Capitol Hill Blue Forums Hot Topics & Breaking News The RoundTable Reader Rant Roundtable for November 2016

This is it!



Welcome to the Roundtable for November 2016



Typically it's custom to include a seasonal theme for the Roundtable but this time I felt it important to include one last hat tip to that uniquely Rant-ish theme, the ELECTION.

November ushers in the close of Autumn and the start of winter.
Harvest is over, for the most part, and it is time to stock up for the cold months ahead. Days are getting shorter, the AC has been off for quite some time and for some of us, this might be the first time we've fired up the furnace, so the first week of November is also the time when you might be up in the attic or down in the basement, trying to figure out how to re-light the pilot light.

Halloween candy might still be hanging on from last night, and so might last night's Trick or Treat flashlights, so hopefully you won't have any troubles!

November Sweeps time is also coming up, so some of our favorite TV shows are starting up again.

Thanksgiving promises to fatten us up a little more, hopefully with a little help from family and loved ones.

But at the very front end, it is this ELECTION which is foremost on everyone's mind. I wish us all the very very best.

And I hope we don't get fooled again.

Thank you for starting the month so well.

Last night was a HORROR, all those little crumb snatchers and teenage pucks walking all over my grass!

The horror of it, the horror!





Good election every one and a Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends.

It was raining here when we left for dinner. The only trick or treaters we got while home were two 18-20 year olds while I was heading for the car. No one after 8 when we got home.

So Pondering It All, you said yesterday was your first day on Medicare?

Nope. Monday I turned in my mail ballot but Tuesday the 1st was my first day on Medicare. Whoo Hoo, no more expensive medical insurance payments! My Part B is something like $120 per month. Of course my previous insurance had a maximum-out-of-pocket of $2500 and my Medicare drug charges are going to be about $6000 per year. Still a lot less than I was paying.

I'm depositing my ballot today. I still need to sort through numerous local issues.

The propositions were pretty simple: I like this, don't like that. etc.

The board members were harder, First, I cross off everybody who couldn't get it together to file a Candidate's Statement. (Probably incompetent.) Then I look at the statements. Then the people supporting them and opposing them. That usually decides it for me.

If you haven't got Part D yet, get it. It can be had for as little as $49 a month from AARP and covers most of your prescription drug expenses.

I have a Blue Cross Part C Medicare Advantage plan that includes the equivalent of Part D drug coverage. (All Medicare Advantage plans that have drug coverage have to be as good as a free-standing Part D drug plan.) So I get the regular coverage, the donut hole, and catastrophic coverage just like everybody else with a drug plan.

I just happen to be taking a Tier 5 specialty drug for MS they charge over $60,000 per year. They charge fixed percentages of the retail price so I blow through the coverages into catastrophic in the first two months of the year. Then I have to pay 5% of retail which is over $300/month.

Thanks Congress, for not letting Medicare negotiate drug prices!