My wife needs to have both knees replaced as well as her hip. Total cost - - her prescription for pain medication. All I pay is a dispensing fee. I.Live. In. CANADA.

I love my shoes…you are presuming that the Advantage plan agrees that the knee replacement is necessary, which often is not the case, so if you proceed your costs could be ten’s of thousands more!

Great Shoes, all your detail really helped me make my decision. Thank you

How about showing Tricare for life costs?

Nice shoes!

I love your videos. Thanks so much.

You are intentionally or unfortunately hiding very important facts t which is that in advantage plane you need a referral before to see specialist or hospital or e even a procedure recommended by your doctor. What’s more dangerous in the advantage plan is that None doctor will decide if you need surgery or procedure. I believe that you agent push for the advantage plan because it gives a lot of commission with total disregard to the life of the Medicare recipients. You should use “cancer “ treatment our hospital overstaying or if you stay in medical nursing facilities after the surgery stay expenses to show the distinction. The way you using this example you indirectly- whether intentionally or unintentionally- you promoting advantage plan which based on my personal experience is disastrous, do you know that some big hospitals no longer accept advantage plan.

For most people, isn't the age of FRA closer to 67? As far as Medicare, unless you're being covered by your job, you need to (ironically) go on Medicare at age 65. You cannot delay it because you don't want it.

Thank you so much for this video. I started with an advantage plan (Kaiser) and switched to a supplement plan when I got frustrated with my doctor who would not let me go to a dermatologist. I’m 68 and have now been on my supplement plan and my premiums in 2 years have been raised three times. I am in incredibly good health, and expect to remain so based on good genes, lifelong vegan diet, and regular exercise which I began even before exercise was popular (early 1980’s). Listening to this particular video has confirmed my thinking on advantage vs supplement plans-it doesn’t make sense to pay unsustainable (higher) premiums when I have no health issues . I now have a dermatologist, whom I will continue to see annually but I am returning to kaiser during the next open enrollment because it doesn’t make good economic sense to me to keep paying higher and higher premiums for something I don’t use, and do not anticipate using for a very long time. Plus I have the economic wherewithal to pay deductibles, should I need to in the future. Thank you so much for this very useful information, and my cat thanks you, too! (More money for yummy treats and toys!)

I love my Teva sandals and my Sketcher slip-on mesh shoes

Brooks Adrenaline 22😊

SAS shoes

Skeecher sandals (not quite shoes but hey!)...are great for summer! Like walking on a cloud. Thanks for the comparisons about all the plans...no matter what plan we have, we have to shell out dollars to pay pay pay. It's hard to chose and so expensive. Was talking to my son who is 36 yr old now and is worried about his job converting over to a bad health insurance that is going to cost him $2,000 a month out of pocket from United Healthcare! That should be illegal!

I couldn’t live with that stress: the Canadian universal healthcare system is so amazing: I wouldn’t trade it for nothing else in the world.❤

Love me Chaco Sandals, they are buildable too. Love the videos great info.

My favorite shoe brand is Asics at the moment. My kid was diagnosed with collapsed arch and Asics was one of the brands her foot doctor recommended. This family (not just she) has been wearing this brand since :) Thank you for reminding people of the premiums of the supplement plans. People tend to forget they are paying a hefty amount of money EVERY MONTH in addition to what they pay when bad things happen. That's what automatic recurring payment does to you. You schedule it then forget about it. I am not old enough to be eligible for medicare yet. But if everything goes as how it is, I'll be getting the advantage plan. I find another interesting thing about people having the supplement plan G is (besides they tend to forget how much money they have already been paying) that because they have already paid a lot of money on insurance, they tend to go to the doctor a lot. I see that in my mom. She almost went to doctor every week when she had it. Now she doesn't have the plan any more, she hasn't gone to the doctors for almost over a year. Instead, she started to go to the gym 6 times a week, as it is included in the advantage plan, and tries to stay as healthy as she possibly can. I love it.

Very informative, educational, and worthwhile information. My husband & I switched from a supplemental plan G to Medicare Adantage Plan this year. We're both healthy and don't see a doctor often, just annual health checkups and we're saving over $300/mo. We prefer saving money than giving it to the insurance company! Our original insurance agent didn't even give us the option of Medicare advantage, they just told us Plan G was the best plan. Glad we dug a little deeper and switched! My husband can see an audiologist in our Advantage Plan, he had to pay out of pocket for that when we had Plan G and over $3000 for hearing aids!

Thank you for all the valuable info!! I'm 70, and still wearing high heels, soooooo....I may need to ditch my beautiful "shoes" to save my knees! Sad, but realistically true.

First time viewer, liked your analysis, I’m a subscriber now, and I’m wearing On Cloud slip on tennis shoes for walking and they are supportive and well cushioned. Age 63.5 so studying the Medicare scenario in front of me.

Slip on shoes are my preference

My favorite color is the color of my first bike: a beautiful Schwinn candy red, one-speed, two-wheeler.

Steel toes for me , 12 hrs a day. I’m looking forward to retiring someday😊

Interesting, I hadn't looked at this this way. I had heard of the tax torpedo but in reference to when one spouse dies, the other goes to filing as an individual and still having most of the income when they were filing as a couple. More applicable to high income earners.

