It's pretty much a server/client world we live in. The clients are the ones who need the servers, although there obviously are servers that talk to each other too. Running a server is simply a matter of managing the clients. That's done via groups and permissions. The data which your clients is being served is pretty much intuitively organized, much like your office PC. Because it's all Unix/Linux on the server side scripts and Bash can be used when needed to satisfy any special needs of the clients. I hardly ever did that as an administrator, but I did use Bash a lot for maintenance and troubleshooting. I'd have to agree that you are at a disadvantage if you are not comfortable with the command line and how it works. That does not mean you can't manage a server. It just means you need to learn one more skill.
The hosting company for this website offers a tremendous variety of packages. I got the lowest price deal I could find and it has served me well over the years. I could upgrade any time, and if we had a few hundred active users I might consider a fixed IP server instead of the shared one we are using. As you have noted this shared server is bogged down at times denying us access. I don't know what to say about you losing content while you are editing. It could be the server software or it could be cockpit problems. That's a tough one to analyze.
If the number of hits could be a problem for you you need to hope that the same thing which happened here does not happen to you. It seems as if there are some very aggressive web crawlers out in the wild, mostly based in China. This site has had more than 500 users reading it's content which turned out to be robot web crawlers in China. They were all guests but effectively created a DDoS situation and our site was shut down for a while due to the large numbers. If we were being charged for hits over a certain number, we would be out of business today. Fortunately I was able to block those robots, but you know how that goes. Fix one problem and six more show up after they figure it out.
Alexa vs Alexa
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Any topic is acceptable, and topic drift is permissible.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
I actually use a few bash commands every day, and the one I believe you wrote for me, I use several times a day.
Since that time, I found a website a few years ago that had a list of common bash lines a guy wrote and gave them names so you knew what they did. I found about half a dozen I could use from time to time. Now I have no idea where I put them for safe keeping, hi hi.
On Debian, you have to use command line for quite a few things, like updates, upgrades, dist-upgrades, checking certain things, installing new programs, etc. But I just scroll through my terminal to find the one I need to use and use it.
I think my host provider has a program that more or less blocks these web crawlers from more than one hit per day.
There are some they do want to hit your pages, but most they don't, so they are blocked somehow.
I also don't think they count those kinds of hits toward your hit usage.
I have counters on my pages, and on the front end it only shows unique hits, but on the back end it shows all hits, which is useful to know if the same person hits your website often. I can also set the unique hits to forget after a day, week, month, or year. So a new person who hits gets counted, but then not counted again until after the forget time I have set. Doing this on a monthly basis does help the hit counter on the front end move up more often, hi hi.
But I've never ever seen a ton of hits on the back end counter that shows all hits.
So I guess it does not show hits by bots.
Since that time, I found a website a few years ago that had a list of common bash lines a guy wrote and gave them names so you knew what they did. I found about half a dozen I could use from time to time. Now I have no idea where I put them for safe keeping, hi hi.
On Debian, you have to use command line for quite a few things, like updates, upgrades, dist-upgrades, checking certain things, installing new programs, etc. But I just scroll through my terminal to find the one I need to use and use it.
I think my host provider has a program that more or less blocks these web crawlers from more than one hit per day.
There are some they do want to hit your pages, but most they don't, so they are blocked somehow.
I also don't think they count those kinds of hits toward your hit usage.
I have counters on my pages, and on the front end it only shows unique hits, but on the back end it shows all hits, which is useful to know if the same person hits your website often. I can also set the unique hits to forget after a day, week, month, or year. So a new person who hits gets counted, but then not counted again until after the forget time I have set. Doing this on a monthly basis does help the hit counter on the front end move up more often, hi hi.
But I've never ever seen a ton of hits on the back end counter that shows all hits.
So I guess it does not show hits by bots.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
If Comcast is blocking bots from accessing it's web servers, I want to talk to Comcast. LOL I know of two simple ways to block a specific IP address and/or entire domains. One is the robots.txt file and the other is to embed certain codes into the .htaccess file in each directory. The robots.txt method is an honor system. Most crawlers will honor what is specified, but they are not obligated to do so. There isn't anything you can do if they ignore your instructions other than contact them personally, which I have done. They promised to delete us from their search list but never did. The .htaccess coding is a little more powerful in that it can block access to a directory. Blocking a specific bot is pointless in that they often change names and IP addresses. The way I cut down on the Chinese crawlers was to eliminate certain top domains. This not only stopped the bots but also stops every other computer in that domain. Since it was a matter of allowing them in or shutting down this website, I chose to block a few domains.
The hosting service does not, in fact cannot, block entire domains. They hesitate to block specific known bot IP addresses as well. After all, using their servers is what they are in business to allow. It doesn't affect the host server when your web site is inundated by attack web crawlers. They can handle the traffic, but your single site has limits. Those limits are essentially established by performance. In other words if you get too many views at the same time, none of them get to see your website. The host server on the other hand can handle a lot more connections than a single site because all they are doing is directing the client requests to the proper website. The server itself is not displaying content like your website is. While it's not an exact analogy, web servers are something like routers. All they do is direct traffic, and most don't care what kind of traffic it is.
You don't have to worry about being indexed by web crawlers unless it affects viewing of your site or unless you are being charged for their presence. I only brought this up because you mentioned that you have a limit to the number of views your site can have without penalty.
All those Bash commands you mention are scripts written by somebody else to be part of the operating system. In fact you can go into the /bin directory and edit what they do and how they do it if you knew how. The only thing you can't edit in Linux is the kernel, but you can modify the attached modules and recompile it to suit your needs. The kernel too is just a giant sized script. I don't blame you for steering clear of such low level operations. The fact that they are there and can be modified is one of the root causes of why I don't like Linux. Anybody can booger it up and call it their own.
The hosting service does not, in fact cannot, block entire domains. They hesitate to block specific known bot IP addresses as well. After all, using their servers is what they are in business to allow. It doesn't affect the host server when your web site is inundated by attack web crawlers. They can handle the traffic, but your single site has limits. Those limits are essentially established by performance. In other words if you get too many views at the same time, none of them get to see your website. The host server on the other hand can handle a lot more connections than a single site because all they are doing is directing the client requests to the proper website. The server itself is not displaying content like your website is. While it's not an exact analogy, web servers are something like routers. All they do is direct traffic, and most don't care what kind of traffic it is.
You don't have to worry about being indexed by web crawlers unless it affects viewing of your site or unless you are being charged for their presence. I only brought this up because you mentioned that you have a limit to the number of views your site can have without penalty.
All those Bash commands you mention are scripts written by somebody else to be part of the operating system. In fact you can go into the /bin directory and edit what they do and how they do it if you knew how. The only thing you can't edit in Linux is the kernel, but you can modify the attached modules and recompile it to suit your needs. The kernel too is just a giant sized script. I don't blame you for steering clear of such low level operations. The fact that they are there and can be modified is one of the root causes of why I don't like Linux. Anybody can booger it up and call it their own.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
You know a whole lot more about that stuff than I do.
My hit counter for all hits only shows about 15 to 30 per day now.
Before I changed hosts it used to show 150 to 300 per day.
Now if I go into the Control Panel for my primary website, provided by my host provider, it shows a lot of things.
Trouble is, working your way around to find the data can sometimes be tricky.
