It is unfortunate that the loss of your job almost always coincides with the loss of your health insurance. At a time when you are already dealing with stress and frustration, life adds the loss of health insurance to the situation. What are your options when your employer no longer subsidizes your health insurance plan? Where do you and your family turn when you have lost your income and now find that you have also lost your health insurance coverage?

There are a few options available but there are no absolute solutions. Cost plays a large part in the choices available at a time when you have just lost your income. If your spouse has a job and is eligible for coverage at his/her employer, this might be the ideal option for your family. Some employers do not offer family coverage, but this option should definitely be investigated. Recent unemployment is a valid reason for starting a policy outside of the normal enrollment period, so this is on your side.

Any employer who has at least 20 employees must offer COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) as an alternative insurance plan. This insurance is offered for a term of up to 18 months and will cover you and your family members. The problem is that it is very expensive. Employers are permitted to charge up to 102% of the current premium. You may not have realized that you were only contributing a very small portion of your health insurance premium while employed. This will all change now.

Investigate insurance coverage through trade groups, alumni associations, AARP for people over 50. There are many groups who would welcome you and your family as participants. Compare costs and choose what is most cost effective for you.

Workers who are 65 or over would be eligible for Medicare coverage. In the majority of situations they are already receiving hospital coverage. When losing their employee coverage, they are eligible for a special enrollment period to sign up for Part B and Part D coverage without incurring any financial penalty.

The question seems to be, where else can I cut back? It is becoming increasingly more difficult to answer. Many Americans surveyed feel that these are the worse economic times they have ever seen. Unfortunately, they also believe that the current situation will last for at least the next year or two. This is depressing and people are looking for ways to cut expenses.

At least 70% of those surveyed said they are even cutting back on such essentials as food and auto transportation. Fortunately, most of them have Medicare to take care of their health needs. Rising gas prices was the killer for 51 percent of those questioned. Those who work, 67 percent, were the ones who cited gas expense as a number one priority. Those who were retired considered rising food prices as the biggest problem faced today. We all have to eat, so this is a major concern to everyone.

On the plus side, the current economic situation has caused people to re-evaluate their spending and realign for the long haul. The majority of people blamed Washington for the current economic ills. Lifting all regulations and allowing everyone free reign brought us to this place in time. Many people became very rich by exploiting the free reign they were given. The rest of us are now paying the price.

People are very aware of their current expenses and carefully watching every dollar spent. Most are taking positive financial action during this year of turmoil. Many are reading more financial information and/or seeking help from financial advisers. Some are actively investigating areas in which they can reduce expenditures. It is difficult to know where to invest your retirement funds these days, as everything seems to be falling apart. Hopefully, we will get past this crisis and our world will return to what we have come to think of as normal.

When a person is considering retirement, there are many decisions that must be made. What is the right age? Can I afford to pay my expenses and still maintain my current standard of living? Am I old enough to be eligible for Medicare? Will I, like many others before me, have to return to work to make ends meet? This is the time to carefully examine your finances and determine if you can afford retirement.

One of the main sources of most retiree’s income is their social security checks. This amount will fluctuate depending on your age at retirement and your earnings up to that time. Social Security has been mailing annual estimates to everyone for a number of years. They are, however, estimates and cover just early retirement, full retirement age, and retirement at age 70. Should you want to retire at some point in between these years, you would have to guess at what your social security income would be.

In an effort to help retiree’s make a sound financial decision, the Social Security Administration recently went online with a Retirement Estimator. This allows workers to see what their expected levels of payments will be for all possible retirement ages. This estimator is available at www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator. After you provide specific personal information, the system can calculate your benefit based on your retirement date and current earnings. It will also provide information as to how these payments will change if your earnings increase or decrease. Before making the decision to retire, it is important that you have a realistic view of your finances versus expenses.

Everyone is becoming aware of identity theft as a recurring crime that is affecting a large portion of our population. Seniors are particularly sensitive to this new criminal activity and are trying to do everything they can to protect their information. They have discovered a weakness in our system and have been requesting assistance from the government in remedying the situation.

Apparently, all Medicare Cards display the social security number of the recipient. To make matters worse, every person with Medicare coverage has been requested to carry this card on their person. This is leaving seniors vulnerable to minor thefts in which their personal information will be readily available to every petty crook. Instead of having an account number specifically assigned to Medicare, they are being required to expose their social security number to numerous people who could easily copy it. Seniors are feeling very uncomfortable with this situation and have requested that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services fix this system. The Centers have taken the position that there is no problem as they have not been advised of one case of identity theft that could be traced back to a Medicare card. They say costs of changing the system would run about $500 million dollars and it would take five years to implement.

The Senate Finance Committee is supporting a revamp of the current system to eliminate this problem. It is near impossible to believe that, while we are all purchasing shredders and carefully watching over all forms of our identity, our seniors are being forced to carry their social security numbers on their person and required to present it to numerous employees so that they can obtain the benefits they so desperately need.

Everyone is becoming aware of identity theft as a recurring crime that is affecting a large portion of our population. Seniors are particularly sensitive to this new criminal activity and are trying to do everything they can to protect their information. They have discovered a weakness in our system and have been requesting assistance from the government in remedying the situation.

Apparently, all Medicare Cards display the social security number of the recipient. To make matters worse, every person with Medicare coverage has been requested to carry this card on their person. This is leaving seniors vulnerable to minor thefts in which their personal information will be readily available to every petty crook. Instead of having an account number specifically assigned to Medicare, they are being required to expose their social security number to numerous people who could easily copy it. Seniors are feeling very uncomfortable with this situation and have requested that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services fix this system. The Centers have taken the position that there is no problem as they have not been advised of one case of identity theft that could be traced back to a Medicare card. They say costs of changing the system would run about $500 million dollars and it would take five years to implement.

The Senate Finance Committee is supporting a revamp of the current system to eliminate this problem. It is near impossible to believe that, while we are all purchasing shredders and carefully watching over all forms of our identity, our seniors are being forced to carry their social security numbers on their person and required to present it to numerous employees so that they can obtain the benefits they so desperately need.