"April" #02

"[My health insurance is] Medicare, except it's UnitedHealthcare because that's my supplement insurance. I'm not quite sure...[where] Medicare ends and UnitedHealthcare begins. I don't understand that. And I don't understand why UnitedHealthcare is giving me that for free. I don't get that either. There's a lot of question marks about my health care coverage. I'm not at all confident in what I have or what I don't have."

"Jasmine" #12

"People on Medicaid and Medicare... get so much mail. They don't even know what's important.... And so, I don't know how [the] word can get out to everybody about that OTC, over-the-counter card that they can use to get money to buy groceries.... I heard through somebody that... they was cutting it out, and I may be wrong. That's just a rumor, but they was going to try to stop it because people aren't utilizing it. So many people don't even know how to utilize it.... I don't know who could show them but I think it's up to the case managers."

"Konnor" #12

"The whole Medicare thing is just insane. I'm college-educated, [with] advanced degrees. How do you get through all this stuff if you're just a normal person [who] doesn't necessarily have time or energy or education to sort your way through this? Every year I gotta reevaluate, particularly more about meds than the insurance coverage.... It's just insane because you gotta get an insurance plan. But then you gotta look at who the pharmacy is. I had a local mom-and-pop pharmacy was great, you know. My daughters had worked there, you know. And it was great supporting a local business. And ultimately I had to go to the grocery store chain... now drugstores are into pharmacies. Now I'm at CVS. And every year it's like I gotta re-evaluate which provides the lowest. As my meds increase, which ones provide the lowest?"

"Natasha" #02

"I think that one of the factors [that make it hard for older adults to navigate healthcare systems, like insurance, benefits, and programs] is the internet. I think that many of the processes or the process of doing it, you need some sort of knowledge of technology or internet or just knowing where each place is located. And many don't, they don't know. So, just like knowing where to find that help or where to go is one of the main factors I see."

"Rebecca" #07

"Sometimes these applications are so complicated. I was thinking about when I was trying to help Mama navigate through some of this when she was elderly and sick, and so I'm trying to fill all this stuff out. So, it is not a friendly system for the elderly. I mean, I struggle and I know I'm not Einstein, but I'm not a dumb bunny either. It is so complicated. Maybe the forms are complicated and the hoops you have to jump through are complicated and time-consuming. The meetings that you have to make, transportation is not available. How do you get there? It's just difficult for people to access the system for a number of reasons. Whether it's they don't understand, whether they can't read, whether they can't get to the meeting, whether they don't speak English, or they speak English but they don't understand. Like I said, transportation it's just a conglomerate of hoops that you have to jump through. It's just not a friendly system. Especially for somebody who's chronically ill and somebody who's elderly."

"Benjamin" #32

"Unfortunately, by April I have to find a new doctor and he's going to recommend who he wants me to see because he's going to a different concierge. It's sort of concierge, but it's not, he's going to have a lot less patients so he can do what he wants. Like old-school of taking his time and knowing the person instead of just like right now, he's got 15, 20 minutes and that's it you know.... I do have a good rapport with him. And he knows me from back then. I've known him for 25 years.... We've developed that over the years. But, on hospitals and doctors and nurses, I expect them to be cordial, considerate, and know their job. There's not too much to ask for anybody, to be honest with you.... What I'm seeing in the hospital when nurses would say they're supposed to have four or five patients on a ward a day and then they get bumped up to six or seven and they're running. You know, it just puts a strain [and] our systems are overloaded."

"Georgia" #20

"Uh, like I said, sometimes it's a little I don't know if I want to say a little scary. Sometimes it's just like Wow, because life seems to be passing so quick. The years are passing along quickly. And I was thinking about when I was younger, I never in a million years would have thought I would be 71 years old. No, I mean, that was just something my sister and I were talking and my sister is 77. My brother will be 80, um, next week. And these ages were like never on our radar. Just like, wow, 70, I'm like, I'm in my 70s. It still surprises me because it's just, I never thought I'd be, be here at this age. I don't know. I never thought about it. I never really, you know, when you're younger, you never see yourself getting. When you're younger, I mean, 50 was like ancient. So when you, as the years go by and you find yourself getting older, and then you, and one day you wake up and you're 70, You're just like, wow. Like, I am really old! It's like, you have more years behind you than you do in front of you. And you just wonder, like, really, how much time do you actually have left here on this earth? And then what are you going, what are you going to do with that time that you do have left? Because nobody really knows."