What I call hits, they call Page Views, and they also show Domain Calls which is always much greater number and never brings up a page beyond the Index page, else it would show as Page Views.
My thoughts on this is a BOT can probably check my Domain and read the Index Page, without opening the Index Page to view.
I say this, because my Page Views number is usually equivalent to the number of times my Index Page was viewed, plus if they went to another page using a Link from the Index page, the counter for the page they went to also increases.
So if the counter on my Index Page shows 10 hits, and the other pages show a total of 6 hits added up, which is 16. This is basically what my provider calls Page Views, although their number is usually about 3 to 5 higher.
The Domain Calls number is always really high, like up around 3 to 5 thousand, which I attribute to web crawlers looking in.
I could be way off base with all that, but that is how it seems to me.
A number of years ago, I asked how many people could be viewing my page at once. And they said it doesn't really work like that. When someone connects to my page, it dishes up the page, if they move to another page from a link, it dishes up that page. It is not a live connection the way I was thinking. Now if it is a long video, the connection will stay alive until the entirety of the video has uploaded to their computer.
Assuming I had something on my site that takes a long time to upload to the computer requesting same, if the number of live connects crossed like 60 connects, we would look into it, but I shouldn't worry until it gets up to around 600 live connects at the same time, which is highly unlikely based on the content on my pages. Heck even have 5 hits at once is highly unlikely, hi hi.
This isn't the page I found Bash Scripts on, but it is similar.
https://betterprogramming.pub/10-freque ... e9e7fa8cea
This one has some of the ones I have used, but I never did download their snippets, just copied the ones I wanted and put them in a text file as to what they did.
https://ostechnix.com/collection-useful ... ine-users/
Now this is more like the kinds of Bash commands I kept a list of for quick reference.
https://www.educative.io/blog/bash-shel ... heat-sheet
This is one of the many tutorials I have used, but get hung up as soon as I get down to something like variables, hi hi.
https://linuxconfig.org/bash-scripting- ... -beginners
My hit counter for all hits only shows about 15 to 30 per day now.
Before I changed hosts it used to show 150 to 300 per day.
Now if I go into the Control Panel for my primary website, provided by my host provider, it shows a lot of things.
Trouble is, working your way around to find the data can sometimes be tricky.
What I call hits, they call Page Views, and they also show Domain Calls which is always much greater number and never brings up a page beyond the Index page, else it would show as Page Views.
My thoughts on this is a BOT can probably check my Domain and read the Index Page, without opening the Index Page to view.
I say this, because my Page Views number is usually equivalent to the number of times my Index Page was viewed, plus if they went to another page using a Link from the Index page, the counter for the page they went to also increases.
So if the counter on my Index Page shows 10 hits, and the other pages show a total of 6 hits added up, which is 16. This is basically what my provider calls Page Views, although their number is usually about 3 to 5 higher.
The Domain Calls number is always really high, like up around 3 to 5 thousand, which I attribute to web crawlers looking in.
I could be way off base with all that, but that is how it seems to me.
A number of years ago, I asked how many people could be viewing my page at once. And they said it doesn't really work like that. When someone connects to my page, it dishes up the page, if they move to another page from a link, it dishes up that page. It is not a live connection the way I was thinking. Now if it is a long video, the connection will stay alive until the entirety of the video has uploaded to their computer.
Assuming I had something on my site that takes a long time to upload to the computer requesting same, if the number of live connects crossed like 60 connects, we would look into it, but I shouldn't worry until it gets up to around 600 live connects at the same time, which is highly unlikely based on the content on my pages. Heck even have 5 hits at once is highly unlikely, hi hi.
This isn't the page I found Bash Scripts on, but it is similar.
https://betterprogramming.pub/10-freque ... e9e7fa8cea
This one has some of the ones I have used, but I never did download their snippets, just copied the ones I wanted and put them in a text file as to what they did.
https://ostechnix.com/collection-useful ... ine-users/
Now this is more like the kinds of Bash commands I kept a list of for quick reference.
https://www.educative.io/blog/bash-shel ... heat-sheet
This is one of the many tutorials I have used, but get hung up as soon as I get down to something like variables, hi hi.
https://linuxconfig.org/bash-scripting- ... -beginners
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
I think you have a fair understanding of web servers and Bash. The difference between you and I is simply in the details. You have in some regards done more with the Linux command line that I ever had a need to do here in the CCC. It got a little more complicated, but not much, when I was system admin at the big M company. The tasks were pretty routine and the command line entries were well known because they were used often. When I had to do something special, I got the script/command from somebody who know a lot more than I did. I was able to decipher the man pages so that if I had to modify what I was given it wasn't that difficult. If you get stuck on something like handling variables, then I can see why you would avoid Bash like the plague.
You point out that web pages are not live sessions on the server, which is absolutely true. The server serves data and does not run programs. Or, at least that is the intention. Whatever content is on a web page is put into your browser's cache, which is why you need to clean it out once in a while. That cache can accumulate a lot of useless web page information. If you want to see what the server sends to your computer when you request an URL, simply go to some random webpage and save it to your desktop. You will get a link and a folder referred to by the link. Inside the folder is all the data contained on your webpage. Thus the server grabs it from your site's directory and passes it along to your computer. That's it. That's all a server does. In some cases programs are run from the web page. For example when you look at YouTube you must have the codecs stored on your computer in order to see the video. Likewise when you view a .pdf file, that reader must be installed on your computer. Well, ok, that's not a good example because a lot of browsers now have .pdf readers built into them. My point is that the server isn't doing the rendering. Your computer is. Which is what you already noted.
To be honest with you I never did understand the jargon used to describe web page viewing. A "hit" to me means the server read the URL. That's it. When you get the information related to that URL downloaded to your computer, that's a "view." As I mentioned above your browser stores that information once you view the page so that if you go back to it a second time, that's a hit and not a view. The server doesn't download it in that case because you already have the information. The view counters you might use have their own definitions which mostly are used in advertising. People get paid and charged for views and hits and there is a time element involved too, not to mention referrer URL and exit URL. It's all part of keeping track of your navigating habits. HINT: the best way to cut down and possibly eliminate trackers is to clear your cache and your cookies and all the data that goes with it every time you close your browser. Of course you will have to log into all those websites again, but you won't be tracked permanently.
As far as I know web crawlers are looking for new URL's to index in their database. Thus when you post a URL here in these discussions, the next crawler to read this thread will go to that webpage and see if it's part of it's database. Since each thread is in reality a link, those crawlers spend a lot of time here following all of them. And if there are counters embedded into those pages the crawler's presence will be counted as a view. The problem we had was that some crawlers in China decided to shortcut the process. Instead of one robot looking at all the links on our website, they sent 500 bots to do it all simultaneously. Our index page was overwhelmed by all those views because our database could not serve up the threads quick enough to satisfy 500 calls all at the same time. So now those clever bastards see nothing. Their domains are blocked.
You point out that web pages are not live sessions on the server, which is absolutely true. The server serves data and does not run programs. Or, at least that is the intention. Whatever content is on a web page is put into your browser's cache, which is why you need to clean it out once in a while. That cache can accumulate a lot of useless web page information. If you want to see what the server sends to your computer when you request an URL, simply go to some random webpage and save it to your desktop. You will get a link and a folder referred to by the link. Inside the folder is all the data contained on your webpage. Thus the server grabs it from your site's directory and passes it along to your computer. That's it. That's all a server does. In some cases programs are run from the web page. For example when you look at YouTube you must have the codecs stored on your computer in order to see the video. Likewise when you view a .pdf file, that reader must be installed on your computer. Well, ok, that's not a good example because a lot of browsers now have .pdf readers built into them. My point is that the server isn't doing the rendering. Your computer is. Which is what you already noted.
