by Pa Rock
Money Maker
Being retired and on a modest fixed income, it's a rare day when I actually make some money, but last week the stars aligned and I managed to hit a couple of good licks.
In the first instance I didn't actually bring in any money, but through obstinance and the sheer brute force of my sparkling personality I did save six hundred dollars. It happened the the local pharmacy.
But first a bit of background.
I am insurance poor. Being in my early seventies I have Medicare - and I purchased the optional Medicare Part D which covers (poorly - thank you G.W. Bush) prescription drugs. I also have a complete Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance plan which I took with me when I left my last job with the U.S. military. (The BC/BS plan cost me almost exactly as much to maintain as a Medicare supplement would have cost, so I kept it and use that as my supplement. When Medicare or Medicare Part D hits me with a co-pay, which is almost always, BC/BS will generally cover it. I don't remember paying any actual medical bills since retiring five years ago, and the most I ever pay on drugs is two or three dollars - and even then I complain - loudly!)
So imagine the reaction that the pharmacy staff got last week when they told me that due to a beginning-of-the-year deductible that I still owed just over $600 on a prescription that I had to have. It wasn't pretty! The poor girl at the window assured me that she had ran it by both insurance companies and that the total was correct. I called my Part D provider from the lobby of the pharmacy, on speaker phone because I don't like the feel of the cell on my ear, and, and after going through fifteen minutes of rigmarole and hearing commercials telling me how great the insurance company was, I got on the line with a lady who assured me that her company had done all it would do, and how if I had no insurance at all, those 90 little pills would have cost me $1,500! That, of course, made me even madder!)
I cancelled the order for the life-extending drugs and stepped next door to get a shingles shot, and while I was in that office, the original sales clerk stepped in and said that she had just run the order again, for grins I suppose, and that this time it had rung up without a co-pay.
Jackpot! I grabbed my pills and ran for the door before her computer had time to belch up different ending to the story.
That was on Friday. The next night I won the lottery - well, $624 anyway. (A total that would have barely covered the original estimate for the pills - and would have royally pissed me off if I wound up feeling that a pharmaceutical company had stolen my hard-earned lottery winnings!)
The Missouri Lottery has a game called "Lotto" which draws every Wednesday and Saturday nights. I have bought one Lotto ticket a day for years, and on the drawing nights I have either three or four entries. Missouri Lotto tickets have two rows of six numbers each. A person who matches all six numbers on any row wins the grand prize, which is never less than a million dollars. A person matching three of the six numbers wins a free ticket, and those matching four of six wins a percentage of that week's take - usually around thirty dollars. Those matching five of six wins a bigger percentage, but I have never worried about that because those odds (for 5 of 6) are something like 15,000 to one.
I win free tickets three or four times a month, and the thrity-something dollar prize no more than once or twice a year.
Last Wednesday I won a free ticket for matching three numbers. I had told the girl who works the counter where I buy my tickets, that free tickets are inherently unlucky because I had never won anything with one of those.
But that changed early Sunday before daylight when I was checking my Saturday night numbers at the computer. As I looked at my "free" ticket, I immediately noticed that it had some of the winning numbers. At first glance I saw three, then four, and then my eyes bugged out as I realized that my free Lotto ticket had matched five of the six numbers. If I had gotten the other number right - a 6 instead of a 17 - I would have won $1.4 million!
But, hey, hand grenades and horseshoes. Right?
Later in the morning I took my winning ticket to town and learned that this week's prize for 5 of 6 was $624. I was one of thirteen people across the entire state to hit 5 of 6, and no one had done better and taken home the grand prize. I also found out that I would have to mail my ticket in or take it to a state lottery office - in Springfield or Jefferson City - because local retailers could only pay out prizes up to $500. Then after calling the state lottery office, I learned that winners of any prize of $600 or more also had to fill out a W-9 and pay taxes on their winnings - a fact which more closely aligns with the story of my life.
But that's not a problem because Pa Rock pays his taxes proudly - he is not a freeloading Trump!
