By Rick Beavin, Desert Pacific Medicare President, Humana

In a year filled with unforeseen challenges and important decisions, people with Medicare have through Monday, Dec. 7 to select their Medicare Advantage or Prescription Drug Plan coverage for 2021. To ensure you have the right Medicare plan for you in place come January 1 of next year, it’s important to focus on these three key topics:

Navigating plan options during COVID-19 – Traditionally, the annual Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Plan open enrollment period offers opportunities for in-person educational events and one-on-one meetings with licensed sales agents. This year, you can safely access the resources you need to choose the best plan for you, online or by phone. The Medicare Plan Finder is a great place to start.

Doctors in network, prescription drugs covered? As you connect with a licensed sales agent or research information online, remember to confirm which doctors and hospitals are in a plan’s network. If you have a preferred physician or health care facility, a licensed health insurance agent can help you see if a specific doctor or hospital is in a plan’s network and taking new patients.

Although Original Medicare does not cover most prescription drugs, many Medicare Advantage plans include prescription drug coverage, or you can sign up for a Part D Prescription Drug Plan separately. A licensed sales agent can look up the medications you would like covered and help you estimate what the cost of each drug would be on a plan.

New, innovative benefits – Beyond vision, hearing and dental coverage, if you aim to become healthier, look for fitness program benefits as many Medicare Advantage plans include them. If you are comfortable using technology, access to virtual doctor visits is broadly available and enables you to seek care through your phone or computer, without having to leave home. Some Medicare Advantage plans offer benefits to help address the COVID-19 pandemic including offering home-delivered meals for members with a COVID diagnosis.

As we approach the Dec. 7 Medicare annual enrollment deadline, remember you’re not alone. Key resources are available including licensed sales agents and websites such as medicare.gov and www.humana.com/medicare.  You can also call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) (or TTY: 1-877-486-2048) 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or call Humana at 1-800-213-5286 (TTY: 711) 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time seven days a week.

Rick Beavin is Desert Pacific Medicare President at Humana in California.

By Sergeant Ted Chang #4362, Antioch Police Traffic Unit

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020 at approximately 10:10 PM, police dispatch received a call of a vehicle versus pedestrian collision on E. Tregallas Road near Garrow Drive. Police and medical personnel responded immediately and located a 68-year-old Antioch resident nonresponsive and suffering major injuries. He was immediately transported to an area hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

The driver of the involved vehicle remained on scene and was cooperating with the investigation. Drugs and alcohol do not appear to be a factor in this collision. The Antioch Police Department Traffic Unit responded and took over the investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Antioch Police Department non-emergency line at (925) 778-2441. You may also text-a-tip to 274637 (CRIMES) using the key word ANTIOCH.

Join us for our 3rd Annual Bedford Block Party, benefiting the Bedford Center for Adult Day Health Care in Antioch. The FREE event is happening on zoom from 4:30-5:30 PM. The FUNdraiser event will include appearances from local elected officials and a Bedford participant caregiver, an honoree ceremony for the late Ralph Garrow Jr., information on the Bedford Center, and live music from members of The Delta Dogs!

The event is free to attend, but if you’d like to support us, you can purchase BBQ catering to be picked up (between 1:30-3:30 PM) at the Bedford Center, 1811 C Street in Antioch, or purchase a VIP Package (which includes 30 min extra of live music by the Delta Dogs!), which we will deliver to your door! Learn more about these options here–deadlines to order these are soon!

Dave “Butch Martinez” at the 2018 World Association of Bench Pressers and Dead Lifters. Photos courtesy of Antioch Historical Society Museum.

By Tom Lamothe

Here’s a new story from our Recreation Section of the Antioch Historical Society Museum.