To be honest with you I never did understand the jargon used to describe web page viewing. A "hit" to me means the server read the URL. That's it. When you get the information related to that URL downloaded to your computer, that's a "view." As I mentioned above your browser stores that information once you view the page so that if you go back to it a second time, that's a hit and not a view. The server doesn't download it in that case because you already have the information. The view counters you might use have their own definitions which mostly are used in advertising. People get paid and charged for views and hits and there is a time element involved too, not to mention referrer URL and exit URL. It's all part of keeping track of your navigating habits. HINT: the best way to cut down and possibly eliminate trackers is to clear your cache and your cookies and all the data that goes with it every time you close your browser. Of course you will have to log into all those websites again, but you won't be tracked permanently.
As far as I know web crawlers are looking for new URL's to index in their database. Thus when you post a URL here in these discussions, the next crawler to read this thread will go to that webpage and see if it's part of it's database. Since each thread is in reality a link, those crawlers spend a lot of time here following all of them. And if there are counters embedded into those pages the crawler's presence will be counted as a view. The problem we had was that some crawlers in China decided to shortcut the process. Instead of one robot looking at all the links on our website, they sent 500 bots to do it all simultaneously. Our index page was overwhelmed by all those views because our database could not serve up the threads quick enough to satisfy 500 calls all at the same time. So now those clever bastards see nothing. Their domains are blocked.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
I do know the first time you visit a website, it loads it onto your computer, so the next time you go, it pulls it from your own cache, and if you don't hit the reload button you won't see any of the changes made since it was stored in your cache.
Although some websites also track the last visit and will update automatically if their was a change since the last visit.
Going way back to when I set up an Edubuntu server, there was no GUI, it was all controlled via command line from my main computer. But then too I had a list of commands I used, and most of them were saved in the terminal I used to access that machine. First time I ever heard of Headless, hi hi. And the way I understood it was you don't want a monitor on a server.
Then a few years after that, I thought about, but never did, try to build a Bewolf Cluster computer. It sounded like a good idea, but like most things, so far above my head there is no way I could attempt it on my own.
If I stayed in St. Louis, I belonged to the St. Louis Area Computing Club, which was the oldest club of its kind. They would have been glad to teach me all about servers. Albeit, I'm sure so much has changed over the years, it would do me no good now.
I lost two hours today on the phone with Medicare.
One of my Meds that are Nebulized is Budesonide.
I've been getting it from Walgreens now for at least 3 years.
Never had a problem until I reordered this time.
The idiots tried submitting it through my Drug Plan D so naturally they were told it's not covered.
I told them knuckleheads, Budesonide goes through Medicare Part B for used with Durable Equipment, and is covered 80%.
So they tried running it through Part B and got it Declined Again. Said it was missing some Form.
I called my doctor first and he said he submitted and updated script and sent it along with both Forms now needed.
Talked to the drug store again and got no where with them.
So I decided to call Medicare direct.
I had to go through three different people there, to get up to the level needed for it to be handled.
They called my doctors office while I was on hold, then called Walgreens and brought me in on the call as a conference call.
When the higher ups and Medicare call, things get done, or they could lose their whatever allows them to bill Medicare, hi hi.
I thought it was all done and ready to go and planned on running up there to get it.
Walgreens called and said they had one box and have to order the rest, because Medicare only pays for a certain brand.
OK, I set, just get the whole order together and call me when it is ready.
They said it should be there by tomorrow after 11am. I said great, I'll see you just after lunch.
Now we wait and see, hi hi.
There are three Nebulized drugs covered by Medicare Part B, and those are Albuterol, Arforotoral, and Budesonide.
I use Albuterol also, but have not needed to order any of late, because a friends mother passed away and she had an old last months supply and a new three months supply they gave to me. I also don't use as much as I used to either.
Albuterol is a SABA, short acting bronchial dilator, and Budesonide is a LABA, long acting bronchial dilator.
As long as I'm not gasping for breath before my nightime dose of Budesonide, I don't need to use the Albuterol 4 times a day like I did before the doc added Budesonide, which lasts about 6 hours, sometimes 8.
Although some websites also track the last visit and will update automatically if their was a change since the last visit.
Going way back to when I set up an Edubuntu server, there was no GUI, it was all controlled via command line from my main computer. But then too I had a list of commands I used, and most of them were saved in the terminal I used to access that machine. First time I ever heard of Headless, hi hi. And the way I understood it was you don't want a monitor on a server.
Then a few years after that, I thought about, but never did, try to build a Bewolf Cluster computer. It sounded like a good idea, but like most things, so far above my head there is no way I could attempt it on my own.
If I stayed in St. Louis, I belonged to the St. Louis Area Computing Club, which was the oldest club of its kind. They would have been glad to teach me all about servers. Albeit, I'm sure so much has changed over the years, it would do me no good now.
I lost two hours today on the phone with Medicare.
One of my Meds that are Nebulized is Budesonide.
I've been getting it from Walgreens now for at least 3 years.
Never had a problem until I reordered this time.
The idiots tried submitting it through my Drug Plan D so naturally they were told it's not covered.
I told them knuckleheads, Budesonide goes through Medicare Part B for used with Durable Equipment, and is covered 80%.
So they tried running it through Part B and got it Declined Again. Said it was missing some Form.
I called my doctor first and he said he submitted and updated script and sent it along with both Forms now needed.
Talked to the drug store again and got no where with them.
So I decided to call Medicare direct.
I had to go through three different people there, to get up to the level needed for it to be handled.
They called my doctors office while I was on hold, then called Walgreens and brought me in on the call as a conference call.
When the higher ups and Medicare call, things get done, or they could lose their whatever allows them to bill Medicare, hi hi.
I thought it was all done and ready to go and planned on running up there to get it.
Walgreens called and said they had one box and have to order the rest, because Medicare only pays for a certain brand.
OK, I set, just get the whole order together and call me when it is ready.
They said it should be there by tomorrow after 11am. I said great, I'll see you just after lunch.
Now we wait and see, hi hi.
There are three Nebulized drugs covered by Medicare Part B, and those are Albuterol, Arforotoral, and Budesonide.
I use Albuterol also, but have not needed to order any of late, because a friends mother passed away and she had an old last months supply and a new three months supply they gave to me. I also don't use as much as I used to either.
Albuterol is a SABA, short acting bronchial dilator, and Budesonide is a LABA, long acting bronchial dilator.
As long as I'm not gasping for breath before my nightime dose of Budesonide, I don't need to use the Albuterol 4 times a day like I did before the doc added Budesonide, which lasts about 6 hours, sometimes 8.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
Medicare is a necessary evil. In spite of all the bureaucracy, they seem to have their act together. As you found out it also requires talking to the "right" person because nobody there knows more than enough to answer the single question they are responsible for answering. LOL Regardless, when you get to the right person they do solve the problem.
