Congratulations Mr. Morgan, You Are Now Officially Old

And with that little card I received in the mail, it must now be official that I'm old. Assuming that old begins at age 65. Does that mean I'm a senior citizen? Bring on the discounts and early bird dinners!

It was several months ago when I began receiving mail almost daily trying to get me to sign up for Medicare coverage with all sorts of crazy plans I didn't understand. I have been too busy and too young to think about any to do with Medicare other than a chunk of my paycheck goes to Medicare every time I get paid.

Since I was coming close to that golden age, I figured I'd look into what the fuss was all about. Well, the more I read up on Medicare, the more confused I became. There's a bunch of parts. Part A, Part B and Part D. Later I found out there is a Part C which really confused me.

Part A is for hospital insurance. It helps cover a bunch of services. Now if you want Part B, you need to pay into it. I kept reading that I had a limited time to sign up. I could sign up for just Part A, but if I didn't sign up for Part B which covers other types of medical coverage, when I do in the future, there is a limited time each year to do so and there could be a penalty with higher monthly payments. Really, a penalty? Sounds like a threat to me.

But I'm thinking, why would I pay for that when I currently have health insurance from my workplace that I'm paying into. Apparently that is okay, and I wouldn't have to get Part B with it's penalties...with some restrictions of course. So confusing.

At any rate, I filled out the forms, signed up for only Part A (hoping I don't get the major penalty down the road for not taking Part B) and just received the official wallet card to declare that Don Morgan is now old.

And to add insult to injury, I recently saw a message from a listener stating "Retire already, Don." Not sure if that was meant to pick on me or it was an insult. Well, sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but I'm sticking around to rock-n-roll for as long as I can. And when I can no longer do that, I'll sign up for Medicare Part B. Whatever that is.

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