Medicare open enrollment happens annually from Oct. 15 to midnight, Dec. 7. Advertising about what Medicare enrollees can or might be able to do during the open enrollment period will most likely start in early September. Much of this advertising is not from the Centers for Medicare Services but rather private organizations.
ServiceLink is a state and grant-funded agency serving Grafton County residents. One service this agency does is provide folks, in an unbiased manner, with information on Medicare choices.
With that in mind, what a Medicare enrollee can do during open enrollment boils down to five things, all with a start date of Jan. 1, 2022:
■change to a new prescription drug plan;
■enroll in a prescription drug plan;
■change to a new Medicare Advantage plan;
■enroll in an Advantage plan, thereby dropping original Medicare;
An enrollee might want to change to a different drug plan or Advantage plan because both of these types of plans are allowed to make annual changes. These changes may or may not be to the enrollee’s financial or personal benefit. Drugs may no longer be covered, premiums may go up, deductibles may go up, in-network providers may change, benefits may change. During open enrollment, an individual can see what these changes are on medicare.gov, an official CMS website. Based on that information an individual can make an informed enrollment decision.
The staff at ServiceLink are able and happy to assist (at no cost to the consumer) with all the choices mentioned. We can also assist in determining whether an individual is income-eligible for a program that would pay the monthly Part B premium, and assist with the application process.
We can additionally assist in determining through a set of higher eligibility guidelines whether an individual would qualify for a program through Social Security that would reduce prescription drug plan premiums and costs of medications, and assist with the application process.
Please give us a call in Lebanon at 603-448-1558.
Sue Mackillop
Lebanon
The writer is the Medicare coordinator for Grafton County ServiceLink.
We control the weather! The food we eat has the power to create disease and cure disease for our planet and for ourselves.
The recent International Panel on Climate Change report on climate change has been in the headlines (“Experts explain what UN panel’s climate change report means for NH, Vermont,’ Aug. 11). It unequivocally states that human-induced climate change is progressing faster than expected, a number of the changes are irreversible and that we can still act to prevent the worst-case scenario. It, however, does not give individuals guidance on our immediate actions to help save our planet.
Fourteen years ago, we changed to a plant-based diet to heal our family’s diseases. Our oldest daughter (26 at the time) had been diagnosed with generalized myasthenia gravis (lifelong steroids, no hope of recovery, threat of premature death), our second daughter had migraines and our youngest had exercise-induced anaphylactic shock syndrome. Charles was pre-diabetic with increasing cholesterol numbers and Kathy (a cancer survivor from years previous) was concerned about the cancer coming back. Long story short, our entire family is now healthy, and we, at 66, are in the best health of our lives, no heart disease, no cancer and no diabetes.
A bonus — we learned that by changing to a plant-based diet that our individual carbon footprint was reduced by 40%. This fact is striking. Making this change in our diet was also the best action we could take to reduce our carbon footprint and to conserve water.
It is this point that we are making — to create awareness that it is not buying an expensive electric vehicle, installing solar panels and using flow-reducing fixtures that gives us the power to have a greater impact. Do not get us wrong, as these items all help. But the average American consumes more than 200 pounds of beef and poultry a year. Buying locally grown, plant-based food, reducing our consumption of animal products and not supporting large agribusiness through our choices will reduce our carbon footprint and help prevent the worst-case scenarios.
We and the planet, can be healthy.
Charles and Kathy Stock
Plainfield
Keep the meaty stories coming
It was good to read the Aug. 22 Sunday Valley News this past weekend because of the excellent writing and coverage of trends in the Upper Valley. The stories I thought were excellent included the page 1 Alex Hanson story (‘Expanded Palates’) on the Upper Valley food scene (great photos too!). Also, the informative one on the census by John Lippman (‘Census shows outward sprawl’). Another article that commanded my attention was by Liz Sauchelli (‘The story of Lyme in the numbers’) on Lyme’s historic population decline (but now I want to read the poem dedicated to Al Smith). I also enjoyed the gardening story by someone whose byline I now look for because of her consistently interesting and thoughtful stories, Claire Potter, (‘Here’s your shot to toss your pots’).
We all know newspapers have had a very rough few years during the transition to digital. Stories like these are why I keep my subscription current. I get the print delivered, thank you for keeping it coming. Thank you also for coverage of these local stories, they are meaty, they are important, they keep us informed.
Congratulations to the reporters and editors involved in putting together this daily treasure.
Alison C. Roth
Perkinsville