I’ve been on Medicare for six years now and have gone through the annual enrollment period many times. If you have listened to the commercials that are aimed at, we Baby Boomers, as we reach sixty-five, you know that everyone gets parts A and B automatically. You’d have to live without broadcast television not to have heard this.

My first couple of years were good with a company that seemed perfect for my Cox Hospital care and their doctors. Then Cox was able to formulate their own Medicare insurance plans, and my insurer no longer covered my established providers. Thanks Cox.

I had considered another insurance, but they did not have my doctors in their network, and I did not want to start over again. Aetna looked to be the best for my needs, and I kept them this year. Since January one procedure after another has been listed out of network even though my established clinics were accepted.

I’ve tried all year to have tests and procedures performed at approved facilities by in network providers only to be billed out of network charges. Aetna owns CVS Pharmacies, and they constantly want me to use them even though they refuse to give us the service that they should.

My wife and I are using a local Medicare approved representative to help us determine the best insurer for our specific needs. These include the medications we take, and doctors we want to be treated by. I’ll let you know how this works out.

We are hesitant to call any of the companies that advertise or send us propaganda in the mail or online because we all know that these companies may work for certain insurance or pharmaceutical companies and may have biases to their clients.

By the way, you might want to check out all the current legal actions against any insurers you may be considering because some of the major companies are being sued by current or former clients for refusing to cover services for some that they cover for others. I won’t mention those names to you because there may be some more, I have not heard about. We will be checking the ones recommended to us for these problems. I’ve looked up the current actions now and know my present company is having problems.

Good luck to all of you on Medicare or approaching that age and use all the resources provided by Medicare.gov and watch out for those that have other websites listed. They may be legitimate or not. There are reports of Medicare scams.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger