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My dad is gonna go on Medicare soon, and he's wanting to know if he should just take a and b, and keep his current insurance, or do something else? He was a rural carrier for the United States Postal Service, and is still married to my mother, who is three years younger if that helps. Let me know if you have any other info I should provide for them, and if I should just go to the health insurance plan instead. Edit: now that I think about it, should I change my current plan? I'm in the census bureau, and using the anthem blue cross low plan for myself since I fell off their plan.
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Sep 16, 2021 23:08
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thechosenone posted:My dad is gonna go on Medicare soon, and he's wanting to know if he should just take a and b, and keep his current insurance, or do something else? He was a rural carrier for the United States Postal Service, and is still married to my mother, who is three years younger if that helps. If he takes B, he pays $148.50 a month (next year prob more), and his other insurance becomes secondary payer. How good is his current insurance? Is he still working? Is your mom? He can decline Part B without any issues if he's currently by covered by insurance through either his, or a spouse's active employment. Medicare cares when the work stops (or essentially, when they no longer consider you an employee). If neither of them work and have insurance through a job, declining Part B would be a bad idea.
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Sep 17, 2021 03:29
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kathmandu posted:So with the proposed vaccine mandate for federal employees, there’s now an extremely stupid email chain between three of the bargaining unit members in my division and our union rep. One person, the ringleader, has been writing lengthy, stupid emails about how the vaccine is fake or whatever. A second basically chimed in with “i agree with moron 1,” and a third managed to write an agreement that invoked her stupid loving views on roe v. wade. I'm stopping by this thread because I'm writing up A Union Thread for BFC, so let me address this one. A union is really just a group of workers, and union leadership is whoever decided to go "I guess I'll be in charge of this" because no one else was bothering. You have a say in how your union is run! Find out when the local meetings are for your union, and start going to them. Better yet, bring a few of your non-moron coworkers along with you. Then, find out the process for becoming a union leader yourself. If it's an elected position, a platform of "I'm not an anti-vax weirdo" is a drat good platform when running against someone who is. edit: here's the BFC union thread, all y'all in AFSCME or similar unions come on by and talk about stuff like this. kingcobweb fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Sep 17, 2021 |
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Sep 17, 2021 04:08
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My union had a meeting today that I should've gone to if only to see what their stance is on vaccination
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Sep 17, 2021 04:32
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GD_American posted:If he takes B, he pays $148.50 a month (next year prob more), and his other insurance becomes secondary payer. How good is his current insurance? Is he still working? Is your mom? Well they don't work, but the insurance is through his former employer, specifically as part of his union. If his insurance isn't especially good, should he just add part D on? What about dental? Maybe he can just keep whatever dental or vision plans he has, and just take D. Is there a way to compare medicare against other plans? That might help here. EDIT: How does the whole 'secondary insurance' thing work? I'm guessing it doesn't lower the premiums for his retiree insurance based on how much medicare costs right? Since otherwise it would be a no brainer to have both. thechosenone fucked around with this message at 10:15 on Sep 17, 2021 |
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Sep 17, 2021 10:09
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thechosenone posted:Well they don't work, but the insurance is through his former employer, specifically as part of his union. If his insurance isn't especially good, should he just add part D on? What about dental? Maybe he can just keep whatever dental or vision plans he has, and just take D. Is there a way to compare medicare against other plans? That might help here. You have to be enrolled in Part B before you can enroll in Part D. Usually a union will have a benefits specialist (in HR) to talk to for exactly those kind of trade-off or benefit questions. Medicare doesn't cover vision or dental; you'd have to shop around for a Medicare Advantage plan for that.
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Sep 17, 2021 10:14
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Edit: I'm just gonna wash my hands with this. My dad is just gonna take medicare part a and b, and just keep his retiree insurance.
thechosenone fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Sep 17, 2021 |
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Sep 17, 2021 10:16
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thechosenone posted:Edit: I'm just gonna wash my hands with this. My dad is just gonna take medicare part a and b, and just keep his retiree insurance. One good source is that most cities of any size will have some sort of non-profit or local agency for the aging that is exactly the place to go for any questions of what about this plan versus this plan. SSA employees generally don't get into specific coverage questions (we just handle enrollment), and CMS is all telephone so good luck there.
