By Mark Harvey

What I’m about to tell you represents two of the quickest and easiest ways I know of to genuinely help folks on Medicare who are not “well to do.” These numbers change periodically, so please read this, whether you find it interesting or not. If it doesn’t help you, it may help someone you know.

Let me ask you this: If you’re single, is your income at or below $1,426 per month? Or, if you’re married, is it at or below $1,923 per month?

If you’re single, are your assets at or below $7,730? (Don’t count the house or the car or your stuff — just money in the bank, stocks, bonds, other real estate, etc.) If you’re a couple, are your assets at or below $11,600?

Yes? Then you probably just got your Medicare Part B premium paid for, to the tune of $100-plus per month.

Yes, I’m serious. There are three programs referred to as the “Medicare Savings Programs.” They are known by weird acronyms: QMB (Qualified Medicare Beneficiary), SLMB (Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary) and QI (Qualifying Individual). I don’t care if you remember that, but I do care if you remember this: The latter two will pay for your Part B premiums ,and the first one (QMB) will also pay your Part B deductibles, co-insurance and co-payments.

We’re talking about paying for the heat here, right? Or food? Or medicine?

Now, try this:

If your income and assets are at or below the figures above, you also qualify for Medicare Part D’s “Low Income Subsidy.” This extra help covers all or part of Part D premiums, deductibles and some co-pays, and it provides coverage through the “gap” (aka “doughnut hole”). As a matter of fact, even if your income and assets are a bit higher than the figures above m you could still get some partial help with your Part D plan.

What does all this mean? If you’re suddenly not paying for Part B premiums (and maybe more), and you’re reducing or eliminating your Part D premiums and deductibles, and you’re getting prescription drug coverage through the doughnut hole, your net household income just went up!

If anybody is reading this and thinking “greedy geezer,” please do not email me about that, because I find that to be staggeringly idiotic and really don’t want to waste my time (or yours) arguing about it.

And for those of you who are Medicaid wonks, yes: The Medicare Savings Programs are a form of Medicaid, but they are specifically exempted from estate recovery, so all is well.

And, by the way, everything I’ve just talked about is just as true (and available) in Indian Country, as it is anywhere else.

Please act on this, or cut out this column and stick it squarely in the face of somebody you care about, because there are thousands of us in these counties who qualify for these things. But we just don’t know it, so we just don’t do it, and then we struggle — and things often go downhill from there.

No, these things won’t make you rich, but they will help — considerably — every day of every month.

What do you do? Well, the easiest way (if you’ve got the equipment and the savvy) is to go to www.washingtonconnection.org to apply for the Medicare Savings Programs. Usually, when you apply for those, the “system” will set you up with Part D “extra help” automatically.

Or, you can go to the Social Security website , www.socialsecurity.gov/prescriptionhelp, to apply for “extra help.”

Or, you can call any of the numbers at the end of this column and ask about any of the terms I’ve used here, and decent people will know what you’re talking about and help you — at no charge.

That’s it. That’s all.

Please don’t be intimidated by or get hung up about (or hung up in) the bureaucracy or acronyms or whatever — who cares? We’re talking about your life here! And it will not help your kids (or anybody else) for you to do without, when you could do something about it and reduce some of the worry — yours and theirs.

Just do it. If you need help, call the numbers below — it’ll go well, I promise.

Help yourself. Please.

Mark Harvey is the director of information and assistance for the Olympic Area Agency on Aging. He can be reached by email at harvemb@dshs.wa.gov; by phone at 360-532-0520 in Aberdeen, 360-942-2177 in Raymond, or 360-642-3634; or through Facebook at Olympic Area Agency on Aging-Information & Assistance.