Articles written by Rita Hatch
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People to be thankful for this season
I hope you’ve all had a great Thanksgiving and will have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year. I have been under the weather, but I have met a wonderful group of friends, who are “dog peo...
Pondering our health insurance system
I hope you are getting this before November 8, the date you must vote in order to exercise your privilege and duty as a citizen to choose a new president to govern our country for the next four or...
Our insane drug and medical care costs
Suns, skies, clouds and flowers of June together cannot rival for one hour, October’s bright blue Alaska weather. – H H Jackson. If you think your prescribed meds are getting more expensive each tim...
Reviewing Social Security disability benefits
September Morn, please stay for a while longer, for when you are gone it will be time for an introduction to snowflakes and a lonesome, cold winter. But for readers lucky enough to have a working...
Be on the lookout for Medicare fraud
Do not go back to what you loved in August, for you will see the near ending of the times you loved. August is the beginning of the end of the year, the times when the lush green leaves start turning...
Hard realities – and Medicare (of course)
July and Independence Day is here. That may be good for some, but for others it is a sentence for loneliness. If you think that living into your near-nineties is always a blessing, I am here to tell...
You may qualify for a subsidized food box
What is more wonderful than a gloriously 70 degree temperature on an innocent day in June, especially when I am writing this on May 15 in Anchorage, Alaska? For those of you who do not believe in...
Get to know your benefits
Be cheerful in the merry month of May, a harbinger of Summer’s advent, and good times will soon be here. That is, if you all vote ... the right way. JOKE! Seriously, here are five reasons to vote: 1...
Obamacare anniversary; drug discount cards
I know the winter sports enthusiasts will not be agreeing with me, but I am glad we have had a short winter and an early spring and (knock wood!) my roof is still intact. March 23 was the sixth...
Learning more about Medicare, Medicaid
We are not afraid of the ides of March anymore, since the IRS beckons us now to the ides of April. For the many questions I have been asked about the differences between Medicare and Medicaid, I will...
Taxes, reports, fees and your health benefits
People with Medicare can get off to a healthy start in the new year. Medicare covers a full range of preventive services to help keep you healthy and find problems early, when treatment is most...
Defining Medicare primary, secondary payers
I have been asked what the difference is between a primary and secondary payer in Medicare. The insurance that pays first (primary payer) pays up to the limits of its coverage. The one that pays secon...
Is a reverse mortgage right for you?
I cannot believe that this year is almost over. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all! It is ironic to me that although I have helped so many people in all the years that I have been working...
Medicare Part D plans and Part B premiums
Winter has finally arrived, with one small fall of the flaky, white stuff and if the prognosticators are to be believed, due to the imminent arrival of “El Nino,” it will be a mild one. At my age I a...
Feel like gambling with your Social Security payouts?
Fall is here and we are expecting another mild winter; happy days for me – the less snow we get the fewer times I have to have my roof shoveled. I haven’t heard from any readers about the “fi...
Too much, too little: It's usually about the money
September, what a terrible month with the loss of the David Letterman and Jon Stewart shows. Well, now I can get to bed an hour earlier. We could be paying much less Why do Americans pay a lot more...
A reminder that it's better to not be in the hospital
We had been having a wonderful summer and I always expect a colorful autumn here in Anchorage. That is, the summer started out well, but I had an unexpected problem. I wasn’t feeling well and when a f...
Medicare benefits; new Social Security information
It is the middle of this year and time to talk about the valuable Medicare Preventive services that you are entitled to if you are on Medicare Part B, the part of Medicare that helps pay for...
You have a say in when you leave the hospital
There is nothing as sweet as a day in June. I’m not so sure about the rest of the country, but that really holds true for Alaska. When the leaves start bursting out of their pods, and the sun s...
Looking into some Medicare benefits
Comparing services using the Medicare website This month, I am going to use the Medicare website (which you too can easily use at www.Medicare.gov/home health care). The three homes I picked out to...
Updates on Medigap, retirement benefits
What retirement ‘security’? The United States ranked 19th in a recent international assessment of retirement security worldwide. This places the U.S. just behind France and just ahead of Slovenia in...
Updates on Medicare and other benefits
Julius Caesar was told to beware of the “ides of March” and that used to be a warning to us, too, to get our taxes done by the 15th. But the great IRS decided to give us another month, and so we can...
Taking steps to correct Aetna drug plan errors
Happy Shortest Month of the Newest Year! To those of you who bought the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug plan, I am sorry to tell you that there was incorrect information about pharmacies who...
Benefits and belongings shouldn't be taken for granted
Social Security COLA increase Happy New Year and I hope it is a healthy one. If you are on Social Security, you will notice that you received a whopping 1.7 percent increase in your benefit. Please...
Drugs are expensive and so are the plans
My friends, I always regret it when I have to report not so good news to you. The Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans for 2015 are the unpalatable ones that I always knew they would be since the...
