Survival and Emergency Preparedness

If you are retired, inquire of your healhcare plan about OTC benefits.

Kaiser just implemented a $50 a quarter OTC benefit.
a. you must buy from an affiliated company.
b. the benefits minimum expenditure is $25 for free shipping.
c. important equipment like an exercise watch, oxygen in the blood sensor, and blood pressure machine are offered.
d. no carry forward of benefits to the next quarter.


Speaking of the equipment.
1. the exercise watch has not received good reviews.
2. any oxygen sensor or blood pressure machine may have a lifetime of only 2-3 years.
3. you can check the calibration by bringing in the bp machine for the minor nurse check up, I learned today. It is too expensive to have the machine reset by a company. So, you buy a replacement.

Many times, the oxygen sensor will dip into a dangerous area before symptoms express themselves. This is important in the situation of the Wuhan flu because the federal government will offer you a free treatment, but the treatment has to start within 3-5 days of symptoms to be effective. This is a reason to get the oxygen sensor at any drug store or through your health care plan.

I am posting this as a reminder to those on some medicare advantage plan. Check yours out.
Mine will have $90 a quarter, use it or lose it benefit to allow a person to buy OTC items.
I received two pair of eye glasses. Now have to wait 2 years for more.
I have a hearing aid benefit every three years.

What the heck do you do with $360 a year when you already have OTC stuff? I am going to buy OTC for relatives, like first aid materials.

Medicare supplements.
What I am relating is a message that you have to keep on top of Medicare options. I have Kaiser with a supplemental program. As an approved health care organization (HMO) it is required, by law, to offer the Medi-Care benefits. It adds other benefits to be included in the price so that people will sign up. It also offers a supplemental coverage.

The way the supplemental coverage works, includes contracting with outside suppliers like gyms, eye glass and hearing aid manufacturers, and providers of vitamins, minerals, meals, day care.

You have to pay attention. If you don't plan well, you are wasting the additional premium. The same is if you don't want the benefit.

Today, I received a letter that said that a particular benefit was being discontinued. It also said that the premium for all the extra benefits was $21 a month. So, I will ramble. I missed a year of dental benefits because Kaiser and its outside vendor screwed up. I have programmed into my notes and calendar when and how I take that benefit. I had to do the same with eye glasses and with a hearing aid benefit (that I will not need).

Now, forum members, you are retired. This year, you could get a limited amount of over the counter products. Think about this. It was $50 per quarter. No carry forwards to the next quarter. Use it or lose it. Have to look in a publication. One of the products was a dud. Other items were priced higher than at Costco/Amazon. This next year, it goes to $90 a quarter. But the catalog has not been published. You do not pick up the goods at a Kaiser location. The outside contractor may be out of one of the items.

So the way you have to handle it is as follows:
1. have a catalog;
2. log in at the beginning of the quarter with your choices out of available products. Order.

So my girlfriend will see the catalog as well. If she needs something, it will be ordered. If I don't need anything or don't want to stockpile items, they I will order bandages at full retail prices and make up first aid kits for relatives.

The eye glass and hearing aid benefits have to accumulate over more than a year and be executed similarly.

Now isn't that a lot of work? I will be paying $21 a month or about $250 dollars a year. I will "make money only because I set up reminders. Other members will "lose" money because obtaining the benefits requires organization and monitoring by the retiree.

The girlfriend has a different HMO. She gets a free gym membership with a business that is on the verge of failing. It has broken machines, tries to avoid turning on the aircondioner in the summer or the heat in the winter. She has an OTC benefit that isn't as generous as mine.

Again, you have to pay attention, plan and document.

You have pretty good medicare bennies.

No gym, vitamins, or other over the counter stuff or services with my medicare provider.
My medicare provider is such that it's cheaper to get my hearing aids and glasses at Costco than pay the deductible through my regular audiologist and optometrist. Of course I could pay more for the extra benefits but it's not worth it at this point.

2004 benis catalog out. Girlfriend has a different HMO. Same story about the OTC stuff. 1/2 is unavailable. Usually overpriced.

If you go through the catalogs carefully, make sure that you timely use your OTC benefits before losing them, the experience is probably close to not worth it because of the time involved. So, except for the girlfriend using the gym benefit (and the place has broken equipment and the air conditioning is not proper), it is largely a marketing come on.

The Kaiser allowance has been raised to $90 a quarter for "free" OTC stuff. On July 1, 2024, I "purchased" 6 "first aid kits".
1. $15 does not make a first aid kit. So, it will take time to build up the kits, but there are separate bandages,etc.
2. The 6 kits will go into 6 relatives' cars. Three had accidents this last year, resulting in the total losses of two vehicles. I have Israeli bandages for their cars.
3. You need to remember that you visit relatives, you need to have equipment available to you. Over time, when you have given them knives/Leatherman tools/whistles/flashlights for their cars, those resources are available to you.