Product Description

Everyone wants to get the most out of their retirement benefits -- not to mention the best medical coverage.

Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions clearly explains what the different benefits are, and shows you how to claim what you've earned, including:

* Social Security retirement and disability benefits

* Supplemental Security Income

* government penisons & 401(k)s

* Medicare and Medicaid

* new medical insurance options

* dependents and survivor benefits

* veterans benefits

* and more

Completely updated to provide the latest information and changes in benefits, this plain-English book is a must-have for anyone who is retired or about to be.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1215225 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
...a guidebook through the maze of Social Security and Medicare options. -- Jane Glenn Hass Orange County Register

A handy reference … [this] publisher’s credentials in self-help law are impeccable. -- Michael Pellechia, Syndicated Columnist

… a wealth of information on public and private pensions and insurance. -- Silver Circle

About the Author
Dorothy Matthews Berman

Dorothy Matthews Berman has been Program Director at a senior citizens center in the Los Angeles area. She has been involved in work with seniors in various capacities since 1973. Joseph Matthews, her co-author on the book Social Security, Medicare & Pensions, is her son.

Attorney Joseph L. Matthews

Joseph Matthews has been an attorney since 1971, and from 1975 to 1977 he taught at the law school of the University of California, Berkeley. He has for many years been involved in matters relating to seniors, and is the author of Social Security, Medicare & Pensions and Beat the Nursing Home Trap, as well as How to Win Your Personal Injury Claim.

Customer Reviews

Great summary of the Social Security system!
This happens to be the best all-around book concerning the difficult subject of Social Security that I have read. Understandable and very well written. The sections regarding disability are filled with just the info I needed to know.

Could reading about federal regulations be entertaining?
The authors of this comprehensive guidebook come close to achieving this feat. As they point out, many Americans are not receiving all the benefits they deserve under our current system. By explaining the various benefit programs and laws in conversational English, they hope to help readers ensure they are getting everything to which they are entitled. It's also helpful that the text is presented in a visually interesting two-column format with plenty of headings, boxes, and even the occasional illustration.

Each chapter explains a different benefit program or set of laws designed to protect the rights of older Americans. Security and Medicare take up more than half the book. The discussions of Medicare claims and appeal procedures are particularly thorough, complete with samples of Medicare summary notices explaining what the sometimes confusing columns of numbers mean. There also are chapters on Medigap policies, Veterans benefits, private pensions and 401(k) plans, and federal civil service retirement benefits. However, if you're looking for in-depth information on Medicaid coverage of nursing home costs, this is not your best resource. While Medicaid's basic eligibility rules are briefly discussed, the complexities of transferring assets to qualify for Medicaid benefits are not.

The authors mainly stick to the facts, but every once in a while they reveal their view of our society's tattered safety net. For example, they call our failure to enact a comprehensive, universal health care plan a "national disgrace."

Significant error in VA section
page 10/7: "E. Medical Treatment....And dependents and survisors of a veteran who has a service connected disabilities, or who receives a veterans pension, are entitled to care in VA facilities if they are unable to afford private care."

I have been a VA employee for 16 years. The above is WRONG. There IS a pilot program in a handful of VA hospitals allowing dependents to use the VA hospital. Otherwise, this is NOT the case.

..."The VA can also pay for long-term care of an elderly or disabled veteran in a private nursing facility if there is no space in a VA facility."

This is also not entirely correct. The operative would is CAN. However, the VA is only obligated to pay for the care of veterans who have a certain percentage of Service-Connected Disability. If they pay at all for any others, most VA's only pay for care for a VERY limited period of time.