Be cautious when making Medicare decisions, avoid insurance company advertisements | Opinion
More choices
A recent Star guest commentary by an executive with Humana (Nov. 14, 12A, “It’s almost time to choose your Medicare plan”) was not about making choices during Medicare enrollment — it was an advertisement for choosing a Medicare Advantage plan (sold and heavily marketed by insurance companies) rather than traditional Medicare with a supplement. Medicare choices are confusing enough without the local paper publishing opinions such as this one.
The Star should have presented a counterpoint on the same page about reasons to choose traditional Medicare over Advantage. Premiums for supplemental plans are more expensive and usually don’t include the perks offered by Advantage plans (dental, vision, gym memberships and so on). But they mean you have your choice of doctors, hospitals and specialists, anywhere in the country, without preapproval in most cases.
Before you choose a Medicare plan (or if you are thinking about switching), please educate yourself. Call your State Health Insurance Assistance Program or visit SHIP’s website at shiphelp.org, where you can find your state’s toll-free number to call and ask for help in making Medicare decisions. Read Consumer Reports (available from public libraries). Check AARP’s website. Don’t rely on the advice of insurance company representatives alone.
- Clare Rockenhaus, Merriam
Definition of …
Irony (noun):
- A subtle form of humor that involves saying things that are the opposite of what one really means.
- Satirical news site The Onion acquiring Alex Jones’ Infowars in a bankruptcy auction.
- Clyde Waltermate, Raytown
Danger ahead
I am a retired United States Army officer, and I am truly shocked by what happened Nov. 5, 2024 — a date that will go down in infamy. Voters put a draft-dodging, lying, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser and swindler, who had his followers attack our Capitol, into the highest office in the nation.
What on Earth is happening to our once-great country? It has now turned into filth. Duty, honor and country mean nothing because Donald Trump does not and will never have those qualities. The office of the president will be forever tainted because of MAGA idiocy.
You will reap what you sow. Trump is a danger to all of us.
- Jeffrey J. Showers, Spring Hill
Let him unite
This has probably been the most divisive election in my lifetime, and, at 84, I have witnessed many presidential elections. I personally lost a long-term friendship with a fellow writer when I told her whom I was voting for.
Let’s give President-elect Donald Trump a chance to prove he is a unifier at heart and that he will accomplish his resolve to help solve the problems that affect our nation.
- Tom Mach, Lawrence
The narcissist
My dear Republican friends,
I am a retired mental health professional. I would like you to know you are being “groomed.” A person with a narcissistic personality receives dopamine by demeaning individuals into total subjugation. The narcissist is addicted to manipulating others to the point that they have no thought of their own or remaining principles, but only those of the will of the narcissist.
You will be demeaned not only in private, but the narcissist also relishes demeaning you in public (more dopamine). As you are subjugated, you will not know yourself or anything you stand for.
Good luck, my friends. Just know you will not be the only casualties of the narcissist’s dopamine addiction.
- Al Babich, Parkville
For others
To be a truly great president, you have to be the kind of person who makes all others you serve also great.
- Jerry Cooke, Kansas City
Antisocial
Social media is a big reason the Republican candidate won the presidential election. We’ve all witnessed that a large percentage of people go around with their faces glued to their screens, way too much of the time. These people get their “news” from conspiracy theories on social media, not from legitimate news channels or — heaven forbid — printed newspapers.
Even so, I’m still appalled that a majority of voters backed a misogynistic, racist, hateful, felony-charge-collecting criminal.
Heaven help our country.
- Diane Capps, Kansas City
Good signs
Donald Trump recently won the presidency.
Last weekend, the University of Kansas basketball team toppled North Carolina 92-89.
My birthday was Nov. 11, Armistice Day, and I turned 95.
Miracles never cease.
- Betty Swisher, Kansas City
No malice?
Abraham Lincoln concluded his second inaugural address with a message of hope, comfort and forgiveness for a nation bitterly divided as never before. He famously said, “With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
We are at a no less fraught point in our history. If the words that echo from the approaching inaugural dais model Lincoln’s elegance and purpose, all Americans may finally breathe a sigh of relief and continue to build a nation prescribed so concisely in the preamble to our Constitution.
I won’t hold my breath.
- Timothy Adams, Gardner