The problem in your case was not Medicare. The people at Walgreens have never impressed me as being knowledgeable. Once in a while a pharmacist seems to get it right, but even then they don't do what they are supposed to be doing. I avoid going into the store for prescriptions as much as I possibly can. I much prefer doing it all on the Walgreens website. The website seems fairly well organized and has a decent history of my medications. I can set up all kinds of options on the web site, such as automatic refills which I do not want. The automatic fills are filled nearly a month before I need them. So I tell them not to automatically fill any of my prescriptions which means they should wait until I request a refill regardless of the cycle time. Well, they automatically refill my prescriptions and send me obnoxious e-mais and text messages encouraging me to come and get them. When I ignore all that long enough, the pharmacist calls to tell me it's all ready. At that point I tell them in no uncertain terms that I don't need the drug at that time and that they were instructed to NOT automatically refill them. Nearly every time they say they will change the permanent record to reflect my preferences, but they don't.
Then there are the times when the automatic refill instruction is actually honored. In those cases I order online, and get the same feedback you got; it will be ready for pickup tomorrow after 11:00 AM. So, the next day about 1 PM I go to pick it up, and ... you guessed it. It's not been filled. They claim they had no instructions to fill it. I protest that the web site said it's ready and at times I brought a print out to show them. Doesn't matter. I have come to the conclusion that the people in the store do not look at the web site orders. Or, if they do, they laugh it off. Walgreens finally got it right about the end of November last year. I got one refill from them after I ordered it online. The following January I switched to CVS. So, wouldn't you know it. After getting it right in November they automatically refilled a very expensive prescription for me. I got the usual text message and e-mails, but before they called me I went to the CVS website and told them to transfer that very same prescription order from Walgreens to CVS. They did and the next day after 11:00 AM I went to CVS and picked it up. One at a time I ordered my drugs from the CVS website and transferred them all to the CVS account. Each timed I did that the order was ready the next day.
Oh, and finally about February of this year Walgreens figured it out. They stopped automatically refilling my prescriptions. But, they still send me junk mail about all the wonderful bargains they have waiting for me in their store.
Part of the problem is that not only Walgreens but most pharmacies are short on help. They hire people with feathers for brains, or those who can only read the script and not think beyond that. I have some sympathy for them not being able to get good help. They have a crap organization and anybody who is good would not want to work for them. They are convenient for me. CVS is about twice the distance from my house. And I have had trouble with CVS in the past, but they seem to be doing OK at the moment. Then, too, I've read where they are closing about 700 stores for some reason or another. They will maintain their mail order drug business, however. I'm seriously thinking WalMart.
The problem in your case was not Medicare. The people at Walgreens have never impressed me as being knowledgeable. Once in a while a pharmacist seems to get it right, but even then they don't do what they are supposed to be doing. I avoid going into the store for prescriptions as much as I possibly can. I much prefer doing it all on the Walgreens website. The website seems fairly well organized and has a decent history of my medications. I can set up all kinds of options on the web site, such as automatic refills which I do not want. The automatic fills are filled nearly a month before I need them. So I tell them not to automatically fill any of my prescriptions which means they should wait until I request a refill regardless of the cycle time. Well, they automatically refill my prescriptions and send me obnoxious e-mais and text messages encouraging me to come and get them. When I ignore all that long enough, the pharmacist calls to tell me it's all ready. At that point I tell them in no uncertain terms that I don't need the drug at that time and that they were instructed to NOT automatically refill them. Nearly every time they say they will change the permanent record to reflect my preferences, but they don't.
Then there are the times when the automatic refill instruction is actually honored. In those cases I order online, and get the same feedback you got; it will be ready for pickup tomorrow after 11:00 AM. So, the next day about 1 PM I go to pick it up, and ... you guessed it. It's not been filled. They claim they had no instructions to fill it. I protest that the web site said it's ready and at times I brought a print out to show them. Doesn't matter. I have come to the conclusion that the people in the store do not look at the web site orders. Or, if they do, they laugh it off. Walgreens finally got it right about the end of November last year. I got one refill from them after I ordered it online. The following January I switched to CVS. So, wouldn't you know it. After getting it right in November they automatically refilled a very expensive prescription for me. I got the usual text message and e-mails, but before they called me I went to the CVS website and told them to transfer that very same prescription order from Walgreens to CVS. They did and the next day after 11:00 AM I went to CVS and picked it up. One at a time I ordered my drugs from the CVS website and transferred them all to the CVS account. Each timed I did that the order was ready the next day.
Oh, and finally about February of this year Walgreens figured it out. They stopped automatically refilling my prescriptions. But, they still send me junk mail about all the wonderful bargains they have waiting for me in their store.
Part of the problem is that not only Walgreens but most pharmacies are short on help. They hire people with feathers for brains, or those who can only read the script and not think beyond that. I have some sympathy for them not being able to get good help. They have a crap organization and anybody who is good would not want to work for them. They are convenient for me. CVS is about twice the distance from my house. And I have had trouble with CVS in the past, but they seem to be doing OK at the moment. Then, too, I've read where they are closing about 700 stores for some reason or another. They will maintain their mail order drug business, however. I'm seriously thinking WalMart.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
I too have turned off all the automatic refills, so they will call me when they think I should be getting one, if I don't respond to their request for order e-mail, hi hi.
Their home office called me one day about a script I'm supposed to be taking, but haven't ordered in a long time.
So I told her, it's because they keep messing up and sending me the wrong thing.
I order Enalopril which I'm out of, and my wife stops to pick it up and comes home with Atorvasstatin.
I'm now 3 orders ahead on those, but still out of Enalopril.
They don't let me order it because they say I still have 4 pills left.
Then when I do order, they delay three days filling the order, so now I'm behind on pills.
I borrow pills from my wife, and give them back when I get mine so she don't run out.
And this is how I'm always behind on that particular drug.
I was actually using CVS before I switched my drug program to AARP Walgreens. It turned out Walgreens was a whole lot cheaper than CVS. I also used WalMart for a short time, because my wife had to go there to get her insulin that only they sold.
I left Walgreens to Kroger and it cost me like 150 bucks more with them.
Now when Walgreens overcharges me, their home office always catches this and mails me a check.
I think what it is is the store does not properly submit to the supplemental plan, and when the supplemental plan does pay up, it is the home office that gets paid, so they cut a check to me from the home office of Walgreens.
Never got a check from CVS or Kroger!
I used Optum Rx mail order for a long time, and then after I was put on oxygen, the durable equipment meds came through Reliant Drug company via mail too. Medicare sends me a breakdown of what they paid every 3 months for me, and I began comparing what the normal price for drugs were with what Reliant was charging me. They were MUCH Higher!
Now Medicare only pays a specific amount, and my supplemental picks up most of the rest, but not over a certain amount.
Now if I have to pay a 20% co-pay on a drug, and one pharmacy charges 1,200 bucks and the other 1,800 bucks, the difference to me is 240 bucks or 360 bucks. So it pays to hunt around for which pharmacy charges the least retail price.
And between Walmart and Walgreens, Walgreens is usually the cheapest retail price.
Optum is always sending me fliers saying if I go back to them, and order 3 months scripts, I will only owe 10% co-pay.
But Walgreens does one better than that, if I get my scripts as 3 month scripts, often their is no co-pay, or if their is, it is much cheaper than ever.