"Maxwell" #06

He says that Medicare only works if you are proactive and an advocate for yourself. "[Medicare] is only as good as you seek it out, Medicare. Medicare isn't like you fall into it and 'here's the answers to all your problems'. You've got to know what your problems are, drill down into your problems, [and] take a proactive stance on addressing those problems. Problems you may not even know you have. You have to bring those to the forefront and deal with those. So it's like, it's like a work. It's work. It's not 'here, bring me an answer. It's here'. I'm going to work and participate in finding answers to things that are... That will solve me. You've got to be proactive."

"Rebecca" #06

"If you don't have an advocate, you can't access services. And for every service, there's an application. And if you're chronically ill, you lose a lot of services because you don't feel like it, or you don't understand it. When I don't feel good, I can't understand anything either. So, it's just not a friendly situation, and it seems like it's set up so you won't bother with it, and so it's not used."

"Jasmine" #06

"I have one [client] that I... was taken care of not long ago and she had a daughter who lived next door to her in an apartment building. But the daughter was also in a wheelchair and was having issues. The lady was like 100 years old, and her daughter was... 75 or 76, something like that. They both was needing help. They were having issues financially.... I know they have these new programs... [like the over-the-counter benefit card] that Medicare has provided for a lot of the seniors who are on Medicaid. Both of these people are on Medicaid. I'm trying to explain to them, you can get this money to help your food and everything. I said that because the daughter did all the grocery shopping... [and that can] help both you guys. And she just wasn't listening.... They didn't know anything."

"Jasmine" #11

"It's just so many [seniors] don't know about [social services]. That's what I don't understand. I mean, I understand why they don't know, but it's just no one to help them understand. You know, a lot of them, they're just by themselves, and... family members just don't really want to be there to help."

"Sam" #16

He's been struggling to make ends meet with all the new expenses that have come as a result of a recent cancer diagnosis. Everything felt like it changed overnight for him. "I was trying to get on Medicaid because they would handle some of that stuff. And I tried to apply for that, and I was rejected. And then I tried to apply while I was in the nursing home with the social worker. She said, you know, you shouldn't have any problems. You know, I was in the nursing home, and I also got COVID. Which I never had before. I always took my shots and this and that. But what am I supposed to do? I wanted to pay my bills.... I can't leave here. I can't go out. I can't even go out in the hallway, let alone come talk to somebody about my insurance. I was starting to get behind on my bills because I couldn't get to the bank, and no computer available.... I want to apply [for Medicaid] again. I had talked to two or three different social workers, and they said, well, you shouldn't have any problem. Well, how come I don't have it then?"

"Sarah" #06

"I've applied [for Medicaid] two other times.... I've been put on a waiting list. But I've never got nothing. [The last time I applied was] October of this year.... My niece helped me fill it out.... They just sent me a letter stating I was on a waiting list and somebody had to go off [Medicaid] before I could go on. But I said, as many people as died during that pandemic, you would have thought I'd have been on by now.... [The first time I applied was] when my husband was still alive. He's been gone seven years.... We both applied and got the same thing. Both times I applied I got that letter.... [I never called], that's probably why I didn't get nowhere."

"Daniela" #08

"You know, I really don't want the government to give me no money because I ain't got time to go through the hassles that are jumping out of their pockets. Protocol of reporting everything and it's just a bunch of hassle."

"Maxwell" #18

He mentions that people often feel overwhelmed by the amount of information available about Medicare plans. "A lot of times people are overwhelmed by that because it's not in digestible... units that they can take it in and actually utilize the lessons. You hit them with everything all at once and it's too overwhelming. They back off and end up not doing anything like participant programs, you know, with the drug manufacturers and finding out about all the savings programs you can go through.... They just bombard people with all these advertisements. They don't know what to do."

