Get the most out of the new Medicare drug coverage!

Everyone wants to get the highest possible retirement and pension income – not to mention the best medical coverage. Turn to the completely updated 12th edition of Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions to discover the benefits you're entitled to and how to claim them as easily as possible.

Social Security benefits
Find all the latest information and instructions you need to get your retirement and disability benefits, dependents and survivors benefits, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Medicare & Medicaid
Learn the nuts and bolts of both programs, plus how to qualify and apply for them. Understand Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage – what it covers, how to apply for it and how to use it with your medigap policy, managed care plan or Medicaid.

Medical coverage options
Get the latest information on Medicare and Medicaid HMOs and other managed care plans, and learn about the different types of medigap health plans.

Government pensions & veterans benefits
Discover when and how to claim the benefits you have earned.

Practical advice for anyone thinking about retirement
Find out how much your benefits will be when you plan to claim them. Time your retirement to get the best benefits. Fill out and file important benefit forms. And more!

Social Security is the general term that describes a number of related programs -- retirement, disability, dependents, and survivors benefits. These programs operate together to provide workers and their families with some monthly income when their normal flow of income shrinks because of the retirement, disability, or death of the person who earned that income.

The Social Security system was initially intended to provide financial security for older Americans. It was meant to help compensate for limited job opportunities available to older people in our society. And it was intended to help bridge the financial gaps created by the disappearance of the multigenerational family household -- a break-up caused in large measure by the need for American workers to move around the country to find decent employment.

Unfortunately, this goal of providing financial security is today increasingly remote. The combination of rapidly rising living costs, stagnation of benefit amounts, and penalties for older people who continue to work has made the amount of support offered by Social Security less adequate with each passing year. This shrinking of the Social Security safety net makes it that much more important that you get the maximum benefits to which you are entitled.

This chapter explains how Social Security programs operate in general. It is helpful to know how the whole system works before determining whether you qualify for a particular benefit program and how much your benefits will be. Once you understand the basic premises of Social Security, you will be better equipped to get the fullest benefits possible from all Social Security programs for which you might qualify. (See chapters 2, 3, and 5.)

History of Social Security Public images of our society generally render invisible many millions of economically hard-pressed older americans. The older person with little income and assets is left out of the standard media pictures of two-car, two-kid suburbanites and of wealthy retired couples in gated luxury communities. Modern western capitalism produces expendable workers. And the most vulnerable, such as people older than 65, are the most easily expended.

In the most advanced of modern industrial nations, the United States, the position of expendable workers is the worst. The richest 1% of U.S. households control almost 40% of the nation's financial wealth, and the bottom 80% of the population -- that is, the vast majority of us -- control only about 15% of the nation's financial wealth. These figures for the distribution of wealth are twice as large as those of great Britain, a society commonly thought to have a wide divide separating rich and poor.

During periods of extreme economic retrenching, the number of people cast off by the economy spills over the normal barriers of invisibility. And with so many people during these crises sharing their complaints about economic injustice, it is sometimes difficult to keep them all under control. One such period of extreme economic dislocation was the Depression of the 1930s. Many millions of people were displaced -- not only from job, home, and family, but from any hope for a place in the economy.

The Beginning of Social Security Faced with this crisis and with the possibility of massive social upheaval, Franklin Roosevelt and Congress decided to act. Roosevelt pushed through a number of programs of national financial assistance -- one of which was a system of retirement benefits called Social Security, enacted into law in 1935.

 

Get the most out of the new Medicare drug coverage!

Introduction

1. Social Security: The Basics
History of Social Security
Social Security Defined
Eligibility for Benefits
Earning Work Credits
Determining Your Benefit Amount
Your Social Security Earnings Record
Reading Your Social Security Statement
Correcting Your Record
U.S. Citizens' Rights to Receive Benefits While Living Abroad
Receiving Benefits as a Noncitizen

2. Social Security Retirement Benefits
Work Credits Required
Timing Your Retirement
The Amount of Your Retirement Check
Working After Claiming Early Retirement Benefits

3. Social Security Disability Benefits
Who Is Eligible
What Is a Disability
Amount of Disability Benefit Payments
Collecting Additional Benefits
Eligibility Review
Returning to Work

4. Social Security Dependents Benefits
Who Is Eligible
Calculating Dependents Benefits
Eligibility for More Than One Benefit
Working While Receiving Benefits
Government Pension Offset

5. Social Security Survivors Benefits
Work Credits Required for Eligibility
Who Is Eligible
Amount of Survivors Benefits
Eligibility for More Than One Benefit
Working While Receiving Benefits
Government Pension Offset

6. Supplemental Security Income
Who Is Eligible
Benefit Amounts
Reductions to Benefits

7. Applying for Benefits
Retirement, Dependents, and Survivors Benefits
Disability Benefits
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)Finding Out What Happens to Your Claim

8. Appealing a Social Security Decision
Reconsideration of Decision
Administrative Hearing
Appeal to the National Appeals Council
Lawsuit in Federal Court
Lawyers and Other Assistance

9. Federal Civil Service Retirement Benefits
Two Retirement Systems: CSRS and FERS
Retirement Benefits
Disability Benefits to Federal Workers
Payments to Surviving Family Members
Applying for CSRS or FERS Benefits

10. Veterans Benefits
Types of Military Service Required
Compensation for Service-Connected Disability
Pension Benefits for Financially Needy Disabled Veterans
Survivors Benefits
Medical Treatment
Getting Information and Applying for Benefits

11. Medicare
The Medicare Maze
Medicare: The Basics
Part A Hospital Insurance
How Much Medicare Part A Pays
Part B Medical Insurance
How Much Medicare Part B Pays
Part D Prescription Drug Coverage
Deciding on a Part D Plan

12. Medicare Procedures: Enrollment, Claims, and Appeals
Enrolling in Part A Hospital Insurance
Enrolling in Part B Medical Insurance
Medicare's Payment of Your Medical Bills
Paying Your Share of the Bill
How to Read a Medicare Summary Notice
Appealing the Denial of a Claim
Medicare Part D: Enrollment, Exceptions, and Appeals
Switching Part D Plans
State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIP)

13. Medigap Insurance

14. Medicare Managed Care Plans

15. Medicaid and State Supplements to Medicare
Medicaid Defined
Who Is Eligible
Medical Costs Covered by Medicaid
Requirements for Coverage
Cost of Medicaid Coverage
Other State Assistance

Index

"Guide[s] you through the maze of Social Security and Medicare in simple English..."

 

"Anyone who can write a readable guide to Medicare should get a medal.... Why can't the system be as straightforward as this book?"

 

"Offers clear explanations of what to expect from a remarkable safety net that has withstood the test of time..."

 

"The inside scoop on how to get the most out of the current system..."

 

Joseph Matthews has been an attorney since 1971, and from 1975 to 1977 he taught at the law school of the University of California, Berkeley. He has for many years been involved in matters relating to seniors, and is the author of Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions and Long Term Care: How to Plan & Play for It, as well as How to Win Your Personal Injury Claim.

 

Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions by Joseph L. Matthews
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