As a quick example: If I order a 1 months supply, there is a 20 dollar co-pay. Which would be 60 dollars over three months time. But if I order a 3 month supply, the co-pay is only 50 bucks, so I save 10 bucks out of my own pocket.
Trouble is, some of my meds they won't sell in a 3 month supply, because Medicare don't allow it, not even mail order.
Their home office called me one day about a script I'm supposed to be taking, but haven't ordered in a long time.
So I told her, it's because they keep messing up and sending me the wrong thing.
I order Enalopril which I'm out of, and my wife stops to pick it up and comes home with Atorvasstatin.
I'm now 3 orders ahead on those, but still out of Enalopril.
They don't let me order it because they say I still have 4 pills left.
Then when I do order, they delay three days filling the order, so now I'm behind on pills.
I borrow pills from my wife, and give them back when I get mine so she don't run out.
And this is how I'm always behind on that particular drug.
I was actually using CVS before I switched my drug program to AARP Walgreens. It turned out Walgreens was a whole lot cheaper than CVS. I also used WalMart for a short time, because my wife had to go there to get her insulin that only they sold.
I left Walgreens to Kroger and it cost me like 150 bucks more with them.
Now when Walgreens overcharges me, their home office always catches this and mails me a check.
I think what it is is the store does not properly submit to the supplemental plan, and when the supplemental plan does pay up, it is the home office that gets paid, so they cut a check to me from the home office of Walgreens.
Never got a check from CVS or Kroger!
I used Optum Rx mail order for a long time, and then after I was put on oxygen, the durable equipment meds came through Reliant Drug company via mail too. Medicare sends me a breakdown of what they paid every 3 months for me, and I began comparing what the normal price for drugs were with what Reliant was charging me. They were MUCH Higher!
Now Medicare only pays a specific amount, and my supplemental picks up most of the rest, but not over a certain amount.
Now if I have to pay a 20% co-pay on a drug, and one pharmacy charges 1,200 bucks and the other 1,800 bucks, the difference to me is 240 bucks or 360 bucks. So it pays to hunt around for which pharmacy charges the least retail price.
And between Walmart and Walgreens, Walgreens is usually the cheapest retail price.
Optum is always sending me fliers saying if I go back to them, and order 3 months scripts, I will only owe 10% co-pay.
But Walgreens does one better than that, if I get my scripts as 3 month scripts, often their is no co-pay, or if their is, it is much cheaper than ever.
As a quick example: If I order a 1 months supply, there is a 20 dollar co-pay. Which would be 60 dollars over three months time. But if I order a 3 month supply, the co-pay is only 50 bucks, so I save 10 bucks out of my own pocket.
Trouble is, some of my meds they won't sell in a 3 month supply, because Medicare don't allow it, not even mail order.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
We have lamented on this tale of woe a few times in these forums. Healthcare and prescription drugs costs are complicated by design. Add to that the fact that not everybody in this country is entitled to the full benefits of either system. That's the price we pay under a capitalistic economic and political architecture. The justification for it all is the democratic republic and freedom therein we all enjoy. Well, that's becoming a myth too. Yet, for al it's shortcomings we are close to, if not actually, being the best system ever devised. I don't know if it's possible to mitigate all the inequities, but us folks on the short end of the stick manage to survive and conquer. You do a heck of a lot more research than most people I know, and that is enlightening. I think you have a good understanding of how the system works. Unfortunately that doesn't remedy anything. It just makes navigating it a little more efficient. The galling part of this story is that many attempts have been made in the past to fix it all. Even the current government is pushing for an overhaul. The galling part is that some of those congresspeople think the solution is to end the program or greatly reduce it. You know who they are. The ones who came into office well off and leave with a net worth thousands of times more than when they started. Perhaps some day that will all be sorted out. Perhaps, but likely not in my lifetime.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
I talked to Medicare a couple of times prior to the most recent.
I wanted to find out why they wouldn't pay Walgreens $29.95 for a nebulizer, but are glad to pay a leasing company $55.66 per month for one for a full year. And if it breaks, I have to replace it myself.
She said because they have to supply my mouthpiece for 5 years, the term of the contract.
A mouthpiece costs 88 cents each in bulk from Amazon. $1.69 by itself.
You only replace it about once every 2 months, although they suggest every two weeks.
Try getting one every two weeks from the leasing company and they bog down on shipping to you.
In any case, to me that is wasting OUR money to FUEL the big shots at the Medical Leasing places.
Same thing goes on with Big Pharma too, which we all know already!
You hit the nail on the head with the Rich Poly-TICK-ians don't care about us poor folks one iota, they are only there to get richer for themselves and their families.
I wanted to find out why they wouldn't pay Walgreens $29.95 for a nebulizer, but are glad to pay a leasing company $55.66 per month for one for a full year. And if it breaks, I have to replace it myself.
She said because they have to supply my mouthpiece for 5 years, the term of the contract.
A mouthpiece costs 88 cents each in bulk from Amazon. $1.69 by itself.
You only replace it about once every 2 months, although they suggest every two weeks.
Try getting one every two weeks from the leasing company and they bog down on shipping to you.
In any case, to me that is wasting OUR money to FUEL the big shots at the Medical Leasing places.
Same thing goes on with Big Pharma too, which we all know already!
You hit the nail on the head with the Rich Poly-TICK-ians don't care about us poor folks one iota, they are only there to get richer for themselves and their families.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
I'll say right at the onset that I'm not fully aware of what is being proposed as far as remedies are concerned. However, one suggestion I've read is to change the system so that the Medicare people can negotiate the price of drugs and supplies. I was under the impression that prices are in fact negotiated every year which is how the tiered drugs come about. It's something Medicare and Big Pharma work out base on past history. I must presume that while there are contracts negotiated, Medicare has little to say about determining the costs. They only have power to determine what and how much they will reimburse.
Your nebulizer story doesn't make sense much the same way as the cost of anti-coagulant medications I take. I was taking Warfarin which was dirt cheap. It's just a variation of rat poison after all. However, taking Warfarin requires periodic blood tests at the hospital labs, usually every other week. Thus Medicare has to pay for the drug and the lab work. I had to switch from Warfarin to Xaralto which does it's job in a different manner and does not require lab tests to verify it's effectiveness. Because Xarelto is branded and not a generic drug it is in a high tier bracket and costs me about 100 times more (literally) than the Warfarin. But, Medicare is not paying for lab tests twice a month. The Warfarin doesn't work for me and that doesn't matter to Medicare. It's not a generic medication so they only cover 20%.
The folks setting up these price schedules are out of touch with reality. I'll give them some slack because they apparently have no power to set the costs at a reasonable level, but I'm being penalized because I can't take the low cost generic drugs. The politicians in congress can change that by enacting laws to limit the costs, or supplement them if they can't limit them. They could not get a majority to agree to that. These are the people you and I elected to serve our best interests. The sad reality is that the money coming from Big Pharma into political campaigns is more influential than our votes.
Your nebulizer story doesn't make sense much the same way as the cost of anti-coagulant medications I take. I was taking Warfarin which was dirt cheap. It's just a variation of rat poison after all. However, taking Warfarin requires periodic blood tests at the hospital labs, usually every other week. Thus Medicare has to pay for the drug and the lab work. I had to switch from Warfarin to Xaralto which does it's job in a different manner and does not require lab tests to verify it's effectiveness. Because Xarelto is branded and not a generic drug it is in a high tier bracket and costs me about 100 times more (literally) than the Warfarin. But, Medicare is not paying for lab tests twice a month. The Warfarin doesn't work for me and that doesn't matter to Medicare. It's not a generic medication so they only cover 20%.
