General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What Form Should US Healthcare Take? [View all]ellennelle
(614 posts)i'm 65, and have been shocked and appalled at just how unnecessarily ungodly complicated is the medicare system.
folks like to claim everyone loves it. but let me tell you, it rivals the damn tax code.
oh, you do get plan A for free. hospital coverage. sorta.
but then you have to pay for plan B, doctor's visits.
but this is still not enough; you have to get a supplemental to pay for what A and B don't cover, and NONE of this covers drugs; that's plan D (courtesy of cantor and boehner during the bush years, remember? big gift to pharma.)
got it so far?
all that's the easy part; you then get to comb through all the myriad plans with their differing coverage and premiums, etc.
and none of this covers vision or dental - the two things that actually decline in all the elderly - until you get a supplemental, and then not in all of them; ya gotta pay extra.
sign up dates differ, depending on when you turn 65, and you can't even reject plan B; they take the premium - $104.90 - out of your SS check, or even your SSDI check!
an unbelievable scam. i intend to write bernie a long letter about how we cannot settle for medicare for all. we really have to shoot for the moon on this one; no front end compromises.
here is my scheme instead. i've offered it here before, but it's worth revisiting.
we get universal healthcare to happen by running the old harry and lois (or whatever their names were) ad, sitting at the kitchen table, complaining now about obamacare.
a neighbor comes in and asks why so glum. we're still paying too much, they whine. so here's her suggestion.
ok, say you pay a grand a month to insure your family of four.
and you pay roughly $10,000 in taxes each year.
so the solution is to increase your taxes! yours by no more than 50%, but the destitute would not get an increase, and the uber-rich would pay 75% more.
of course, the couple freaks, what?? you crazy???
she says, settle down, here's the up side. tho you're paying $5000 more a year in taxes, you're no longer paying $12,000 for healthcare. that's an automatic savings of $7000 that stays in your pocket.
moreover, you no longer have co-pays or deductibles, the insurance companies have nothing to do with any decisions about your care, that's all up to the doctors, and everyone - EVERYONE - is covered, your kids, your parents, your selves. and because the doctors are no longer fee-for-service, just salaried by the government, they cannot make their decisions based on what kind of money they'll make off your illness, or save for their insurance overlords.
and the insurance companies will no longer profit from your illness, either, because they will no longer exist! all those folks they employ? the government hires them to run this wonderful new system. except for the fat cat upper management; no need. no insurance companies, no death panels!!!
it's really quite simple. all we need is for the pigs at the trough to give up their greed, and we're good to go.
so hey, ain't that the greatest fantasy? right up until you hit that reality wall in the very last sentence, seems like it's so doable, so straightforward, so simple.
sigh.