Never seen those..and I am in the target age market...you need better spam protection, maybe?
https://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-qa-tool/what-is-a-medicare-flex-card.html
I get telemarketing calls trying to sell me funeral expense insurance.
If I do die it will be in a duel shooting at telemarketers.
:-)
Therein lies the problem.
Did you give them your Social Security and credit card numbers?
No?
Well no wonder you were turned down! /s
Like any thing else, buyer beware. Read the fine print.
"I have called the numbers perhaps 50 times."
I think I see a connection here. And that is you are obsessed with this spending card issue.
Let it go, man. Find a new hobby to engage your time.
To get them to quit calling you, pick up the phone and say nothing. If it is a really call someone will say, "hello?"
If it just disconnects it is a robo call and you did not want to talk to them in the first place.
We had them last year with a Medicare Advantage plan.
Each spouse had a $50 card which was reloaded every month. We used it for groceries.
Key Takeaways:
The Medicare grocery allowance is available with certain Medicare Advantage plans.
If you qualify for a grocery allowance, you’ll receive a prepaid card to use on healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables, eggs, dairy products and meat.
Amounts vary, but the monthly grocery allowance can range between $25 and $200 per month.
....................
How Does the Medicare Advantage Grocery Allowance Work?
In most cases, enrollees receive a prepaid card, often called a Medicare food card. Your grocery allowance is typically credited to the card on a monthly basis, says Whitney Stidom, vice president of sales and operations with eHealth Inc., a health insurance broker and online resource provider headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
The food allowance card makes it easy to pay for groceries at the store, but don’t confuse this card with a Medicare flex card, which some Medicare Advantage plans also offer, advises Bob Rees, chief sales officer with eHealth, Inc.
The Medicare flex card is a prepaid card that you can use to pay for certain health care services and products, such as hearing aids, eyeglasses and over-the-counter medications. The concept of using a Medicare flex card at the store to cover your expenses is similar to the grocery allowance but follows different rules.
What Is the Average Medicare Grocery Allowance?
The dollar value of the Medicare grocery allowance varies from plan to plan, typically ranging between $25 and $200 or more per month, Stidom says.
Some unscrupulous marketers try to make it sound like the dollar value is significantly higher, but the benefit is typically fairly modest.
The allowance also needs to be used within the month – the money doesn’t typically roll over from one month to the next. In other words, use it or lose it.
I think one can self insure for food......................
You must have taken a bite at some ad down the road that made you a a target for this crap.
I am 64 and I have never heard of this stuff. And I am getting ALL of that kind of stuff as I approach Medicare age.
just block it and don’t respond.
I plan on sticking with traditional Medicare
Catastrophic coverage is better.
In theory
Scam!
I don’t see the ads, don’t the texts or emails.
Perhaps if you had not dialed those numbers or opened the emails & texts. Since you did, they know they have a “live one” on the hook and they stay at you.
Don’t call & report the emails & texts as spam.
My U card from United Health Care offers me 50 dollars for 3 months. Starting in January, Go Health will give me 40 dollars a month on my U Card
The way this works is, you need supplemental insurance along with Medicare. There are dozens of firms offering this. In my case the supplemental insurance company gets my Medicare money, and they arrange with providers for a discount. They offer a prepaid card for, in my case, $600 I can spend on almost anything, to get my business. Each of these cards are from an insurance company trying to get your Medicare payment. If you read the fine print if you accept the card, you’re switching whatever insurance you have now for the new company.
My Medicare advantage plan has a over the counter meds pre paid card, I get 50.00/ quarter nice to get stuff cheaply delivered. My plan also has a grocery card but I don’t qualify
If you are poor or don’t make much social security, you are eligible for these extra benefits such as a prepaid card. If you get the average social security benefit and receive a pension plus interest off of your benefits, the you make too much.
Quit listening to Joe Namath.
There’s a certain amount of money that Medicare pays to their Part C recipient companies (Medicare Advantage, really HMOs or PPOs), something $8000 per patient, per year. If the company running the Part C plan can come in UNDER what Medicare is paying them (say $6000), then they basically have to offer goodies to balance out their income versus payouts (in other words, if the plans just keep the difference, they’d be price gouging). So the freebies include gym memberships, eyecare, hearing aids, and also grocery cards...and yes, if costs go up, the goodies can vaporize on you.
But, obviously, there is a rub with the Part C plans - and that is you have to work through insurance companies whose interest, of course, is minimizing costs (not necessarily good if you need a knee, for example). Traditional Medicare doesn’t have that middleman - if something is needed, and it is covered by Medicare, then it’s done, no questions asked, but you do pay for that in separate Supplemental and Drug Plans.