How do you download the spreadsheet? Thank you

Another important issue with Advantage plans is having to attain approval by a plan bureaucrat whose job is often to deny expensive care in order to make the corporation more profitable. The wait period could negatively impact your health, or worse. Regarding the cost of drugs, not all Plan D supplements are equal; depending on your health you may choose to spend more on one to cover way overpriced pharmaceuticals; in my case I choose a plan that's around $12/month which covers all my generics with zero co-pays; however, an expensive eye drop cost about $180 for a few ounce-bottle but I have to pay $50 out of pocket. Medicare is very complicated because our horrible politicians are out to destroy all remnants of socialized medicine in this nation.

Brooks are my shoes of choice!!!

We are medically doomed in America. As long as we have amoral profiteering in health care, we will always be a sick country.

Diabetic Shoes and inserts!

I had a TKR last month, May 8, 2024. I wore my Hey Dude shoes so I could get them on and off easy. My surgeon requires a one night stay in the hospital for all of his TKR and hip patients. I had four in home PT visits then in office PT. My PT office told me Medicare only covers 20 PT in office visits.

This guy obviously sells medicare advantage plans to the lower income

Does advantage cover new shoes ?

US health care seems to be for-profit-only and that is so wrong! So even someone on Medicare will be seriously out of pocket. I am a Belgian old-age-pensioner. I pay 10 Euros (!) per month for health care. I know people on welfare or low pensions who have no other cost to cover their doctor's visits, dentistry and hospital stays. The choice of doctors and hospitals is left to patients. Waiting times are long and the situation has worsened since Covid. To be fair, usually you have a small co-pay for doctor's visits, a bigger co-pay for hospital stays, a co-pay for dental visits and co- pays for medicines. As a high earner I feel too privileged to take advantage of universal health care only. I have top up insurances to cover my dental and hospital co-pays, affording me better options, a private room, top doctors for 120€ for month. My eye prosthetic worth 4500€ costs exactly zero, just to give you an example. Childbirth is free. Oh, yes, I also pay 200€ per year (!) into long term care insurance. So for 1760 € per year I am covered to the max. Apart from co-pays at the pharmacy. Those might be up to 250€ per year. I would not have these if I was poor.

Do you have any information about the number of people that start out on Plan G or N but over time get priced out. I would suspect it's like a tennis club membership, and just gets too expensive as the years go by.

I am not even going to hear the reasons and clicked just to say Nope! I am not delaying anything.

Thank you for this particular whiteboard talk. Very informative. I would like to have seen this comparison done to include HD G.

I like to wear my Merrell Jungle mocs when visiting my ortho doc. I can get out of them easily.

SHOES

"Medicare" Advantage *isn't* Medicare. Medicare is US government health insurance. Medicare "Advantage" is private insurance, which can be best described as strictly-controlled-managed plan, aka HMO. You have a strict list of practitioners. Under Medicare you can see most ANY doctor you choose, as most doctors ARE Medicare providers. Medicare "Advantage" is the GOP's scheme to privatize all government run insurance. Less taxation for the uber rich, more profits for the private insurance companies, and more lobbying money *legalized bribery* for politicians.

Shoes are crucial for knees. I have spent 3 years adapting to Vibram 5 fingers to regain toe strength and balance.

I'm not mad at you at all :) One thing that people don't think about, because all people have cars, is that some people do not, and if you don't then you don't have a handy way to galavant around to "network doctors." So let's just say that Medicare Advantage plans are for people with cars and leave it at that.

I forgot to ask. I'm getting BOTH knees done in the fall. Would there be any advantage to do one in 2024 and then in 2 mos its 2025 so I get a new plan. Any advantage to split vs do all in one year? I have Humana Medicare Advantage in FL the out of pocket is $1900.

Is supplement G the same as a PPO? My Dr suggested I get a PPO because my Medicare Advantage plans 3 different ones refused to cover me at 60 stating I would need a 2nd surgery to replace the implants in future and Medicare wont cover that are telling me to wait to 65-70. No way! I can barely walk without falling not to mention the pain esp now without Tramadol.

Thanks! I've got a bum knee but I'm putting off replacement as long as possible. I've wondered what out of pocket costs might cost if I ever have to get it or them replaced. SHOE yep, I watched it all.

I'm a retired RN Case Manager for a large hospital chain and I can not tell you the frustration, time and energy it was to try to get benefits for MAP plan patients for treatment, disposition and follow up treatment. Another important factor is that MAP may only contract with specific SNF, often not the best. Traditional Medicare can go to any SNF on discharge. This can be a major consideration for proper PT/OT/ wound care and location to family and support. SHOES

Got a little confused on the advantage plan math. Thought I was smart until I watched this! And I prefer Hey Dudes. 😊

If you choose not to have any Part D coverage would your limit still be $2,000 in 2025?

Thanks for the informative video. I sat watching it wearing my Brooks Ghost 16’s. My podiatrist insists I wear a supportive shoe most of my waking hours!!!

If the shoe fits, you're in a Plan G.

nobull.

I too live in the inter mountain west and wear sandals all year (except in snow - I'm not that daft). I'm still working and will retire next year. My current health plan is marketing their Advantage, and that would be a lovely transition, but I'm probably going to move to a lower cost-of-living state, so I have no idea what will be available because it sounds like the challenge with Advantage is "network." Your videos are the most helpful of them all.