Money Maker
Being retired and on a modest fixed income, it's a rare day when I actually make some money, but last week the stars aligned and I managed to hit a couple of good licks.
In the first instance I didn't actually bring in any money, but through obstinance and the sheer brute force of my sparkling personality I did save six hundred dollars. It happened the the local pharmacy.
But first a bit of background.
I am insurance poor. Being in my early seventies I have Medicare - and I purchased the optional Medicare Part D which covers (poorly - thank you G.W. Bush) prescription drugs. I also have a complete Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance plan which I took with me when I left my last job with the U.S. military. (The BC/BS plan cost me almost exactly as much to maintain as a Medicare supplement would have cost, so I kept it and use that as my supplement. When Medicare or Medicare Part D hits me with a co-pay, which is almost always, BC/BS will generally cover it. I don't remember paying any actual medical bills since retiring five years ago, and the most I ever pay on drugs is two or three dollars - and even then I complain - loudly!)
So imagine the reaction that the pharmacy staff got last week when they told me that due to a beginning-of-the-year deductible that I still owed just over $600 on a prescription that I had to have. It wasn't pretty! The poor girl at the window assured me that she had ran it by both insurance companies and that the total was correct. I called my Part D provider from the lobby of the pharmacy, on speaker phone because I don't like the feel of the cell on my ear, and, and after going through fifteen minutes of rigmarole and hearing commercials telling me how great the insurance company was, I got on the line with a lady who assured me that her company had done all it would do, and how if I had no insurance at all, those 90 little pills would have cost me $1,500! That, of course, made me even madder!)
I cancelled the order for the life-extending drugs and stepped next door to get a shingles shot, and while I was in that office, the original sales clerk stepped in and said that she had just run the order again, for grins I suppose, and that this time it had rung up without a co-pay.
Jackpot! I grabbed my pills and ran for the door before her computer had time to belch up different ending to the story.
That was on Friday. The next night I won the lottery - well, $624 anyway. (A total that would have barely covered the original estimate for the pills - and would have royally pissed me off if I wound up feeling that a pharmaceutical company had stolen my hard-earned lottery winnings!)
The Missouri Lottery has a game called "Lotto" which draws every Wednesday and Saturday nights. I have bought one Lotto ticket a day for years, and on the drawing nights I have either three or four entries. Missouri Lotto tickets have two rows of six numbers each. A person who matches all six numbers on any row wins the grand prize, which is never less than a million dollars. A person matching three of the six numbers wins a free ticket, and those matching four of six wins a percentage of that week's take - usually around thirty dollars. Those matching five of six wins a bigger percentage, but I have never worried about that because those odds (for 5 of 6) are something like 15,000 to one.
I win free tickets three or four times a month, and the thrity-something dollar prize no more than once or twice a year.
Last Wednesday I won a free ticket for matching three numbers. I had told the girl who works the counter where I buy my tickets, that free tickets are inherently unlucky because I had never won anything with one of those.
But that changed early Sunday before daylight when I was checking my Saturday night numbers at the computer. As I looked at my "free" ticket, I immediately noticed that it had some of the winning numbers. At first glance I saw three, then four, and then my eyes bugged out as I realized that my free Lotto ticket had matched five of the six numbers. If I had gotten the other number right - a 6 instead of a 17 - I would have won $1.4 million!
But, hey, hand grenades and horseshoes. Right?
Later in the morning I took my winning ticket to town and learned that this week's prize for 5 of 6 was $624. I was one of thirteen people across the entire state to hit 5 of 6, and no one had done better and taken home the grand prize. I also found out that I would have to mail my ticket in or take it to a state lottery office - in Springfield or Jefferson City - because local retailers could only pay out prizes up to $500. Then after calling the state lottery office, I learned that winners of any prize of $600 or more also had to fill out a W-9 and pay taxes on their winnings - a fact which more closely aligns with the story of my life.
But that's not a problem because Pa Rock pays his taxes proudly - he is not a freeloading Trump!
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