ArcaMax

Dear Toni,

My husband, Jason, is a Vietnam veteran and never enrolled in Medicare Part B because he uses the VA for his medical care. He is 77 years old and retired when he turned 65 about 12 years ago.

Because he is having heart issues, he wants to go to a local cardiologist that his best friend uses and must now enroll in Medicare for ...Read more

This is going to be a column about DACs. And what's that? It's the abbreviation the Social Security Administration uses to refer to "disabled adult children." Here is some background.

Since almost the beginning of the Social Security program in the 1930s, minor children have qualified for benefits on a retiree's record. A child gets an amount ...Read more

Toni,

I have a client, Joshua, who just received a bill for his mother's long-term care paid by Medicaid in the state of Texas. Her care was provided at her house instead of a nursing home during the last few years of his 80-year-old mother’s life. No one informed him that the state was running a tab of all health care expenses that ...Read more

Q. Even though I'm not on Social Security, I've been reading your column for years. A while back, I had clipped out a column you wrote explaining how benefits are figured. And now that I'm getting ready to file for benefits, I can't find that column. Can you please reprint it? And I also have a question. I do recall that you said a benefit is ...Read more

Toni:

I was told to receive a shingles vaccination; I need to be enrolled in a Part D prescription drug plan for the vaccination to have a $0 copay or pay $200. I thought all vaccinations and immunizations are covered at no cost under Medicare Part B.

Can you explain this Medicare rule? Thank you.

--Carl from Lubbock, Texas

Carl:

On ...Read more

I have been writing this column since 1997. So this will be my 27th year of helping people better understand all the intricacies of the various Social Security programs. But I was recently reminded I've been doing that a long longer. While cleaning out my desk, I discovered a folder of newspaper columns I wrote way back in the 1980s while ...Read more

The number of older adults with disabilities — difficulty with walking, seeing, hearing, memory, cognition, or performing daily tasks such as bathing or using the bathroom — will soar in the decades ahead, as baby boomers enter their 70s, 80s, and 90s.

But the health care system isn’t ready to address their needs.

That became painfully ...Read more

Toni:

Five years ago, when I was laid off, I enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B when I turned 65 in August. By November, I found a new job with benefits and terminated my Medicare Part B. In October of 2023 I finally retired. After filing my Social Security forms, I discovered that I was denied enrollment because I had a past due bill of $405...Read more

Well, this week I learned that not all bureaucrats work for the government. They can be found in any organization anywhere, in the public sector and the private sector. They are there anytime rules need to be enforced. And in today's column, I'll ponder if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Here's the story. This year, my wife and I will be ...Read more

Dear Toni,

I turned 65 in November and enrolled in Medicare. I received a letter from Social Security stating that I must pay $527.50 for Part B and $70 for Part D totaling $597.50 monthly. The IRS states that my income was $375,000 in 2022.

The high income level is because my husband was working in 2022. Charlie passed away in February ...Read more

Hello Toni:

I read your article about how ignoring Medicare rules is costing Americans millions and I believe I have made a mistake because I have not enrolled in a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. I need your help!

I retired in August and had a telemarketing agent help me find a Medicare Supplement which began Sept. 1. No one told ...Read more

Toni:

I need your help! I have discovered that my mother, who is 67, never enrolled in Medicare Part B or D. She was under the impression that if she did not go to the doctor, she did not need to pay the premium, saying she needed the money to pay for her car payment and could enroll later.

She has been diagnosed with colon cancer. I called...Read more

Toni,

My issue regarding how to enroll in Medicare is different from any enrollment problem that I have read in the Toni Says Medicare column. I understand from an email a friend received from Medicare.gov last year that there are new “turning 65” enrollment rules in Medicare.

I have rheumatoid arthritis and turn 65 on February 20. I ...Read more