HEALTH WEALTH WHYS

Certainly hope I’m not senile because must make two life-changing decisions with time constraints: What to do with meager income/ life savings and what to do about health insurance. Time easily matters as deposits must be made to cover expenses as you switch from one institution to another made murky by direct deposits versus automatic bill pay.
What a nightmare changing financial institutions is!! Between routing numbers, account numbers and balancing the usual monthly checkbook over possibly three months of transition I see so many numbers I can barely stand to play Websudoku. The three-month transition is because direct deposits can’t be facilitated for two months at least and the third month is in case they mess it up with or without my help.
I’ve kept with banks because of patriotism. And, oh yeah, flavored by a bit of paranoid superstition. You see, I sold my most lucrative investment, a mortgage I was holding, and about 15 minutes later the real estate market went belly up. With the resultant problems of banks, I figured if I pulled my $1.98 out things could only get worse. Such awesome power! I resolved to ride it out BUT another bank bought my already thrice bought-out bank, and the new guys want an agreement that they could unilaterally decide not to send me monthly hard copy statements. As a child of the REAL depression, that seemed unwise so I’m putting myself and my $1.98 through this ongoing torment. We’ll see if I manage it with no bounced checks.
Before you think that’s all I have on my plate, the confusion of the new Health care says Seniors have a shorter than usual time to select the annual changes we wish in our “supplemental” health insurance. I use quotes because the cost of it is four times the cost I paid for full insurance before retirement with employer provided subsidy… and at my age, the country thinks the government pays for my health care via Medicare. What a joke! Don’t get me wrong. I support the new health care law. Which gives you a clue as to how messed up US health care delivery was. The real stickler is that once I make my selection of “supplemental” insurance there is no guarantee my doctor will accept it and I’ve already been forced to change doctors once because he, make that HE, decided not to deal with people “covered” by Medicare and instead went to a “Park Avenue/Nieman-Marcus” style.Can’t wait ‘til the polls open Tuesday.