Potato chips are one of the greatest comfort foods on the planet and when they’re hot and fresh… that’s all the better! Most people don’t know North Carolina is home to a restaurant dedicated to piping hot chips doused with a variety of gourmet toppings. Take a peek below. At The Gourmet Chip Company you'll find an entire menu filled with flavorful chips topped with gourmet creations. But that's not all; there's plenty more than their delicious chips on the menu. They have a variety of panini sandwiches to pair with your choice of delectable chips topped with only the freshest and most flavorful ingredients. You'll also find locally crafted beers and a variety of soda flavors from Boylan (using pure cane sugar). The Gourmet Chip Company is located 43 1/2 Broadway St., Asheville, NC 28801. It’s open seven days a week beginning at 11:00 a.m. and closes at 7:00 p.m. every day except Sunday when it closes at 6:00 p.m.
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If you’re approaching the age of 65, in addition to considering life without an alarm clock, you need to consider your health insurance options very carefully. A form of Medicare most likely will be your main health insurance.
Because there are so many options, it can be complicated. I’ll break the basics down and share some resources to help you make the right decision. Don’t wait to think about your options! When you turn 64, here is a great month by month checklist of things to consider. THE BASICS
THE OPTIONS MEDICARE PART A AND B PLANS (ORIGINAL MEDICARE)This is what we call original Medicare which the government administers. The premium is deducted from your monthly social security check.
Original Medicare does not cover most prescription drugs or other services private insurers may offer. MEDICARE SUPPLEMENT (MEDIGAP)A Medicare Supplement (Medigap) policy is an additional option when purchasing Original Medicare. It’s sold by private insurers and helps pay some or all the health care costs that Medicare doesn’t cover, like copayments. coinsurance. deductibles. MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PART C PLANSThis type of plan is administered by a private health insurer. These plans, in addition to offering everything Original Medicare provides, offer additional features and benefits that you may not get with a Medicare Supplement plan.Most of these plans include prescription drug coverage and have in-network doctors. You would pay your premium directly to a private insurer and maintain lower out of pocket costs if seeing network doctors. When selecting a Medicare Advantage Plan you would still be required to pay your Medicare Part B premium, normally deducted from your social security check. MEDICARE PART D (PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE)This type of plan is administered by a private health insurer. Medicare Part D is a standalone prescription plan that helps cover your prescription needs and is typically paired with a Medicare Supplement plan. Many Medicare Advantage plans have Part D drug coverage, but there are some that offer medical benefits only. You are not allowed to have both a Medicare Advantage plan and a stand-alone Part D drug plan. Changes range from an early close of the donut hole to expanded Medicare Advantage plan benefits. Now 53 years old, Medicare has higher rates of satisfaction from its 60 million members than almost any other form of health insurance. It is about to get better. Here are seven improvements to Medicare that will take effect in 2019. Some of the changes will affect all beneficiaries while others will apply just to individuals who select Medicare Advantage plans. Donut hole for Prescription Rx An expensive element of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit requires enrollees with high prescription costs to pay more for their medicines after they reach a certain level of spending in one year. This creates a coverage gap – also called the “donut hole.” After a beneficiary’s out-of-pocket spending reaches a second threshold, they enter catastrophic coverage and pay substantially less. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the donut hole was scheduled to close in 2020. But the spending bill Congress passed in March will close the donut hole for some certain brand-name drugs in 2019. The gap will close for generic drugs in 2020. Therapy cap gone Beneficiaries of original Medicare won’t have to pay the full cost of outpatient Physical, Speech or Occupational therapy because Congress permanently repealed the cap that has historically limited coverage of those services. Lifestyle support. Beginning in January, Medicare Advantage plans have the option to cover meals delivered to the home, transportation to the doctor’s office and even safety features in the home such as bathroom grab bars and wheelchair ramps. To be covered, a medical provider will have to recommend benefits such as home-safety improvements and prepared meals. In-home help Medicare Advantage plans also will have the option to pay for assistance from home health aides, who can help beneficiaries with their daily activities including dressing, eating and personal care. These benefits represent a revised and broader definition of the traditional requirement that Medicare services must be primarily health related. Test Drive your Advantage Plan Open Enrollment January thru March 2019 _____________________________________________________ To enroll in Medicare 2019, fill our our Medicare Enrollment form and complete the information. _____________________________________________________ New regulations will let people try an Advantage plan for up to three months and, if they aren’t satisfied, they can switch to another Medicare Advantage plan or choose to enroll in original Medicare. Congress required this flexibility in the 21st Century Cures Act, designed to accelerate innovation in health care. If you're looking for cheaper health insurance, a whole host of new options will hit the market starting in October 2018. Re-Introducing Short Term Health Insurance Plans "These are a niche product, always have been," says Doug Badger, a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, and a senior fellow with the Galen Institute. "It's simply another choice for consumers that for many is more affordable than the other products available," he says. Short-term health insurance isn't entirely new. But the Obama Administration issued regulations that limited them to just three months, and they couldn't be renewed. The Trump Administration has changed that. Now people in some states will be able to buy policies that last a year, and consumers can renew them twice, for a total of three years' coverage. The administration says that Affordable Care Act insurance is too expensive for some people and this provides people a way to buy a less expensive health insurance policy. "They give people an additional option. Instead of remaining uninsured, they have a product that makes sense for them, a product that they can afford," Badger says. "It is something that in my view ought to be available to them." The administration says that Affordable Care Act insurance is too expensive for some people and this provides people a way to buy a less expensive health insurance policy. "They give people an additional option. Instead of remaining uninsured, they have a product that makes sense for them, a product that they can afford," Badger says. "It is something that in my view ought to be available to them." But if you're considering one of these plans there's a few things to keep in mind. Short-term policies are regulated by the states, so they don't have to comply with the consumer protections laid out in the Affordable Care Act. This means insurers can refuse to offer these policies to people with pre-existing health problems, or charge people more who are likely to need medications and health care. They also don't have to cover all the of the 10 essential health benefits that must be included in Affordable Care Act policies. Those benefits include maternity coverage and mental health care. The average monthly premium for a benchmark Affordable Care Act policy was $481 this year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But most people don't pay that much. Eighty-three percent of people who bought a plan during the open-enrollment period for 2018 qualified for subsidies from the government to help lower that cost. You can find out what an ACA plan would cost, and if you qualify for a subsidy, by going to HealthCare.gov. Or See Trout Insurance Enrollment Software - Please Click this Link For those who don't qualify for subsidies, Badger says these short-term plans could help them. But Allison K. Hoffman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, says the plans aren't the solution to the problem of high priced insurance. "The way that these plans answer that problem is saying, 'Well, we'll give you an alternative but that alternative is coverage that people call junk coverage or skinny coverage,' " she says. "So people have something called health insurance but it doesn't necessarily pay for all of their health needs." United Health Care and National General say they plan to offer short-term plans in several states, including North Carolina Plans range from one with a $12,500 annual deductible for less than $80 a month to one with a $1,000 deductible for about $250 a month. The policies don't cover prescription drugs and pay about 80 -60 percent of the cost of hospital visits after the deductible and co-payment. Hoffman worries that people who have become accustomed to the kind of coverage required under the ACA will be surprised when their short term plans leave them with big unpaid bills if they have an accident or become sick. Still, President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar say the whole point of expanding access to short-term insurance is to give people more choice, including the choice to buy insurance with few benefits. HHS estimates that about 600,000 people will buy short-term policies next year and as many as 1.6 million could own them after five years. The Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan research office that estimates the budget effects of policy proposals, gives a larger figure, estimating that about 2 million mostly healthy people will buy short-term plans. This could have the effect of driving premiums slightly higher on the ACA exchanges, because healthier people will leave the market, according to the CBO. Source: National Public Radio; Morning Edition Oct 1, 2018. Adapted. |
“We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or call 1.800.Medicare to get information on all of your options.”
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