Questions for those on Medicare (or who have experience with it)

[democrattotheend]

43. Here's an example of what I am talking about

This article talks about how a woman not only incurred $1.2 million in medical bills during her last 6 months of life but probably suffered more than she would have if she had just been allowed to die peacefully. The article notes that cost never figured in at all when making decisions about her care because she had Medicare and supplemental, so there were no out of pocket costs for anything.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/woman-s--month-decline-highlights-end-of-life-care/article_d9310228-bd52-11e1-b34e-001a4bcf6878.html

I just don't think it's fair that someone can incur such high costs on Medicare's dime without her family ever having to think about costs, when poorer seniors like yourself who cannot afford supplemental coverage are forced to forego necessary care because of cost.

If Medigap covered 15% of the cost instead of 20% and patients had a 5% coinsurance rate, more people would be able to afford supplemental coverage, and people would have a greater incentive to consider whether expensive, low-probability of success surgery done just in case it might prolong a terminally ill patient's life by 2 months is worth it.

If Medicare could save money on expensive and often not cost-effective end of life procedures that often make things worse, it could afford to charge lower premiums and copays for those who cannot afford supplemental.