medicare_40_somethings_should

« Sales Tax Holidays | Main | Federal Student Aid... »

Medicare: 40-Somethings Should Care Too

By: Ginger | August 07, 2009 | Category: Home and Family

Elderly woman wearing walking I was recently asked to blog about medicare and while I agreed to do so, I must confess I only have a vague awareness of the topic because my mom mentions things like prescription drug plans, coverage gaps and other medicare-related issues. My mom seems pretty informed about these things because she had to deal with a lot of these types of issues when my dad was sick, and of course, she deals with them for herself. I am in my late 40's and some part of my brain doesn't want to have to think about such things now. Can't I just worry about that when I get older?

I admit, that is flawed thinking. Right now our country is struggling with some major issues regarding medicare and health care reform. As much as I would like to bury my head in the sand, everyone (even us 40-somethings) needs to be educated about what is at stake. The decisions that are made today could affect us in 20 years. Definitely, these decisions will impact our parents. If we end up assisting in our parents' care, as caregivers we need to have an understanding of how medicare works and how these proposed healthcare reforms will affect their care.

To begin your medicare education, go to medicare.gov. The site has information on the prescription drug plan, medicare plans, and how billing works. The site also has a a host of online comparison tools and tools to assist you in locating a variety of services.

You can also go to the Health and Federal Programs sections of the Federal Citizen Information Center to order free hard-copies of:

If you want to read about the President's vision on healthcare reform, announcements and commentary on medicare, you can go to the medicare search results on the Whitehouse website.