The folks setting up these price schedules are out of touch with reality. I'll give them some slack because they apparently have no power to set the costs at a reasonable level, but I'm being penalized because I can't take the low cost generic drugs. The politicians in congress can change that by enacting laws to limit the costs, or supplement them if they can't limit them. They could not get a majority to agree to that. These are the people you and I elected to serve our best interests. The sad reality is that the money coming from Big Pharma into political campaigns is more influential than our votes.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
Nearly every drug I'm on, has either been discontinued, or moved up another Tier every couple of years.
And to make matters worse, my drug plan used to have a zero co-pay for Tier 1 and Tier 2 drugs, but now only Tier 1.
I have to pay 20% co-pay on most of my drugs, and Supplemental Insurance does not pick up the co-pay like they used to on the particular drugs the doc has me on.
I find alternative drugs in the OTC area when I can. Even then you have to be careful on which ones you pick up.
One brand is 14 bucks, a popular generic is 12 bucks, a discount generic is 6 bucks, and I find one that's 88 cents.
I actually have two I take that I can get for 88 cents.
And what kills me is the same company, same fancy box, same looks, you have to watch them close too.
One time the contents are 60/1200, the next time 40/600, the next time 20/250. All the same price too.
I try to avoid the 60/1200, when I really only need 20/400 which they don't have, hi hi.
But up until I discovered the 60/1200, I was warned the maximum daily dose was 20/800.
So I will buy the 20/250 and take a separate 400 with it.
You can't get the first number of the item by itself OTC, only by script, and the script is usually 40 for a high price.
You got that right! MONEY MONEY MONEY to the POLY-TICK-IANS is what controls darn near everything these days.
And to make matters worse, my drug plan used to have a zero co-pay for Tier 1 and Tier 2 drugs, but now only Tier 1.
I have to pay 20% co-pay on most of my drugs, and Supplemental Insurance does not pick up the co-pay like they used to on the particular drugs the doc has me on.
I find alternative drugs in the OTC area when I can. Even then you have to be careful on which ones you pick up.
One brand is 14 bucks, a popular generic is 12 bucks, a discount generic is 6 bucks, and I find one that's 88 cents.
I actually have two I take that I can get for 88 cents.
And what kills me is the same company, same fancy box, same looks, you have to watch them close too.
One time the contents are 60/1200, the next time 40/600, the next time 20/250. All the same price too.
I try to avoid the 60/1200, when I really only need 20/400 which they don't have, hi hi.
But up until I discovered the 60/1200, I was warned the maximum daily dose was 20/800.
So I will buy the 20/250 and take a separate 400 with it.
You can't get the first number of the item by itself OTC, only by script, and the script is usually 40 for a high price.
You got that right! MONEY MONEY MONEY to the POLY-TICK-IANS is what controls darn near everything these days.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
I admire your tenacity when you search for substitute drugs. It seems to pay off and is worth the extra effort.
We have a drug plan which is out of this world cost-wise. I must meet a $600 deductible before they supplement any of the costs of high tier meds. From what I can tell the low tiers are covered fully without copayments. The deductible plus the cost of branded drugs I must take pull a lot of money out of my pocket. While that is true the retail price is prohibitive for anyone less than an Elon Musk. However, since I have to pay a high premium for the drug insurance I have often wondered if it would not be cheaper to just buy the damned drugs at retail price. Some day I will sit down and compare those prices to the total cost of premiums. Unfortunately, should I drop the insurance, I would then be forced to find the best deal retail. And, of course, there is that "credible coverage" clause if I ever wanted to go back.
Up until my senior years I thought the federal government was inefficient, but that it functioned as described in all the civics books. That is to say we elect people to represent us, and then they do their best to satisfy our needs. The motivation for them to do that is patriotism and our vote. As it so happens, the rule books say that the average citizen can have direct access to their representatives so that they can petition them for whatever cause the average citizen is interested in. This is called lobbying and is the mechanism by which we as individuals can participate in governance. It also so happens that large entities, such as corporations, also have this lobbying ability to petition for laws that favor their interests. At first it all seemed pretty fair given that capitalism is the heartbeat of our economy and ultimately our strength as a nation. That all seemed to work up until maybe the turn of the century. By that time the corporate lobbyists were getting more attention that us individual citizens. They had more money at their disposal so that those were the folks the representatives preferred to see instead of us low lifes at the bottom of the scale. You know this story and I really don't need to explain it to you. I'm bringing it up because those corporate lobbyists have become too influential. That has resulted in a majority of laws being enacted to suit corporate interests. This explains the mess in the healthcare and insurance industries. Thus we seem to no longer be a country where individual citizens are being served and represented in congress; both federal and local congresses are suffering from this change in direction.
We have a drug plan which is out of this world cost-wise. I must meet a $600 deductible before they supplement any of the costs of high tier meds. From what I can tell the low tiers are covered fully without copayments. The deductible plus the cost of branded drugs I must take pull a lot of money out of my pocket. While that is true the retail price is prohibitive for anyone less than an Elon Musk. However, since I have to pay a high premium for the drug insurance I have often wondered if it would not be cheaper to just buy the damned drugs at retail price. Some day I will sit down and compare those prices to the total cost of premiums. Unfortunately, should I drop the insurance, I would then be forced to find the best deal retail. And, of course, there is that "credible coverage" clause if I ever wanted to go back.
Up until my senior years I thought the federal government was inefficient, but that it functioned as described in all the civics books. That is to say we elect people to represent us, and then they do their best to satisfy our needs. The motivation for them to do that is patriotism and our vote. As it so happens, the rule books say that the average citizen can have direct access to their representatives so that they can petition them for whatever cause the average citizen is interested in. This is called lobbying and is the mechanism by which we as individuals can participate in governance. It also so happens that large entities, such as corporations, also have this lobbying ability to petition for laws that favor their interests. At first it all seemed pretty fair given that capitalism is the heartbeat of our economy and ultimately our strength as a nation. That all seemed to work up until maybe the turn of the century. By that time the corporate lobbyists were getting more attention that us individual citizens. They had more money at their disposal so that those were the folks the representatives preferred to see instead of us low lifes at the bottom of the scale. You know this story and I really don't need to explain it to you. I'm bringing it up because those corporate lobbyists have become too influential. That has resulted in a majority of laws being enacted to suit corporate interests. This explains the mess in the healthcare and insurance industries. Thus we seem to no longer be a country where individual citizens are being served and represented in congress; both federal and local congresses are suffering from this change in direction.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
Debi's mothers insurance policies covered everything. She never had a single co-pay on any drugs, and never got a bill for any medical services she required. And believe me, with bone cancer, I had to take her to doctors every single week, and some were twice a week. Her total insurance bill for all insurances were only like 200 bucks a month, and no deductibles.
Or if there were deductibles on Medicare, one of her insurance policies picked it up.
I forget off the top of my head what the deductible amount is before they kick in, but it seems like one is 400 bucks and the other is 200 bucks, and even then they only pay 80% and I pay 20% after I meet the deductibles.