While most 68-year-old retired men are looking for an easy chair to rest in, David Martinez, better known as Butch, is working hard lifting weights in his home gym here in Antioch. The 1970 Antioch High grad has always enjoyed lifting, but things changed roughly 20 years ago. He became serious about lifting, more specifically, about bench pressing. As a member of the Big C Gym in Concord, he entered his first bench press competition after being encouraged by a staffer and walked away with a nice 18-inch first place gold trophy cup. Encouraged by his newly found success, Butch entered the upcoming Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) power lifting contest and to his surprise, won the Gold again.

In the following two decades Butch continued to enter sanctioned competitions by the AAU, the International Power Lifting Association, and The World Association of Bench Pressers and Dead Lifters (WABDL). Sanctioned competitions are heavily regulated and have drug testing, age and weight classifications and smaller sub-groups. Such sub-groups as, the RAW classification- for those who don’t wear special wraps and uniforms to support the strain on joints when lifting. There’s also the Law-Fire classification, which is due to one of Butch’s job classifications at the Contra Costa Water District. In these decades he would enter the 47 to 67-year-old age groups, the 220-pound weight class, RAW, and Law-Fire Divisions. When recently visiting Butch he wasn’t training due to COVID-19 and didn’t enter the WABDL competition in Las Vegas. Noticing a paunch, but well developed arms, I wondered why he wasn’t more muscular, and in Butch’s typical sense of humor he said, “That’s the pretty boys in body building, in weight lifting we’re fat old bald guys!” All kidding aside, Butch’s 20 years of accomplishments speaks for themselves!

At the AAU level Butch garnered three World Records and four International Championships. In WABDL competitions, he lifted in over 40 meets and 20 State championships. During these competitions Butch won 16 State Championships, eleven World Championships, and set five WABDL World Records. It would be in 2005 at the WABDL California State Championships held in Monterey that Butch would achieve his greatest accomplishment, an All-Time Best, 435.2 bench press, establishing a World Record in his classifications. Today, his 297.5-pound bench press at the 64 year old, 220 pound weight class in the RAW, Law-Fire Division, stands a WABDL World Record.

In recognition of Butch’s years of endurance and accomplishments, he was honored by being inducted into the WABDL Hall of Fame at the 2018 World Championships in Las Vegas. Congratulations Butch on your career and you’re well deserving WABDL Hall of Fame Induction!

OPINION

By Jon Coupal, President, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

The assaults on California property owners and taxpayers never stop. And once again the California Legislature has advanced a massive tax increase at the last possible moment when they thought no one was paying attention.

Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 11 (ACA11), approved by the California Legislature, takes away Proposition 13 protections that California families have under current law and replaces them with a billion-dollar tax increase. Voters will have an opportunity to reject this scheme come November, as ACA11 will appear on the ballot as Proposition 19.

After the historic passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, Californians finally had certainty about their future property tax liability because increases in the “taxable value” of property were limited to 2 percent per year. Property would be reassessed to market value only when it changed hands. To prevent families from getting hit with huge tax increases, voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 58 in 1986, changing the state constitution to ensure that transfers of certain property between parents and children could occur without triggering the sticker shock of reassessment.

Under Prop. 58, a home of any value and up to a million dollars of assessed value of other property may be transferred between parents and children without reassessment. Proposition 19 (2020) would repeal Proposition 58 (1986) and force the reassessment of inherited or transferred property within families. The only exception is if the property is used as the principal residence of the person to whom it was transferred, and even that exclusion is capped.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates that the repeal of the “intergenerational transfer protections” guaranteed by Props. 58 and 193 will result in 40,000 to 60,000 families getting hit with higher property taxes every year. Prop. 19’s massive tax increase has been included in this initiative to offset another proposed constitutional change: the expansion of the ability for older homeowners to move to a replacement home and transfer their base-year property tax assessment from their previous home to the new property. While this “portability” expansion has some merit, voters rejected this idea in 2018. Oddly, the backers of the proposal think they can sell it again by adding a tax increase.

