Medicare is socialized medicine. It’s great! Millions of Americans have it. They all think that it’s the best deal around. So do I. If we didn’t, we would spend our Medicare fees on something else. If someone isn’t happy with Medicare (outside of it’s cost), I’d like to know why.
No matter what you have heard about socialized medicine in England and how poorly it is working, Medicare works just fine thank you.
Under Medicare, I go to only the best doctors in the country. I usually go directly to a specialist if I feel it’s indicated such as when I tore up my knee playing racquetball. All of the doctors that I want to go to accept Medicare as their total allowable fee. Medicare pays 80%, I pay 20%, after a small annual deductable. Many Medicare-approved HMOs offer even less cost, but they usually add in lots of restrictions such as who I can go to and gatekeepers.
Prior to me being Medicare eligible, Northrop Grumman took care of my medical insurance, and I really haven’t noticed any difference under Medicare.
Medicare protects me from the unsavory price gougers that swindle and bankrupt patients without insurance – Medicare may allow $500 for a procedure, but someone without Medicare or other insurance may be billed $15,000 with no recourse other than an dubious explanation, “We have to charge so much to make up for all our indigent patients and the low prices that we are ‘forced’ to accept by Medicare and insurance companies.” Before 2004, when Medicare started covering emergency room treatment, even Medicare patients were always grossly overcharged by emergency rooms unless they were checked in to the hospital at least overnight. Fortunately that loophole has been closed.
Another thing that I like, unlike commercial health insurers, Medicare doesn’t spend time and resources trying to cancel my insurance for whatever reason. I know It’ always there no matter what!
Now Medicare offers prescription drug coverage. I’m very happy with it. I don’t have much experience with this because Northrop Grumman has always provided this coverage for me, but everyone I know that has it seems very satisfied.
All the scare tactics about socialized medicine in America are baloney. Medicare is great! Let’s give everyone in America Medicare and let them pay as they are able. Our costs to treat the poor will go down drastically as the poor are no longer forced to wait until their illness is out of control before going to a price-gouging emergency room instead of a $50 clinic. Right now the clinics won’t accept poor patients because they have no way to get paid, and instead route the poor to expensive emergency rooms that can bill exorbitant fees to the local governments. Maybe this explains why there is great opposition to Medicare for the poor by for-fee emergency rooms.
Tags: Health Care in America
