I use kitchen table words
If I write a sentence you would need a glossary to follow, I throw it out and start again. I explain a letter or a plan name right where it turns up, never down in a footnote you have to hunt for.
The way I put Medicare into words
I write these pages so you can follow them the first time, without a booklet open beside you.
Why I built this
I write it the way I would say it
When Medicare mail lands on your kitchen table it already expects you to know the vocabulary. I have watched people read the same booklet three times over and still miss the one line that mattered to them.
So I flip it around and begin with the question you would ask me out loud, then trace it back to the rule that settles it.
I keep it brief
I show both sides
I spell out dates
I never push
The habits I write by
Rules I hold myself to
A few promises keep me straight, and I stick to them even when a plan looks good enough to talk you into.
I show the whole cost
A premium standing on its own tells you almost nothing, so I refuse to leave it there. I set it next to what you hand over at the counter, the network holding it up and the drug list riding along with it.
I let you take your time
I have never put a clock on any of this. Read a page, shut the laptop, wander back next week, and I will still be here saying the same thing.
I go through it again yearly
Networks move, drug lists get rewritten and prices drift on their own schedule. I mark whatever resets each year, so you always know which lines I stand behind now and which ones I have to look at again later.
I sit on your side of the table, not the insurer's.
Most of what reaches your mailbox was written by somebody who gets paid the day you sign. I do not think that makes it dishonest, but it does decide which fact gets the big type and which one gets buried at the back.
I have nothing riding on which way you go. When I describe a supplement I leave its holes showing, when I describe an Advantage plan I keep the network rules attached, and when I describe drug coverage I say out loud what waiting too long will cost you.
And when the truthful answer is that it all hinges on your own doctors and your own prescriptions, I tell you that and hand you the short list of things to check first.
How I work with you
Four steps, no pressure
Tell me the basics
Send me the plan you carry now, the doctors you like and the drugs you take.
1
See it side by side
I line your choices up next to each other, cost by cost, in one place.
2
Ask what you want
Ask me anything about refills, copays or timing. Small questions count too.
3
Enroll and keep it
When a plan looks right for you, sign up and keep a copy of the details.
4
Whenever suits you