As ill-advised as Proposition 19 is as matter of policy, the contortions executed by the California Legislature to place it on the ballot were nothing short of bizarre. The primary sponsor of ACA11 was the California Association of Realtors (CAR) which first wrote a similar proposal as an initiative and gathered signatures to put it on the ballot. It appears CAR is motivated by the desire to churn more home sales, even at the expense of a multi-billion-dollar tax increase.

For reasons related to placating progressive Democrats in the Legislature as well as labor unions, CAR wanted to withdraw its previously qualified initiative and have the Legislature replace it with a similar tax increase proposal.

But something funny happened on the way to the ballot. CAR missed the constitutional deadline for withdrawing its initiative, so as a matter of law, it appeared that there would be two nearly identical measures on the ballot, causing confusion, not to mention additional costs. So, Secretary of State Padilla dutifully took the CAR measure off the ballot even though he had already certified it under the procedures set forth in the California Constitution.

Our current political establishment ignores all rules and laws when it comes to achieving a desired political end. And, as usual, the desired end here is billions of dollars in higher property taxes.

Employment & Human Services Department Opens Four Locations for Hot Weather Relief

The Contra Costa County Employment & Human Services Department (EHSD) has partially re-opened four of its public lobbies where residents can cool off on days of extreme heat during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place health order. The places to get relief from hot weather are open to all, including individuals, families with children, seniors and disabled adults. Water and charging stations are available at each of the following locations, open for cooling off from Saturday, May 29, 2020, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Social distancing and face covering requirements are in place in the EHSD buildings, and capacity may be limited in order to comply with County health orders.  Community members should NOT go to any of these places to cool off if they have been exposed to or are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, or if they have been ordered to quarantine.  All visitors to EHSD offices are required to answer screening questions, per CDC guidelines, before they can enter the buildings.

During the COVID-19 shelter in place, EHSD’s regular programs and services are NOT available at these offices. County residents can call (925) 957-5647 or (925) 957-5648 (Spanish) for assistance with CalFresh, CalWORKs, Medi-Cal and other benefit programs.

Contra Costa County Employment & Human Services

Employment & Human Services (EHSD) partners with the community to deliver quality services to ensure access to resources that support, protect, and empower individuals and families to achieve self-sufficiency.  Based on the core values of delivering an exceptional customer experience, encouraging open communication, embracing change, practicing ethical behavior, and embracing diversity, EHSD envisions Contra Costa County will continue to be a thriving community where all individuals and families can be healthy, safe, secure and self-sufficient.  More information about EHSD is available at www.ehsd.org.

Seniors, public invited to listen – must register, first

SAN FRANCISCO – Prosecutors from the four United States Attorney’s Offices in California, along with representatives from the FBI, will participate in a telephonic town hall to help California residents identify and avoid fraudulent schemes related to Coronavirus and COVID-19.  The event is being coordinated by the American Association of Retired Persons (“AARP”).

The telephonic town hall will happen on Monday, April 20 from 10 to 11 a.m. PDT. During the event, a special agent from the FBI and a federal prosecutor will make presentations, and participants from across California will be allowed to ask questions to a panel of Assistant United States Attorneys from the four offices that serve California.

AARP’s Fraud Watch Network is providing the infrastructure for the event. Approximately 100,000 AARP members will receive a phone call Monday morning inviting them to participate in the town hall. Those who wish to receive an invitation may sign up here (https://vekeo.com/aarpcalifornia/).

During the current health crisis, federal investigators and prosecutors continue to fulfill their critical mission of protecting public safety. Federal officials have prioritized the disruption, investigation and prosecution of crimes related to Coronavirus and COVID-19, including fraudulent schemes, unapproved treatments, and scams related to stimulus money. During the town hall, federal officials will discuss the types of schemes currently being seen, along with tips on how to avoid becoming a victim.

Soon after the town hall event, a recording will be available at https://vekeo.com/aarpcalifornia/.

REPORT COVID-19 CRIME.  Contact the National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline: 866-720-5721 or disaster@leo.gov.