ArcaMax

This week, I went to see my primary care doctor, and his office manager informed me that they are no longer accepting Medicare. I recently enrolled in Medicare and will have to pay the complete bill upfront and be reimbursed by Medicare. His office is a small one, and he will be retiring soon, so I need to find a new doctor. Can you please tell...Read more

Answering Questions From Widows

I hope there is nothing in the air that is causing old goats like me to keel over. For some reason, I've been getting a lot of questions from widows lately. Here are some of them.

Q: I am 90 years old and getting widow's benefits from my first husband who died a long time ago. I also have my own Social Security,...Read more

Dear Toni:

I had no problem opening the “My Social Security” account to enroll in Medicare because I knew those answers. When it came to filling out the application for Medicare that was another story.

I had a problem with some of Medicare’s personal questions. I knew my name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, etc. When ...Read more

I had originally planned to use this space to write a follow-up column to one I wrote several weeks ago about the misnamed "Social Security Fairness Act." But I've decided it's not worth it.

For decades, government retirees who worked at jobs not covered by Social Security, but who did pay into the program at jobs before or after their ...Read more

Toni:

Last week’s Medicare Part D question was from Tonya regarding discovering that she and her husband are receiving an “extra” Part D premium, which she never knew about. You advised her to contact her local Congressional office to help appeal the Medicare issue.

I now must fight Social Security because they are under the ...Read more

I write a column like this one every January. But I don't mind plagiarizing myself, because it contains a very important message for people planning to retire in 2025.

January is a critical month for the hundreds of thousands of potential Social Security beneficiaries who are reaching their full retirement age in 2025. The important message: ...Read more

Dear Toni:

In December 2016, you assisted me and my husband Gary in leaving my employer’s benefits. We enrolled into Medicare Part B with a Medicare Supplement and Part D prescription drug plan that began on January 1, 2017.

The 2024 Medicare AEP is the ONLY year that we have changed from the original Medicare Part D plan that we ...Read more

It has been my custom for most of the past 27 years to write a year-end column that summarizes the Social Security updates scheduled to take place the following year. I already discussed some of these updates in a column back in October when they were first announced, but it doesn't hurt to repeat them here. (They all grow out of the annual cost...Read more

Note: Due to the continued confusion on the issue, Toni is rerunning this column from May. It has been slightly updated.

Dear Toni,

I need your help regarding my parents who are in their late 80s. My mother has been disabled with Parkinson’s for the past 3 years and my father has been her caretaker, but due to his recent heart attack, he...Read more

Congress just passed a law that will give me (and millions of people like me) extra Social Security benefits that we simply do not deserve and haven't earned.

To understand what is going on, here is a quick history lesson: The original Social Security Act included unintentional and overly generous benefits for government employees. These were ...Read more

I turned 65 in June, 2 years ago and did not enroll in Medicare because I do not have any health issues. A friend advised me to enroll in Medicare during Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period. I received a letter stating that because I did not enroll in Medicare when I turned 65 that I have been denied Medicare.

The letter also stated that ...Read more

I have a granddaughter who is a junior in high school. Recently, she needed to write a report for her history class on any subject related to a federal government program. Because she knew that her grandpa worked for the Social Security Administration for 32 years, she initially thought she'd write about the history of Social Security. I told ...Read more