"Sadie" #02

"I have Medicare and Medical Mutual. But see, right now there's an opening between now and December 7 to change the supplement to Medicare and I don't know which one to choose. And sometimes I just give up and say I'm taking the same plan and it may cost me more, but unless my friend who is... five years younger goes with me to research it. And I'm sure that's the way it is with seniors. Unless they have somebody in their family that can help them find the best plan, they'll just stick with the same thing and the system could take advantage of that.... The last few years I've gone to somebody with my friend and she's explained all the plans and they must get paid to help explain to seniors because she doesn't charge for that information."

"Sadie" #11

"Well, it's hard for seniors... to understand [their healthcare]. Right now is the time that we can make decisions about what kind of insurance we want. They give you so many options. Unless you have somebody younger that can help you with that, I'm liable to sign up for the wrong thing. And I think people need more help with that. You can see it on TV. Should you take Medicare Advantage or this or that? And then it says, no, don't get involved in that. That's confusing to older people."

"April" #20

Someone visited her to help her get set up with UnitedHealthcare. "I do remember a lady coming here to my apartment just shortly after I moved in here.... I remember she talked me into it, and it was an excellent choice for UnitedHealthcare.... I don't know why she chose me to do that. I don't remember ever contacting her.... Maybe she went from apartment to apartment here. I don't know, but I feel very lucky to have met her because it's helped me a lot."

"Bonita" #04

She lost her Medi-Cal insurance after a provider told her it was no longer accepted and that she should tear apart the card. "Right now, [I have] just Medicare. No, yes, Medicare. I don't have Medi-Cal or California. So I have to go get Medi-Cal.... I had it, but someone told me at a place where I went for an appointment that it didn't work anymore, that I should tear it up. And I listened and tore it up. I did a bad thing by doing that.... They said they wouldn't accept it anymore. That's why there's the other red card. Red with white. I don't know. Later on... now I have to go waste time getting it again for listening. Maybe the girl who told me to tear it up didn't even know. But I'm going to get it."

"Maxwell" #17

He has observed people making decisions about their insurance plans based on flashy advertisements. "I'm an information hog. I can deal with that. A lot of people just throw up their hands and like, oh my god, it's Medicare season decision time. What am I going to do? And they just end up waiting for the last minute and signing on to something because that commercial was flashy. Or it was a star that they really liked that was advertising it."

"Dennis" #02

"I am a service officer with the American Legion, went to training to help veterans get benefits from the VA. How [to] negotiate all of the paperwork and all that mess that they ask for in order to [get] you what you are entitled to. So that is how I was able to accomplish it. The commander of the American Legion that I was a member of, when the convention came up to go to Montgomery, we didn't have a service officer to help me get my situation straightened out. And, so I told him, I said, well if you'll send me to the school that's being offered at the state convention in January. If I can learn how to get my benefits that I am entitled to, then... maybe I can help other veterans. So he did, and I did."``

"Rita" #19

She worked in local government for most of her career, including the welfare department helping families navigate benefits like Medi-Cal. "[I learned to advocate for myself because] I did a lot of that with my work. It was all government work.... I had to ask questions to be able to do my work. So it's the same thing... if I need to get this assignment done, then I need to find out who's the one that's going to help me make that assignment, complete that assignment. So asking questions, different people pick up the phone, picking up and saying, okay... this person can help me, or this person. So, it's the same thing, you know. So, I think a lot of that had to do with that work. Having to complete assignments and get that going."

"Sandra" #22

She has had Medicare since she was 65. The process of signing up can be daunting. "It can be daunting. I've had... two friends who delayed their retirement because making the decision was too stressful. But... I used to work for a bank and so I was the enrollment person, if you will, every year. And so I had to work with people to get them to make a decision about what they want. So looking through all of that, to me, was a piece of cake."

"Darcy" #16

She receives assistance navigating her insurance options. "It's called Patriot Insurance. And he just guides people through the Medicare program. You know, this is what your options are, this is what you could do, this is what you can't do, that kind of thing. Yeah, explains it all to you.... Yeah, just trying to make the decisions which she thinks is going to be the best for the foreseeable future."

