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Oct. 18, 2022, is Alaska Day. It marks the formal transfer of Alaska from the Russian Empire to the United States of America. 2022 is the 154th anniversary of this transfer that changed and impacted the history of our state. It is something we can celebrate. We can also celebrate when we take the time to take care of ourselves. A part of this includes making sure we are current on our Medicare enrollment. People do have questions regarding Medicare. It is a large federal health insurance program and can be complex due to the unique needs of...
Q: Why aren’t assisted living costs covered by my health insurance program? A: When people think about assisted living, they often presume costs are covered by their medical plan. However, as a general rule, traditional employer-based health insurance will not cover daily care over a long period of time. A common misconception is that Medicare extends to long-term care stays. However, Medicare is strictly a health insurance program that covers costs related to illnesses and injuries and, to s...
Fall in Alaska is unpredictable, and usually that means snow and slippery surfaces. It is easy to be distracted when in familiar surroundings, and this creates an accident waiting to happen and we trip, slip, fall or have a scary close call. According to the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2020, Alaska led the nation as the highest-risk state when it came to falls of people over 65 years of age. The U.S. average is 27.1% and Alaska is 36.5%. This means approximately 1 in 3 Alaskans aged 65 and older are falling each year. W...
Across the country, residents of long-term care facilities along with family members, ombudsmen, citizen advocates, facility staff and others will honor the individual rights of long-term care residents by celebrating Residents’ Rights Month in October. Setting aside a month to focus on rights is an effective way to ensure this important topic is recognized in our community and state. Residents’ Rights Month is celebrated each year to highlight residents living in all long-term care settings. It is a time to reflect on the importance of the Nur...
The third grade students looked at me like they did the other two docents – old ladies who were telling them what life was like back in the good old days of 1935. The way I talked made one student ask if grew up in the house. I couldn't blame him, but I wasn't even born for another 20 years. Why could I identify so easily with children living in Palmer in 1935? Barbara Thomas, head docent for Colony House Museum, had asked me to help with the Knik Elementary School tours that October 2016 m...
Not only does Alaska have a history steeped in fur trading, whale harvesting and gold mining. It also has drawings on rocks usually associated with primitive people in exotic faraway lands. Petroglyphs, the Greek word for rock carvings, are among many enigmas of science. Because their true meanings are elusive, they remain a mysterious link to a people who inhabited the world a long time ago. Many of Alaska's petroglyphs, which are in abundance in the Southeastern part of the state, are unique...
I was watching a Korean comedy series recently online, called “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”. It is about a brilliant but significantly autistic woman who becomes a lawyer. If you don’t mind reading subtitles (or alternatively, if you speak Korean) I can highly recommend it. One episode involves an inheritance dispute. After the father dies, the two older brothers convince the youngest brother that under Korean law, the oldest brother get the largest percentage of the estate, the second broth...
Q. Years ago I converted a box of family photos with a desktop scanner. Are scanners still around, or have they gone the way of the fax machine and pay telephones? A. Tabletop flatbed scanners are still available. And far less expensive than they were years ago. Pretty much any model that sells for less an $100 should do just fine. Just be sure that it is supported by whichever device you use it with. There is however another solution: a smartphone app. Today’s smartphone cameras are more powerful than most budget-friendly scanners, and w...
While best known for joining the cast of the popular CBS spy series "Mission: Impossible" for the last two seasons in the early 70s, Lynda Day George became something of a minor horror movie icon before retiring from acting in the late 80s. In the horror realm, she portrayed characters threatened by an army of ants ("Ants," 1977), a pack of wild dogs ("Day of the Animals," 1977), a demonic force ("Beyond Evil," 1980), a haunted mirror ("Fear No Evil," 1969), a chainsaw-wielding killer ("Pieces,"...
Dear Savvy Senior: How do I go about looking for an old former company 401(k) plan that I think I contributed money to many years ago, but forgot about until recently? - Retired in Rochester Dear Retired: If you think you may have lost track of an old 401(k) retirement account, you aren’t alone. As Americans move from job to job, many leave scraps of their company sponsored 401(k) plans behind, believing they’ll deal with it later, but never do. In fact, according to a recent study, Americans have left behind around $1.35 trillion in retirement...
Big, Outside money is flooding our Alaska elections this season. Alaska’s strong, citizen-initiated campaign finance law was struck down by the courts last fall, and the Legislature failed to act to correct the problem, leaving our elections wide-open to this form of legalized corruption. Recent polls show that 72% of Alaskans want limits on such spending. The citizens are pushing back. The “Hold Them Accountable” campaign is asking each candidate to sign a pledge to honor the wishes of most Alaskans by supporting an amendment to the U.S....
Dear Savvy Senior: What kind of changes can Medicare beneficiaries expect to see in the Inflation Reduction Act that was recently signed into law? I’m enrolled in original Medicare and have a Part D prescription drug plan but spent more than $6,000 out-of-pocket last year on medications alone. - Overpaying Paul Dear Paul: The climate, tax and health care bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden last month includes significant improvements to the Medicare program that will k...
