this country is awful expensive. Our system of healthcare is inefficient and a lot of what is done is not worth the cost.

Since August my family member, who is elderly, has been getting thousands and thousands of dollars worth of therapy. (Physical, occupational and speech.) I don't think it's benefitting him hardly at all. He was in a rehab center for 12 days to get therapy. That is hugely expensive. He had two sessions of therapy per day, each one lasting 50 minutes. (None on Sundays.) For the amount of money that cost he could have been put up in a fancy hotel, fed gourmet food and had professional therapists hired to visit him twice a day and nurses hired to care for him. While he was there in the rehab facility he contracted an infection from getting inadequate attention to hygiene. The staff members providing his therapy were unlicensed assistants. One of those sessions might be spent with a speech therapy assistant playing a game of cards with him to stimulate his mind to improve his cognition. (Yeah, thousands of dollars for this stuff.) After the 12 day stay was up, he got a speech therapist coming to see him at home once a week to engage him in conversation to further stimulate his brain. (Like nobody'ld be taking to him otherwise.) I don't believe his brain is one bit better for this expensive nonsense. He's 82, senile, frail and gets very little out of all this "therapy." They even wanted to send someone to do "psychotherapy," despite him having zero history of psychiatric treatment. This, to me, is just thousands of dollars being poured down a bottomless hole. It's not like he just had hip replacement surgery and needed to relearn how to walk. He's had no surgery whatsoever. He has functional decline in mind and body consequent to some very longstanding ailments like spinal myelopathy and vascular dementia. Theses diseases are chronic and progressive. No amount of therapy can reverse them, or even slow down the progression of disability to any marked degree, IMHO. I think it's a big waste of a lot of money. That's our system.

But on top of the $10,000/year the Advantage HMO gets from Uncle Sam for covering him, they wanted another $12.50/month from him. This is the insurance companies getting their foot in the door of your financial house. Of course, that amount would go up every year . . . until you are giving up food to pay them.

Yes, seesaw, it sucks. The public needs to know more about who's getting what money and what for. A lot if it is outrageous.

This article explains where I'm getting that $10,000 figure from:
How Is Medicare Advantage Funded? - 2016

I just got my major hospital bill for the 9 day stay I had ending on Halloween of this year. It is around $1,350.00 and then there is another bill for about $150.00 for the psychiatrist who saw me in the Hospital. I am already paying 2 hospital bills for previous hospital stays. Now there will be more pressure to pay pay pay. I don't honestly know if I can cover all this AND my therapy, which has a $16.00 copay every week, as well as $10 to get me there on public transit. (No therapists in the town where I live).

I don't have an "advantage" plan. I use quotes, because I don't see any advantage there really, between such a plan and original Medicare, which is what I have. However, I do not know. Maybe my hospital bills would have been less? I kind of doubt it. Insurance companies are in business to make money, not save ME money!

I know I have to make a new budget. I will wait and see what the new psychiatrist's office visits cost first. Oh, and they want me to pay my bill by the 23rd of this month? Really?? I never pay a medical bill in the same month that I receive it. I pay them the next month. That is always how I do it. And if I cannot pay it all, I stretch it out over several months. I wonder what they will think about that?

An advantage plan generally means your co-payments would be a lot less, compared to having original Medicare. That really is true. (I did a lot of research on this.) That's the whole idea of those plans - for people who are on too small an income to be able to afford supplementary insurance. Of course, as with anything, there is a trade off. An "Advantage" plan is an HMO that restricts your choice. At your income level, it's what you probably should have to avoid unsupportable debt.

Speaking of debt, you don't get put in jail for failure to pay hospital bills. Ask the hospital about their debt forgiveness plan for low income patients. Or just forgive yourself and don't worry about it. Ask yourself what you have to lose? What assets do you have that a court could take from you? Do you own a house? Income from Social Security can't be garnished to pay down medical bills. So look at where your income comes from. Wages can be attached. If you need more time to pay, just take it. What do you think the hospital can do to you?

Oh, they call you and harass you. That is all they really can do. You are right, I don't own a car even, nor a TV. I am that poor. No house either. However, I do want to pay, because the Dr. who saw me in the H is also my Dr. outside the H. She is closely associated with the H. If the H goes down because of too much debt, etc. she goes down with it, until she moves to another area and starts a new job again (at age 57?) ouch! I care. She is a really good Dr. I don't want to see that happen. I know she deals with a lot of folks on SSDI too. What if we all did not pay???

