MetLife Etc.

I woke up again this morning with my heart in Afib.  It has lasted most of the day.  I have an appointment with my heart doctor on Tuesday.

But the first thing I did was to call MetLife and I was told that the letter I got suspending the monthly payments was an error.  They tell me I am definitely entitled to the survivor benefits and the monthly payments will continue uninterrupted.  Big relief.

Then I started the phone calls for supplemental health insurance.  I was on the phone a very long time with Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield.  In order to get their best coverage the monthly cost will be $170.  There is no dental and no vision coverage.  But there are no co-pays and no deductible.  To get prescription coverage there is an additional monthly cost of $37.

They have one other plan that costs $117 a month but it has a deductible and a $20 copay.  So if I were to have a serious health issue where I needed to see a doctor monthly, the copays would quickly add up so it makes more sense to get the better plan.

The worrisome part of all of this is that my health insurance coverage with GEHA (Marshall's insurance from the post office) ends on August 21 and any new supplemental health insurance won't kick in until September 1.  So I will have short period of no supplemental insurance.

The prescription coverage is kind of hard to understand.  First, there is a deductible of $320.  Then different drugs are handled differently.  So if we start out with the only two drugs I am taking for my atrial fibrillation (Metoprolol and Flecainide) I would have a copay of $1 for the Metoprolol and a $60 copay for the Flecainide until the deductible is met and then it would be a $6 copay.

Tomorrow afternoon I will call Humana and see what their coverage is like.

But first, tomorrow I have a 10:00A appointment with the Veterans Service Officer.  This is the most important meeting of all.  I am very nervous about anything having to do with the VA.  I watched Marshall battle the VA for 28 years.  But this will be where the largest part of my monthly benefits should come from.  Also, we will order the headstone for Marshall.

Marshall's ashes arrived today so in the next few months there will be a trip to West Virginia to scatter the ashes and place the headstone.  The company that sent the ashes -- ScienceCare -- also sent along a beautiful little lucite pyramid that catches the light and just glitters and it has a message written in a circular pattern on the inside with a four-leaf clover in the center:  "He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times."  I think that is beautiful.