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Sep 17, 2021 11:17
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--cries in postal worker--
Star Man fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Sep 18, 2021 |
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Sep 18, 2021 01:38
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Who's ready for a 1-∞ day vacation next week?
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Sep 27, 2021 18:24
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At least Oct 1 is a Friday, so if they drop the ball for a second we'll get a long weekend out of it
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Sep 27, 2021 18:35
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And we're back to thanking God that USCIS is fee-funded.
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Sep 27, 2021 21:04
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I’ve been through so many of these that I keep a 6 month emergency fund. Which is a good idea anyway, but I hate why I started doing it.
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Sep 27, 2021 21:07
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Haha, the joke is on you, I am already on like day 120 of my FEMA Reservist vacation Apparently it is expected that unemployment benefits for FEMA Reservists take 4 months to start the first time you file, so I look forward to getting my largest paycheck ever one of these days
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Sep 27, 2021 23:49
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Is there actually going to be a shutdown or do we think something will get shoved through late Thursday night? I could use a break and I don't think my office is fee funded.
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Sep 28, 2021 00:36
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I don't think they'll do it. It'd be pretty bad optics to let the government shutdown in the midst of a pandemic. My guess is that if they fail to get the infrastructure bills across the line that they'll do a 1-2 week CR. maybe there will be one of those "cute" 12 hour-1 day weekend shutdowns.
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Sep 28, 2021 00:41
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Josh Lyman posted:Is there actually going to be a shutdown or do we think something will get shoved through late Thursday night? I could use a break and I don't think my office is fee funded. Same. I'd be okay with a mini break right now. But we'll see.
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Sep 28, 2021 00:58
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I gotta ask my boss this week where we stand in the event of a shut down as I have zero idea what parts of the Mint is considered essential.
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Sep 28, 2021 02:03
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Xelkelvos posted:I gotta ask my boss this week where we stand in the event of a shut down as I have zero idea what parts of the Mint is considered essential. The fresh parts, I’d guess. Can’t furlough these jokes.
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Sep 28, 2021 04:05
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Because of reconciliation, they only get one shot to pass a bill with < 60 votes. So if they waste it on a simple CR, well, there goes the hopes of getting anything else done this year.
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Sep 28, 2021 05:13
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I look forward to my dipshit supervisor insisting yet again that the United States Postal Service isn't actually federal, which is why we'll be unaffected by a shutdown (she's partially correct, but come the gently caress on).
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Sep 28, 2021 05:37
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My favorite part is how my upper management acts like the essential list is secret until the day of. This is the eighth one of these I've seen, you shitfuckers, we all know the drill and you know we know. Quit pretending and just loving say it.
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Sep 28, 2021 06:33
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Ours actually sent out a list of scenarios for us, so we know who will be essential in the various outcomes (our authorization is also in the mix separate from other bills). In no case am I essential, but I already knew that. And I'm off Thursday until Tuesday regardless. Maybe I'll get some leave restored!sullat posted:Because of reconciliation, they only get one shot to pass a bill with < 60 votes. So if they waste it on a simple CR, well, there goes the hopes of getting anything else done this year.
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Sep 28, 2021 16:16
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El Mero Mero posted:I don't think they'll do it. It'd be pretty bad optics to let the government shutdown in the midst of a pandemic. My guess is that if they fail to get the infrastructure bills across the line that they'll do a 1-2 week CR. maybe there will be one of those "cute" 12 hour-1 day weekend shutdowns. Are you assuming that they’re competent?  e: competent at gutting social support legislation and hiding benefits behind means testing, sure, but not at actually governing or making strategic moves beyond the most transparent attempts at managing optics. Loucks fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Sep 28, 2021 |
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Sep 28, 2021 16:29
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drat, we've been doing the shutdown shuffle shitshow since 2013.
