I get the part B. But please help me understand why "standard" would be better than "basic". Other than the prescription coverage, wouldn't the deductibles, coinsurance and copays be picked up regardless of the plan you choose?

I had the same question since I keep trying to bring my expenses down so I called BCBS yesterday.

Essentially, Basic is like an HMO. if you want them to cover, you are restricted to specific providers. Basic will not cover out-of-network providers except in an emergency. At all. That can be significant. Another difference is that there is no mail order pharmacy benefit. There may be other differences, but the rep indicated these were the major ones.

Hope this helps.

Most of our responses were in regard to "Close to $1 million" in medical bills. AT this level you are talking about some serious medical issues. I would get the best I could afford. Standard offers much better prescription coverage than basic and you also have the issue of Dr/facility selection..ie PPO vs non-PPO. Catastrrophic cost limits are also lower under standard.

Yes, we are one of those folks who have had huge medical bills. However, am important part of our story is not the huge bills as much as how unexpected they were. Prior to her fall, my wife had been extremely active. In her 40s and 50s, she had hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up. We spend our honeymoon hiking Acadia National Park and spent our first post-retirement trip hiking in Yellowstone.

All of that changed in a heart beat when she fell. She fractured her C-2 vertibrae and was in a coma for 3 weeks.

If you wait to add insurance coverage until a major event occurs, it is too late. (Just as waiting to look at long term care insurance until you are in your 80s and ready for a nursing home.)

Bizdoc, so sorry to hear of your wife's accident. My prayers for her recovery and for you and your family. Sometime we forget how uncertain life is.

Your advice is oh so true! I hope others pay attention. Has your wife fully recovered?

Thanks for asking about how she is doing. The accident was 2 1/2 years ago. She spent 3 weeks in ICU, a month in a nursing home and had a couple of surgeries plus a lot of physical, occupational and speech therapy. Took 6 months before she could walk without a walker.

She won't ever be back to what she once could do. Since she had to have a spinal fusion, she can't swivel her neck and has limited ability to bend neck up and down. She proved the doctors wrong in the sense that they originally thought she's spend the rest of her life in a nursing home (A C-2 fracture is sometime known as a Christopher Reeves fracture - in her case the bone fragment went out instead of in and thus minimal spinal damage). Hiking over broken ground is out of the question as she (1) can't look up or down and (2) has a permanent, unfixable form of vertigo caused by damage to the nerves from her right side vestibular canals.

How did she make it? *GREAT* doctors at Duke including the (arguably) best neuro surgeon and the best neuro-otoligist in the universe. Lots and lots of painful hard work (as in 4 or 5 hours a therapy a day for the first month after coming out of her coma. An incredible will to live. And lots of hours of me singing "Just Keep Swimming" while she was in the coma and in the weeks that followed (which probably motivated her to get moving so could leave the room when I sang).

And she is one tough bird.

Good to hear some positive coming from a bad situation!

Best of luck in her recovery.

Health Insurance for Retired Federal Employees