Social Security, Medicare, and Pensions: Get the Most Out of Your Retirement and Medical Benefits (Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions) [Paperback]

Joseph L. Matthews (Author), Dorothy Matthews Berman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions | Publication Date: March 1999

An essential handbook shows everyone over the age of 55 how to maximize benefits and cut through the bureaucracy to get what they're entitled to. It explains the rules surrounding Social Security retirement and disability benefits, Supplemental Security Income, Civil Service retirement benefits, Medicare, Medicaid and Medi-gap health insurance and more. Examples and charts show what to expect at what age.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Nolo; 7th edition (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873374878
• ISBN-13: 978-0873374873
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,444,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great summary of the Social Security system!, August 4, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Social Security, Medicare, and Pensions: Get the Most Out of Your Retirement and Medical Benefits (Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions) (Paperback)

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.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could reading about federal regulations be entertaining?, May 3, 2001

By 

Ken Coughlin (The World Wide Web) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Social Security, Medicare, and Pensions: Get the Most Out of Your Retirement and Medical Benefits (Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions) (Paperback)

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."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Significant error in VA section, August 17, 2002

By 

M. K. Buike (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions: By Joseph L. Matthews With Dorothy Matthews Berman (Social Security, Medicare and Government Pensions) (Paperback)

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.