I usually try to pay off the deductibles in little chunks before I need something that has a super high co-pay.
What irked me most about hitting 65 and having to switch from my great insurance company to Medicare, and Supplemental, and Drug Plan, is that together, they all cost about double what I was paying for my really great insurance that covered darn near everything. But then the following year, I changed plans using a broker to work the deals for me, and he did good.
Then after that, I learned how to seek out what I needed myself and get even better deals.
Unfortunately, even though their are now even better deals out there, once you get hooked into five year service contracts by medical supply companies that work with Medicare, you are stuck with them, and they know it. So they up their prices, drop certain drugs from their formulary, and/or move them up a Tier every year so you end up paying full price for them.
AND, they take the money out of your SS check before you get it, and/or you pay yourself for like supplemental.
I really feel sorry for the folks who fall for the Advantage Plans being tauted as great out there.
Every person I know personally who tried those Advantage Plans learned it costs them a lot of money in the long run.
And many of them can now not get back on the normal Medicare Plans due to preexisting conditions or contracts.
And as you said, the poly-TICK-ians are only looking out for one person, Themselves!
Or if there were deductibles on Medicare, one of her insurance policies picked it up.
I forget off the top of my head what the deductible amount is before they kick in, but it seems like one is 400 bucks and the other is 200 bucks, and even then they only pay 80% and I pay 20% after I meet the deductibles.
I usually try to pay off the deductibles in little chunks before I need something that has a super high co-pay.
What irked me most about hitting 65 and having to switch from my great insurance company to Medicare, and Supplemental, and Drug Plan, is that together, they all cost about double what I was paying for my really great insurance that covered darn near everything. But then the following year, I changed plans using a broker to work the deals for me, and he did good.
Then after that, I learned how to seek out what I needed myself and get even better deals.
Unfortunately, even though their are now even better deals out there, once you get hooked into five year service contracts by medical supply companies that work with Medicare, you are stuck with them, and they know it. So they up their prices, drop certain drugs from their formulary, and/or move them up a Tier every year so you end up paying full price for them.
AND, they take the money out of your SS check before you get it, and/or you pay yourself for like supplemental.
I really feel sorry for the folks who fall for the Advantage Plans being tauted as great out there.
Every person I know personally who tried those Advantage Plans learned it costs them a lot of money in the long run.
And many of them can now not get back on the normal Medicare Plans due to preexisting conditions or contracts.
And as you said, the poly-TICK-ians are only looking out for one person, Themselves!
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
Prior to retirement my healthcare costs were covered almost entirely by the insurance Motorola offered. If I recall correctly I had to pay 10%, but they covered drugs, health care, and long term illness. The premiums were subsidized by the company, plus because it was a group policy the costs were averaged out among the group. That means the healthy people who didn't make claims were paying for us sick ones who did make claims. The beauty of group insurance is that it is low cost.
Medicare is a type of group insurance too which is subsidized by the government. I suppose there are some benefits to that arrangement in that it would be a lot more expensive for us if Medicare didn't exist. They typically pay only 80% and that is why folks buy supplemental. For many years we had supplemental insurance that worked as you described for Debi's mother. We paid nothing but the premiums. The premiums, however, went rogue and we switched to a similar plan that was cheaper. It was cheaper because there was a higher deductible.
Regardless of who covers the costs healthcare is a convoluted experience. Frankly I don't see a way to simplify taking care of 340 million people. It's always going to require special treatment for every individual who accesses the system. Paying for it all, however, can be made easier. The only way I can think of to make things easier is to socialize the medical profession. That would even things out, but nobody I know of wants to do such a thing. We all like the idea of freedom of choice. Unfortunately that freedom comes with a price and in some cases makes the services unavailable because it can't be paid for. It seems as if we can't have our cake and eat it too when it comes to healthcare.
Medicare is a type of group insurance too which is subsidized by the government. I suppose there are some benefits to that arrangement in that it would be a lot more expensive for us if Medicare didn't exist. They typically pay only 80% and that is why folks buy supplemental. For many years we had supplemental insurance that worked as you described for Debi's mother. We paid nothing but the premiums. The premiums, however, went rogue and we switched to a similar plan that was cheaper. It was cheaper because there was a higher deductible.
Regardless of who covers the costs healthcare is a convoluted experience. Frankly I don't see a way to simplify taking care of 340 million people. It's always going to require special treatment for every individual who accesses the system. Paying for it all, however, can be made easier. The only way I can think of to make things easier is to socialize the medical profession. That would even things out, but nobody I know of wants to do such a thing. We all like the idea of freedom of choice. Unfortunately that freedom comes with a price and in some cases makes the services unavailable because it can't be paid for. It seems as if we can't have our cake and eat it too when it comes to healthcare.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
I kept my group plan after I left MRTC, however, MRTC no longer had to pay a share as before. But it still made the insurance cost much less being able to stay in the group.
Then I switched to being a person on Ruth's insurance after she started working at St. John's Hospital, which was like ten years into our marriage. It was better insurance than I had with MRTC, and the cost for me and the kids was about the same. Then when Ruth went out on disability, we could keep it the way it was. But then she tried to go back to work part-time, which was a mistake, because it caused everything to change. The cost for insurance more than doubled overnight, and the new policy did not cover half of what the original policy covered.
I forget the name of the company I used after Ruth passed away, but it was a common company for those who came off of group policies. It was still a group but a different group, and only covered major things.
I kept that policy until I retired and was forced to take on using Medicare, and buying a Supplemental plan, and Drug plan.
Well, if you want something akin to socialized medicine, that is what the so-called Advantage Plan is all about. To make it SOUND like a good deal, they say they cover dental, eye-wear, drugs and several other things. But when you look closer, it's not really covered in such a way it will benefit those who moved to the Advantage Plan.
Folks on the Advantage Plan actually end up spending much more over the course of a year than they would have if they just stuck with Medicare and a Supplemental plan.
Then I switched to being a person on Ruth's insurance after she started working at St. John's Hospital, which was like ten years into our marriage. It was better insurance than I had with MRTC, and the cost for me and the kids was about the same. Then when Ruth went out on disability, we could keep it the way it was. But then she tried to go back to work part-time, which was a mistake, because it caused everything to change. The cost for insurance more than doubled overnight, and the new policy did not cover half of what the original policy covered.
I forget the name of the company I used after Ruth passed away, but it was a common company for those who came off of group policies. It was still a group but a different group, and only covered major things.
I kept that policy until I retired and was forced to take on using Medicare, and buying a Supplemental plan, and Drug plan.
Well, if you want something akin to socialized medicine, that is what the so-called Advantage Plan is all about. To make it SOUND like a good deal, they say they cover dental, eye-wear, drugs and several other things. But when you look closer, it's not really covered in such a way it will benefit those who moved to the Advantage Plan.
Folks on the Advantage Plan actually end up spending much more over the course of a year than they would have if they just stuck with Medicare and a Supplemental plan.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
The Advantage Plans I've seen are not socialized medicine any more than the current Medicare system is. In fact they take the premiums normally given to Medicare and provide whatever they can for that amount of money. Dental and eye care are included to a greater degree than you are covered under Medicare. You are correct to point out that it only covers a limited number of routine maintenance visits, but still that is more than Medicare does. Basically Advantage Plans are HMO's that have their own network of providers under contract. The reimbursements seem to be less than Medicare, but I can't say that for certain. All I know is the stories I hear. I can't see how Advantage Plans could possibly pay out more than Medicare because the premiums are those you would pay to Medicare. The costs are the same no matter who is providing the services.
