Can we talk?

Understanding Medicare

    Ever tried to help an older person with medical bills or insurance? Man, this takes some major effort. If the average adult with full faculties can't figure out medicare and secondary insurances, how are people with failing eyesight and memory problems supposed to handle these things? And then there's those with dementia or other mental infimities. If they don't have children or grandchildren living close by to check in several times a week, how are they supposed to handle their medical bills?
    There aren't scores of volunteers sitting around waiting to help on an individual basis every time some elderly person has a problem. I do see a need for ommunities to have clinics or seminars to teach about these things. And teaching a record keeping system would be very helpful. That way a relative visiting from out of town or a kindly neighbor could step in to help the elderly person and be able to figure out what to do and leave acurate notes for the next person helping.
    As the number of elderly people increases, this need must be addressed. Deveoping good record keeping systems that can be copied and used at home is a good start. I suspect many seniors end up paying more than they have to because they aren't filing properly. Making education available to all of us dealing with the elderly or who are elderly would be helpful,too.