I redid my monthly budget. It works out with like $137 left over at the end of the month. I could probably save another $100 a month if I change my cable package. I've been putting off giving that up because it wasn't a huge savings and it was my ONLY entertainment. And if I gave up my membership to the park that I go to...it's a dog park that my dogs like that has a swim park for the dogs. That's hard to have in Florida because of the alligators. Those were really the only two things I was holding on to...but since it appears this isn't going to end soon, it's time to let go of even the last hold outs. I have the park membership through January, which I have a free month for. So those two things would add up to another $100 in savings a month.

That sucks and I'm sorry.

Well, I'm feeling really confident about my monthly budget. And I think my mom may help me get my car fixed as a Christmas present. SHe asked what I wanted as I said, you know, I would really love some helping getting my heater/A/C fixed. I dont' think it's an expensive fix, it's something wth teh fan switch. The heat and AC still work, they just don't blow air. It could just be a relay switch.

Anyways, I've been doing a lot of thinking the past few days...and I've gotten more offers for work. I think that with some planning I could transition my part-time consulting into a viable full-time consulting business that would support me at the income level I desire. Plus, I'd be self-employed and wouldn't have to deal with the jerks that I no longer want to deal with. I'm working on a business plan right now to see if I can make it viable. I also think that I could make like twice as much as I made working for a corporate entity if I build this business as a consultant. And still not even have to do as much work.

It's nice to have a goal again. And feel motivated again to do something. I'm feeling hopeful for the first time in a long time.

Seesaw

Cable TV can be quite a rip-off. I dumped mine. I got a good amplified antenna for my TV at BestBuy. I think it cost $40 or $50. Also I have the Roku stick. My Internet access is through the federally subsidized low income program through my landline phone company. That costs me about $22/month, and it's fast enough (12 mbps) to accomodate the Roku stick.

The high def reception you get through just an antenna is impressive. I get quite a few channels. I also have a "smart" TV that lets me watch YouTube streamed from my wireless computer modem, using my inexpensive Kindle Fire tablet as an interface device. I'm finding out that there is a great wealth of interesting stuff you can get for free from YouTube.

My satellite provider wasn't a bad deal, but I got to where I couldn't justify the expense. Cable (as in "no dish" non-satellite cable) is just a scandalous rip-off of the American consumer. Something needs to be done about those providers. They charge, like, $20/month more than the satellite dish-style companies for comparable basic packages, and the reception has more issues, while the remote and user interface are less well-designed. Some apartment complexes won't allow tenants to have satellite dishes installed, forcing you to use cable cable. Those should be regulated like the virtual monopolies that they've become.

Yup, you are SO right about cable. I also have a roku stick and I use that quite a bit. I found out I can't change my cable plan until I get current on my bill (I have extensions) so I'm stuck with it for a few more days.

We can have satellite at my apartment but it's costly as you have to get insurance. Like I said, I might check out Hulu again as that's much cheaper and I remember it had numerous shows. Regardless, there's nothing on TV that I can't live without. I'll miss some of it but it won't kill me. Netflix series have been pretty good entertainment lately.

Oh. And Rose, I got hit with a potential Part D fine today. I have to show them I was insured for a certain period of time. And then I have to apply for an special enrollment period. Both should be okay. But also, I may be going back to work and having private insurance. I don't know what the rules are if you're under 65 and have medicare because of disability and go back to work....shouldn't they let you off those fines because you're not over 65? I can't imagine having to fulfill medicare needs for 30 more years before I'm retirement age.

Seesaw

Sorry to hear you might get penalized for lapse in Part D coverage. I hope it doesn't come to that. This is why I said Medicare premiums have to be prioritized as a top-tier priority. They make it so you'll regret it, if you don't.

I don't know the ins and outs of the law relevant to you resuming subscription to private insurance. It does get complicated.

I don't think I'll get hit with the fine because I had Rx coverage when it started and if you lose your job in between, you get a special enrollment period that lasts for 8 months. And I'm still within that period, so according to the person I talked to at Medicare, I should be okay. But that's because I had insurance when Medicare kicked in.