Not much to offer since your situation and outlook is considerably different than mine. Lots of input on this thread.
Also consider your doctor’s advice. They encounter a lot of situations and know quite a bit.
I wish you well my FRiend.
Medicare, you may have heard of it,,, or maybe NOT!
Medicare, it pays for healthcare as well as “Prefcription” drugs.
GoodRX coupons don’t need a plan and have been cheaper than any plan .
Move to California and shoplift for free upto $999.
If you are not already on Medicare Advantage, please consider going with a Medicare Supplements. Far better. I am happy with CIGNA prescriptions on Medicare Supplements. And they ship it to me, so I don’t have to go to a drug store.
My wife was on a different plan this year, but she has switched to CIGNA for 2024.
Pain killers, obviously. For weeks and be damned careful unless you want to be addicted to the “good stuff” for what remains of you life (e.g., percodan, oxycontin, etc.).. Make sure that if they give you something like vicodin you also get a few more powerful ones to take you over a weekend if vicodin doesn’t work. It does not for me, and that was just for a kidney stone and an impacted molar after some botched surgery.
You will also be on some antibiotic for the rest of life. Two surgeons told me that I’d have to take something like acetaymiacin (sp?) every time I got my teeth cleaned to prevent an infection of a knee replacement.
Ask your doctor what prescriptions you will likely be put on after the surgery, to help you make wise choices on prescription coverage. They will want to hedge, since they can’t foresee possible complications, etc.—tell them up front that you understand and just need a reasonable guess ssuming nothing odd arises.
Most areas have some sort of Senior Center or Bureau on Aging. Figure out who does this where you live and ask if they can recommend a certified agent who helps advise seniors on the best plans for them. This should be free (the people that do this are often volunteers). Contact the recommended peson, give them your drug list, and they will run it through software that indicates the best deals mong the pharmaceutical coverages. The Medicare.gov website likely has software for doing this yourself, but it sounds like conversation with a human would be helpful to you.
Insurers might balk at starting coverage for known pre-existing conditions, especially if high cost meds are anticipated. Being 100% honest about your entire situation going in will avoid unhappy surprises later. Nothing is likely to slip by them.
Good luck with your surgery and the all-important post-surgery rehab.
Also note that you do not have to use your insurance to get a prescription. Several pharmacies have low costs for common drugs Walmart has $4/30 day and $10/90 days. Their list is online. Again, if you anticipate needing an expensive prescription, what you pay outside of insurance does not count toward the donut hole calculation.
When Mr.RightField was living, we successfully avoided the donut hole problem by getting most of his prescriptions through Walmart, Publix and GoodRx. The only Rx that went through his insurance was the expensive one.
Also be aware of the large deductibles this year for upper tier drugs. You might want to calculate the cost effectiveness of higher premiums vs lower deductibles. The medicare tool should be able to give you this info once you know what prescriptions you'll need.
Most of my info here has to do with long-term, maintenance meds. As others have said, most pain prescriptions are relatively low cost, so shop around for those. You may find the free/low cost options at Walmart, some grocery stores, GoodRx, etc are less costly than your copays.
Diet and Exercise is a pretty good plan.
Check with your local auto service center. They usually offer a free oil change with every drug you get thru them.
All you are going to need post op if all goes well is pain medication, which usually is very cheap.
IIRC, when you qualify for Medicare, you MUST enroll in an acceptable prescription plan or you will be hit with annual penalties. Those penalties continue even if you later do enroll in an eligible plan.
That said, if you are Medicare eligible, check with your state CMS/Medicare for available plans. They vary by state and even areas within the state.
Start with medicare.gov and check the back section of Medicare and YOU 2024 booklet, if you got one in the mail.
The main costs post op is physical therapy, arm sling and xrays. I went through 4 arm slings before I found one that was comfortable when I had shoulder labral surgery.
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A corpsman would tell you to take some Motrin, drink water and change your socks.
Since you were in the army is the VA an option?
talk to your local Office for the Aging, they will show you all the plans in your area and pros/cons of each
If you’re not taking any meds now, just find the cheapest one you can find that has a convenient pharmacy nearby.
You know best, but I would try a good acupuncturist before I went the replacement route. Use google or yelp reviews to see how they worked for others.
Doctors are like vampires, you don’t want to invite them in.