WE’RE GOING TO bounce around a few different things today, but allow me to begin with the one that really rubs me the wrong way:… Continue reading
MONEY, MONEY MONEY. I’m hoping to get your attention. How did I do? Some of you with better long-term memories than mine (which is almost… Continue reading
THOSE OF US who have been mucking about in these columns for years are probably fairly aware of things such as advance directives and durable… Continue reading
I CONCLUDED LAST week’s column with “Medicare happens,” implying that we were finished, at least for the time being, with talking about Medicare. I lied.… Continue reading
THIS IS WEEK No. 3 of describing the Medicare Machine. I am not going to regurgitate the past few weeks’ columns, because that would place… Continue reading
TODAY IS MARCH 26, 2017, and in the interests of “full disclosure” (which almost never happens in the real world), be warned that I have… Continue reading
DESPITE A LOT of good advice to the contrary, almost all of us seem to be getting older on a daily basis. Thus, many of… Continue reading
I HATE TODAY. Well, actually I don’t hate today; I’m usually grateful for yet another opportunity to try to get it right, which happens every… Continue reading
ARE WE SETTLING into the idea that it’s 2017? Have we stopped writing checks dated 2016? Good. That’s progress. Now, several of you have been… Continue reading
“I’M RESPONSIBLE FOR me,” she said. Sounds simple enough, huh? Agreed. Most genuinely profound observations are simple enough. This particular “genuinely profound observation” came from… Continue reading
THIS IS ABOUT Medicare. If you’re not on Medicare, not about to be and don’t know or like anyone who is, this won’t touch you.… Continue reading
YES, I DO know that Tuesday is Valentine’s Day. Apparently a lot of you do, too, because quite a few of you have been emailing… Continue reading
LAST WEEK, WHILE whining about the whole Medicare “observation vs. admission” debacle, I concluded the column with, “So, what’s the real answer? Right: Stay healthy… Continue reading
AFTER ALL THESE years, there’s a reason that we insist on continuing to call this little weekly effort “Help Line,” and that reason is that… Continue reading
not because I think there’s something wrong with it, but simply because I don’t have… Continue reading
THIS IS ONE of those columns, meaning it won’t touch all of us, so it’ll be easy to think “click” and move on. However, if… Continue reading
HERE WE ARE on Jan. 8 and while some of us are actually succeeding in achieving our 2017 New Year’s resolutions (bravo), some of us… Continue reading
CONGRATULATIONS AND WELCOME to 2017. Flying in the face of what many of us thought were impossible odds, we’ve actually made it to New Year’s… Continue reading
IT’S CHRISTMAS DAY 2016, which is a rather big deal, regardless of your religious or philosophical orientation. At best, it’s a joy-filled day of significant… Continue reading
THIS IS NORMALLY the time of the year when I’ve occasionally provided abnormal Christmas shopping lists for the errant gift-givers among us who, having an… Continue reading