The surgery I needed this summer was not available in Alaska. I could have had it done in several places in the lower 48, but I picked Mayo Clinic because of its excellent national reputation. It is the number one ranked hospital by U.S. News and World Report and Newsweek. I picked the Phoenix facility (as opposed to Mayo Clinics in Florida or Minnesota) for the food. No need to be snarky. It was a dumb idea, but at the time I was trying to make the experience seem somehow festive, less tense, so I focused on southwestern food, which I love. I...
You may make changes to your Medicare Part D prescription drug plan coverage each year during Medicare’s Open Enrollment Period, which runs Oct. 15 to Dec. 7. Beginning in September, you may receive notices with information about possible changes to your coverage for the coming year. Please read these notices, as these can help you decide if you should make changes to your coverage during Medicare’s Open Enrollment Period. If you are currently enrolled in Medicare, watch for the “Medicare & You...
It’s a good time to talk about the newest resource available to Alaskans: 988, the three-digit, nationwide phone number which connects directly to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Not only is this an easy-to-remember number – it’s a direct connection to care. Care that is compassionate, and supportive for anyone experiencing mental-health related distress, whether thoughts of suicide, mental health, substance use crisis or any other kind of emotional distress, or for someone worried about a loved one needing crisis support. The launc...
Q: When I am with others, I occasionally feel dismissed and that my point of view doesn’t matter. How do I get others to listen to what I have to say? A: When we are with others that are of different life experiences, disparate thought, clashing opinions, or diverse age groups, our voice can feel marginalized. We can feel powerless or relegated to an unimportant position. If an individual or group identifies that they are not accepted, due to unequal status, privilege, opportunity, gender, sexua...
Author's note: Life is a journey and circumstances change, as they always do. It was with bittersweet thoughts that I recently recalled this story from 10 years ago while tending a brush pile fire with my two grandchildren, rather than my husband, Gary. He moved into the Palmer Pioneer Home in February. Our daughter and grandchildren traveled from Colorado to visit us in July. Perhaps some of the glue that holds our almost 40-year marriage together is cutting and stacking firewood and burning br...
A friend of mine recently sent me an excerpt from "Open: An Autobiography," by Andre Agassi, the retired tennis professional. In it he talks about the mental battle he learned to fight after finding a new coach who helped propel him to do remarkable things in tennis. My friend saw parallels in my own thought process: "The tyranny of perfection". Growing up playing tennis with a father who (most of the time) gently taught my brother and me the needed skills, I was still subconsciously motivated...
A three-hour stopover in Skagway in July 1923 by President Warren G. Harding turned into a booming business for one Alaskan sourdough. Martin Itjen, an immigrant who came north from Florida in 1898 to join the stampede in search of riches in the Klondike, took the President on an excursion in a painted coal truck. After seeing how much Harding enjoyed the tour, the mustached Itjen figured he could make a living off tourism in the famous gold rush city and started the Skagway Streetcar Co. The...
Not even a pandemic could slow down Kent McCord's desire to interact with admirers, even if only through virtual fan conventions. "I've done several of these online over the last two years and always enjoy talking with fans," said McCord, who turns 80 in September, from his Los Angeles home. Best known as one half of the crime-fighting police duo on "Adam-12," McCord's Hollywood career can be traced to college days in early 1961 when a fellow student invited him to participate in a friendly...
It is advisable for people who have recently been diagnosed with a serious illness that will result in declining mental or physical health to discuss and update their financial and health care affairs as soon as possible. People with Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia often have trouble managing their money, but the person may not realize that they are losing the ability to manage their money. Here are some signs that may indicate that a person with Alzheimer’s is not managing his or her money well or is the victim of a scam: The per...
I meet a lot of people who try to “do it themselves,” putting together their own wills, trusts or other estate planning documents from some website or kit, or just by copying something a friend had. Nine times out of 10 (okay, maybe 5 out of 7) there is something in that paperwork which is completely contrary to what the client actually wanted. They didn’t realize there was an issue. The problem is, they didn’t understand the boilerplate. There was some legalese in there, which they thought...
Q. What is the least expensive way to improve Zoom calls? A. Adding more light and positioning the camera so you look straight ahead are the easiest things to upgrade. But the improvement that delivers the biggest impact is better sound. Most people will watch low-quality video for a much longer period of time than they will tolerate noisy or hard to hear audio. As a result my best suggestion for better Zoom calls is to get a better microphone. Searching the web for a microphone might trigger sticker shock, but hold off clicking that buy...
I’ve been writing about the chance to participate in medical research by applying for clinical trials that could not only help oneself, but countless others. Being in the Chicago area, there are plenty of medical trials to choose from, so I decided on the osteoarthritis knee study at Northwestern University. For years, I’ve growled that we can put a man the moon but can’t make cartilage regrow or even replace it with another material. This study would involve a regular injection of a drug to do just that (or you get a placebo). I took the overh...
It gives me a good feeling to spend my final days surrounded by family, friends and lovers. We are a great generation. We all were out at sea for our five year migration and life cycle. Most of us didn’t make it back. But look around... We are the lucky ones. We made it back. And not only that, we successfully spawned. Now here we are in our last days, swimming to stay in one place, to stay with our community. We are elderly now. We’ve stopped eating but we have grown larger teeth. Ironic, isn’t it? In our final days we have large hooked noses...