"Evelyn" #19

She and her husband learned about their insurance concierge ten years ago through advertisements. "We went to a thing locally here. I can't remember what the seminar was about.... Was it about Medicare? I can't remember.... We went to that when we were thinking about retiring. That's when we got the name from this lady, I guess, volunteered her time to give this demonstration about Medicare, Medicaid, and everything else. So then we contacted her.... I don't remember if it was either something that came through a borough newsletter, or local newspaper. It was something like this. Or library news. It might have been library news, because we belonged to the library.... It wasn't word of mouth. It was definitely through some sort of an advertisement."

"Genevieve" #20

"The process [for selecting her High Mark Advantage plan] was, I retired, and I have an advisor that helps me. Because there's too many plans out there. Our politicians need to get together and streamline this stuff. There shouldn't be 20, 30 plans out there. It should be streamlined."

"Kate" #02

"I had someone who helped me pick the Medicare supplement. I did use a local man [who] was with our insurance company to help us guide us through what we needed for drugs, the supplement, for the health insurance for the Medicare... because it's very confusing. There's so many choices and I think everybody is different in their needs. As far as health care, again, I'm lucky, but I have some there in case I'm not healthy."

"Konnor" #20

He hired a consultant to help him understand what Medicare plan to select. "Ultimately, I went to a consultant. You know, I'm lazy as hell. [I had] somebody explained it all to me because they've gone through all this stuff, and that's their thing to do.... [It was] a firm out of New Jersey. This time of year, I contact them, and if I have issues [I] have them walk me through what are his thoughts on it so that I get feedback.... [I trust him because] he was able to explain things in a way that I understood."

"Konnor" #22

He trusts his insurance consultant because he explains things clearly and helps him make the best decisions, regardless of any payout. "He explained in everyday terms and he was just very basic about it, but gave me what I needed to know to make decisions. We were kind of on the same page about not necessarily wanting... managed care and guiding me through deciding what are the issues. Getting Part D, because it's twofold. It's twofold. [The] cheapest price from the insurer and cheapest provider of the meds themselves.... He gets paid through the insurer that I ultimately choose. So that's a little unnerving. Not unnerving, but, you know, there's an opportunity for guiding me to the one that he gets paid the most. That kind of thing. So for Part D this past time, it ended up [with an insurer] that's outside. He doesn't get reimbursed by my Part D provider. So, you know, that added a level of comfort to it. He even mentioned it, because he didn't have to tell me that. He could have not included it in the information. He could have... found some reason why it wasn't the best way to go, but he said... I'm not gonna get paid for it, but this is gonna be the best option for you."

"Laura" #06

She recently enrolled in Medicare Advantage with Humana. Every year, a volunteer comes by the senior living facility to help people choose the best healthcare plan and he helped her choose Humana. "He comes around to several people that live here while insurance enrollment is going from October the 15th through December the 7th. He gives you his opinion on what insurance will best set you for the year. And I took his advice. I've never been on Humana before, so I will see what the plan has for me. The man came in person to talk to me, and he was very nice, and he didn't break my arm or leg to tell me, you have to choose this insurance. He gave me options, and that's what I want to hear. I want an option. I don't want 'You gotta do this, and you gotta do that', you know. I have an opinion, and I'm a human being. So, he got the best plan for me.... My previous plan was Wellcare.... Wellcare was not taking some part of my plan that I needed.... He's very qualified doing what he's doing. Because I mean, he's got a computer, and he's sitting there going through... this plan for you. And helping you... decide what plan to take."

"Lydia" #06

She shares her thoughts about how government or healthcare systems can better support her. "I think there are a lot of things available if you need them, if you look for them.... We went to those classes... and anybody is welcome to do it. But you have to go. You have to put forth the effort to do it. They're not going to come banging on your door saying you need to come to this. So, yeah, you know. I think maybe it would help if there were a little bit more publicity... sometimes about some of the things that are available."

"Renee" #20

She attended a luncheon where they helped individuals choose the best health plan. "They help you put the application in to get that. And, then they can also see other... benefits that they can apply for you. And, then it's rejected or given to you. So yeah, it was, it's an agency right up the street here that I went to.... They gave a luncheon and I went to the luncheon and... then I went to their office to meet with them. And, that's when they helped me choose Humana."