I get a lot of frowns and funny looks when I say health care should be socialized. On the surface that sounds radical but it works very well in practice. Group insurance is socialized in the sense that everybody in the group gets the same treatment for the same price. The costs are kept low because they typically don't cover 100% of all procedures. Thus, if we had such a system for everybody in this country, they should also be given the option to buy supplemental insurance to cover the shortfall. That would be a combination of socialized medicine and freedom of choice. The major problem, however, remains to be the healthcare providers who do not want to be part of a socialized system where everyone is paid a flat fee. They want to be able to charge you whatever they can get away with.
I get a lot of frowns and funny looks when I say health care should be socialized. On the surface that sounds radical but it works very well in practice. Group insurance is socialized in the sense that everybody in the group gets the same treatment for the same price. The costs are kept low because they typically don't cover 100% of all procedures. Thus, if we had such a system for everybody in this country, they should also be given the option to buy supplemental insurance to cover the shortfall. That would be a combination of socialized medicine and freedom of choice. The major problem, however, remains to be the healthcare providers who do not want to be part of a socialized system where everyone is paid a flat fee. They want to be able to charge you whatever they can get away with.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
I went with an HMO back home for a few years, simply because the doctors I liked were part of their group.
I don't really think I saved all that much, because many items you had to pay a certain percentage of.
Medicare has fixed prices they pay to doctors for certain things, so in that light, they all get paid the same.
But then they have to bill your supplemental plan for what Medicare don't cover, and there is where you have yet another co-pay to deal with. But it still comes out cheaper than an Advantage Plan.
I keep getting these letters from my drug plan saying if I get a 90 day script and use their mail order service or Walgreens, there is no co-pay. But when you read the FINE PRINT, no co-pay is only on Tier 1 drugs, and almost all Tier 1 drugs have been moved up to Tier 2, and Tier 2 moved up to Tier 3 or higher. So they stick it to you anyhow.
Well, as I've said in the past, I have a few friends who live in England and are on Socialized Medicine.
It's long lines, long wait times, and tons of things that are not covered.
You could die waiting for your turn with something serious.
I don't really think I saved all that much, because many items you had to pay a certain percentage of.
Medicare has fixed prices they pay to doctors for certain things, so in that light, they all get paid the same.
But then they have to bill your supplemental plan for what Medicare don't cover, and there is where you have yet another co-pay to deal with. But it still comes out cheaper than an Advantage Plan.
I keep getting these letters from my drug plan saying if I get a 90 day script and use their mail order service or Walgreens, there is no co-pay. But when you read the FINE PRINT, no co-pay is only on Tier 1 drugs, and almost all Tier 1 drugs have been moved up to Tier 2, and Tier 2 moved up to Tier 3 or higher. So they stick it to you anyhow.
Well, as I've said in the past, I have a few friends who live in England and are on Socialized Medicine.
It's long lines, long wait times, and tons of things that are not covered.
You could die waiting for your turn with something serious.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
Way back when I used to use the mail order drug program of our insurance company. I'm thinking they were offering the same "no co-pay" discount to entice you over. All my meds were simple and generic back then so I went with the mail order delivery. That went well for a few years, but it was a pain the the butt because I had to fill out some kind of paperwork each time I ordered drugs. Don't have to do any of that now. The mail order people followed a strict schedule for distributing the drugs. They were supposed to be 90 day supplies but it seems that they would send them well before the 90 days expired. At one point I had nearly a 6 month reserve (180 extra pills) because I could not figure out how to shut off their automatic refills. We switched plans and got rid of them in favor of going to the pharmacy to order and pick up prescriptions. While that is not as convenient as mail order, there is a certain degree of control with the live transactions. I've told you about my encounters with Walgreens so that the control is not absolute, but it certainly is better than the mail order schedule.
I too had friends in England and can confirm some of the delays you speak of. Everything was covered as far as my friend was concerned and she liked to brag about the "free" drugs and healthcare they get. Well, I happen to know they pay a high tax for that free healthcare. Several years ago when I checked their NHS tax against what I was paying in premiums for insurance I was able to determine they were getting no bargain. The good news was that everyone who worked was covered without exception. In that sense the socialized aspects of their healthcare was better. The doctors were mostly happy with the NHS but my friend told me some left the system to go into private practice. I guess they made more money that way, but few people could afford it. They also had private hospitals, but I am not sure how that was paid for. I think it was all out of pocket.
I too had friends in England and can confirm some of the delays you speak of. Everything was covered as far as my friend was concerned and she liked to brag about the "free" drugs and healthcare they get. Well, I happen to know they pay a high tax for that free healthcare. Several years ago when I checked their NHS tax against what I was paying in premiums for insurance I was able to determine they were getting no bargain. The good news was that everyone who worked was covered without exception. In that sense the socialized aspects of their healthcare was better. The doctors were mostly happy with the NHS but my friend told me some left the system to go into private practice. I guess they made more money that way, but few people could afford it. They also had private hospitals, but I am not sure how that was paid for. I think it was all out of pocket.
Re: Alexa vs Alexa
Our electric went out while I was responding to another message, and I can't figure out where it was.
Not your fault this time, but it was yet another one of my verbose replies.
I had good luck with one of the mail order places, and really bad luck with the last one I used a few months ago, but only for certain drugs, not all of them. I get the same price from Walgreens as I did from the mail order place. They will mail your scripts to you for a small $3.50 charge, no matter how many they are sending. However, I did find out that they charge the $3.50 per script, so if you have three scripts coming in the same box, they charge you $10.50, or did when I tried getting them by mail from them.
Yes, if you are employed, the amount you pay is half, because your employer pays the other half.
But if you are retired, you pay the whole amount, it is taken out of your stipend, much like ours for Medicare is taken out of our SS check. You can also get a lower price if you are disabled or below the poverty level, sorta like our Medicaid I guess.
And I can tell you with certainty that not all drugs are covered over there in merry old England.
And if you are 75 or older, many surgeries are not covered if they feel it won't extend your life by at least 9 more months.
I'm going to try and hunt around figure what the other post was I was responding to.
Not your fault this time, but it was yet another one of my verbose replies.
I had good luck with one of the mail order places, and really bad luck with the last one I used a few months ago, but only for certain drugs, not all of them. I get the same price from Walgreens as I did from the mail order place. They will mail your scripts to you for a small $3.50 charge, no matter how many they are sending. However, I did find out that they charge the $3.50 per script, so if you have three scripts coming in the same box, they charge you $10.50, or did when I tried getting them by mail from them.
Yes, if you are employed, the amount you pay is half, because your employer pays the other half.
But if you are retired, you pay the whole amount, it is taken out of your stipend, much like ours for Medicare is taken out of our SS check. You can also get a lower price if you are disabled or below the poverty level, sorta like our Medicaid I guess.
And I can tell you with certainty that not all drugs are covered over there in merry old England.
And if you are 75 or older, many surgeries are not covered if they feel it won't extend your life by at least 9 more months.
I'm going to try and hunt around figure what the other post was I was responding to.