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Medicare for All??? We can do better than that! [1]
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Date: 2022-12-22
I was on hard times in 2018, Local government incompetence had left me responsible for things I should not have been. Very long story, I’ll skip the details. In early 2019 I turned 62.
Being able to draw Social Security starting at 62 saved me. It was the difference between saving my small time rental properties and losing everything. I have a real debt to the past congress that set this all in motion.
This year I turned 65. the reality of Medicare was a real shock. Most of my life I have been self employed, uninsured, extremely healthy and able to pay my own way. In fact I always had to pay substantially more because I was uninsured, which I always thought should be illegal. Sometimes double or triple what an insurance company would pay for the same thing and without all the red tape of insurance company billing. In a typical year I would spend about $1,000 or less for care.
I briefly had insurance when the ACA passed. After I was divorced, I was forced onto Medicaid. This has given me many different perspectives on the market free for all we euphemistically call our “Health Care System.”
I thought all my troubles would be over when I turned 65 and qualified for Medicare. Wrong! Medicare is horrible. To start with, the started taking $165 out of my Social Security for a “premium.” Premium? I thought I paid that for the 40- years I worked. 165 X 12 = 1,980. This is more than double my normal medical expenses for a year. In conjunction with deductibles and co-pays it is worthless to me personally. I console myself knowing that maybe I am helping someone less fortunate than myself.
When I had Medicaid, I got a free eye exam and glasses every two years. Why in the name of heaven should I have to give that up because I turned 65? Most of my issues are dental due to bike accidents in my youth. Nothing covers that. I spend an average of $3,000 a year for dental care.
Here are the highlights of what I think a true healthcare system should look like:
All preventive care should be free to all. There is real wisdom in the old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Routine dental care should be free to all. Getting healthy food into your body requires functional teeth. Without healthy food, you can’t possibly maintain good health.
Eye exams and glasses should be free to all. It would raise productivity as well as individual satisfaction with life.
A single payer should reduce the cost of billing and overhead, so the entire system works more efficiently, saving millions if not billions a year.
No one should pay a premium. The system should be funded out of general federal revenue. If taxes must be raised to cover the cost, tax the wealthy and corporations.
Obviously the details would have to be fleshed out. But Medicare for all sounds more like a huge headache than a solution.
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