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Sep 28, 2021 20:17
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Delorence Fickle posted:drat, we've been doing the shutdown shuffle shitshow since 2013. That was the first time it happened for real and we got closed for a few weeks but we'd been playing chicken for years before that.
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Sep 28, 2021 21:17
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Glad we're always funded no matter what (need that war machine going!) and most of these haven't affected me.
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Sep 28, 2021 21:27
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On the one hand I would like the break for obvious reasons but on the other it is maddening to spend so much time reassuring callers that the government does not, in fact, want to screw them out of their money only for poo poo like this to happen. Just nothing quite like getting my foot shot off like this every year. Also there's the knowing that if/when they bring people back (if they even let us go since we're WFH) the folks who don't have a buffer are getting screwed again which is more than a few direct coworkers... Ignatius M. Meen fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Sep 28, 2021 |
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Sep 28, 2021 21:33
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PneumonicBook posted:Glad we're always funded no matter what (need that war machine going!) and most of these haven't affected me. Yeah everytime this happens I look at a lot of DOD agencies and think about jumping ship. Which I should do as I'll make more money, but most of the stuff I'd be interested in is around DC...and yeah, no interest in living near DC.
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Sep 28, 2021 21:38
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Rakeris posted:Yeah everytime this happens I look at a lot of DOD agencies and think about jumping ship. Which I should do as I'll make more money, but most of the stuff I'd be interested in is around DC...and yeah, no interest in living near DC. Not all of DoD is immune. Uniformed service members will continue to work and be paid but a whole lot of civilians (like me) were sent home in 2013.
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Sep 28, 2021 21:51
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Midjack posted:Not all of DoD is immune. Uniformed service members will continue to work and be paid but a whole lot of civilians (like me) were sent home in 2013. Well  that idea then. I wonder about the new agency DCSA? I would assume they are fee funded cause they charge out the rear end, but idk.
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Sep 28, 2021 21:57
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Rakeris posted:Well I don't think any part of DoD is fee funded, they may charge for background investigations but I'd be surprised if they ran off of that.
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Sep 28, 2021 22:03
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Some DoD civilian personnel are fee funded.PneumonicBook posted:Glad we're always funded no matter what (need that war machine going!) and most of these haven't affected me. I think you’ll find it’s called the Department of Defense, not the Department of War. What kind of a country would celebrate war? They’d probably do something wild like rebrand the military as “warfighters.”
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Sep 28, 2021 22:23
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Midjack posted:I don't think any part of DoD is fee funded, they may charge for background investigations but I'd be surprised if they ran off of that. You'd be surprised DLA and foreign military support are nonappropriated funds. There's lots of others.
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Sep 28, 2021 22:35
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Leviathan Song posted:You'd be surprised DLA and foreign military support are nonappropriated funds. There's lots of others. Shows what I know. 
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Sep 28, 2021 22:36
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Loucks posted:Some DoD civilian personnel are fee funded. I did that bit the other day for my buddy who took offense at what I described our job as.
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Sep 28, 2021 23:46
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If you really want a federal position that's shutdown immune without being in DoD or going postal look at the VA. Its funding doesn't rely on yearly budget bills and something like 96% of employees are unaffected by shutdowns.
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Sep 29, 2021 00:21
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USPTO is fully fee funded if you don't want to help murder babies and instead want to help Disney make more money.
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Sep 29, 2021 01:00
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Endless Mike posted:USPTO is fully fee funded if you don't want to help murder babies and instead want to help Disney make more money. Same difference really. Last time I was "essential" but we could bail if we declared financial hardship to and a lot of people did. Some managers wanted proof, but most were just, OK, see ya later.
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Sep 29, 2021 01:51
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SSA just got its list of essential activities (for field office employees) and they are far more expansive than in years past. About the only thing we can't do when shutdown anymore is benefit letters and process overpayments.
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Sep 29, 2021 01:58
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