An invaluable, uncomplicated guide to effectively navigating the serpentine Medicare program.
A health care expert dissects the intricacies and mixed messages in the multipart American Medicare program.
Parker acknowledges that the original Medicare program doesn’t have to be “mind-boggling” and aims to take the guesswork out of the coverage maze with this guide centered on simplifying the “buffet of discounted healthcare.” He uses humorous, relatable metaphors throughout his discussion, likening enrolling in Medicare to ordering a “reduced-cost pizza,” with its structured system resembling a three-legged stool. In easily digestible language, the author shares his expertise on Medicare’s three key components, their applicable coverages (hospital, medical insurance, prescriptions), and how issues like income, network restrictions, and long-term care play an integral part in the entire enrollment process. The centerpiece of his book addresses the most popular, essential decisions readers should consider when making critical health care choices for themselves, their aging family members, and their spouses. He first advises readers on the optimum time frame within which to initially enroll in the original Medicare program (Parts A and B) with respect to age and work status. He follows this with cautionary guidance for those unaware of Medicare’s more specific policies and restrictions. These include variable premium ranges as well as the 20% out-of-pocket cost-share requirement and the Medigap coverage that can alleviate this costly burden, which could quickly add up depending on the medical treatment needed. Medications, covered formularies, and drug tiers also factor into the equation, as with Medicare Part D, which, according to the book’s graphics, can change periodically. The author hopes to instill a more comprehensive understanding of plan coverages and utilizes easy-to-follow explanations, elementary breakdowns, and individual qualifying specifics, such as enrollment with a disability and prior authorizations for care. He concludes with sage advice on how readers can personalize their coverage using his downloadable “Decision Worksheet” to get the most out of their individual Medicare plans. Parker encourages curious readers to get an early start on this kind of decision making. His book is ideal for readers on the cusp of becoming Medicare eligible as well as those already enrolled but needing an informed and informal refresher course.
An invaluable, uncomplicated guide to effectively navigating the serpentine Medicare program.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 9798986780009
Page Count: 92
Publisher: Chapter
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
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