If Medicare is the be-all-end-all, why do people need Supplement Plans? That seem to be multiplying as less and less gets covered by the government? It’s like double taxation, IMO.
Why does Medicare coverage, overall, kind of suck? Just like Medicaid?
Why should you be forced to pay into a system when you could make a better financial return on your investment in the free market?
I know more and more people who are continuing to work past 65 because they need private insurance as their secondary. Even Congress gets better insurance coverage throughout their miserable lives after retirement.
Furthermore, it seems there’s more and more press releases coming from the Justice Department about providers committing millions of dollars worth of Medicare fraud. We wind up funding those court cases with our taxes, too.
To me, Medicare is just another way to steal money from hard working Americans and giving them a sack of 💩 in return instead of good coverage as promised when Medicare first started. (I am beginning to think it was a scam when initially implemented, but I know it’s operating as a damn scam now.)
Why not let people get their SS payments back so tax payers can use that money on actually beneficial services instead of lining the federal coffers with even more of our hard earned funds? Or working on a different, less bloated system?
I agree with his point about bailing out corrupt global insurance companies, but I disagree on Medicare.
There are far to many older people with no resources to pay for health care, and those people paid into the system all their working lives. If Medicare is to be done away with it would need to be slowly phased out.
I do think they should address the fraud in the harshest prison time possible, and more investigations into the fraud. You could eliminate a lot of the fraud by kicking out the fucking foreign doctors that are leaching off this country, and training more Americans to be doctors, and that training needs to include a change at the medical school level to produce doctors and not pill pushers for big pharma.
I’m not suggesting that you just shut off Medicare completely tomorrow with no notice.
A phase out would be required.
A phase out would be preferred, but Medicare is far more politically sensitive than one would think. Before we even consider touching it, the political and cultural preparations must be done so by the time it can get axed, politicians can do so without committing political suicide and giving the opposition a golden bullet to use against them.
the whole United States medical system is hot garbage. Medicare is only a small part of the problem. I agree with you but more needs to be done. No reason you shouldn't be able to buy antibiotics directly from the pharmacy without a doctor
I agreed with most of your comment except this:
Very big reason: Many people in the general public would abuse them being OTC and that could lead to antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.
is that only for the US? because the majority of the world operates as I said but we don't see your scenario play out
Yes, because in the US you'd become resistant to a specific bacteria called PHARMA/DOCTOR-DRUGPUSHER cartel.
They take a huge cut, they don't want to lose the ability to milk you dry.
lol you get it
Yes, antibiotic resistance only happens in the U.S. MRSA rates by country say otherwise:
https://onehealthtrust.org/publications/infographics/mrsa-infection-rates-by-country/
Add to that a lot of people don't realize that once you are on Medicare the government takes a monthly premium out of your Soc Sec check ($170+/mo) and then you need to buy a supplement plan (and you're still not 100% covered). So all of your working life you paid into it and once when stop working you continue to pay into it. That's why I don't understand the idiots who scream "Medicare for all!" Seniors and disabled can still end up bankrupted by medical bills.
They scream it because they haven’t had to actually use those benefits themselves.
They just see the ARP ad campaigns.
Do you have the Part D drug coverage? I recently learned while helping a senior that if you don't have that coverage and later need it, you will pay for it at a much higher rate. So it's better to get a cheap plan (under $10 per month) even if you don't even need it, than wait for several years and then when you do need it, get penalized. Just fyi.
I’m not in favor of getting rid of medicare but i am in favor of changing how social security works (but it would need to be slow shift).
With that said, I hate the argument that old people make of “well I’m on a fixed income” or that health insurance is expensive. Young families don’t have unlimited income either and if I have to pay for health insurance out of pocket I’m looking at $2k+/mo. I would much rather pay for medical care out of pocket and, if possible, have some sort of catastrophic coverage, like actual insurance and not a maintenance plan.
The insurance market is killing everyone.
I don’t think it’s a fair argument to say, “We need to keep Medicare because private insurance is too expensive!”
If you are cutting the bloat and corruption in private insurance, like Trump mentioned in the same Truth, then those premiums should, theoretically, drop. You’re going to have to cut out insurance middle men and hospital negotiators to seal the deal, but to say we should keep one inefficient system simply because of the existence of another inefficient system is the opposite of finding a solution to either problem.
In my opinion, at least.
I'm a fossil and you got me scratching my head..my medicare comes out of ss..but my pension reimburses that..my advantage card was free ..only used it for minor things but I pay very little
We have to protect it because it is our money. I agree with what you say though. I think the plan would be to keep it and rebuild it such that it can't be used against us or borrowed from. Don't send the classic car to the crusher just because it's in rough shape. Restore it.
Don’t get me started on Medicare. As a retired soldier, who was promised medical care for life, I am now forced to pay for Medicare out of SSA and only use Tricare as my supplement (which I also have to pay for now). All retirees must PAY for Medicare out their SSA monthly, some who make barely $800. and the care we get from Medicare is substandard. If I have to pay for something I already earned it better be exceptional. And on that note, did anyone notice that Tricare use off base got you crappy medical care after Obamacare was implemented? And weren’t we already taxed on this medical care?
My husband has VA but not Tricare. He spent nine years in the Navy but isn't combat connected He developed cancer within two months of having COVID and the VA here challenges every thing. It's been so bad we had to have a congressional inquiry into his care. Needless to say we were estatic when he was finally approved for SSDI. He still has to wait a few months before his Medicare goes into effect so they put him on Medicaid. We have been told that the VA will be primary but that anything they deny Medicaid will too. Then we were told that Medicaid will cover every thing but when he goes on Medicare his coverage will be 80/20. Seems a bit unfair considering the population of who is being covered. And very scary realizing the VA can deny payment for anything they want and we have not choice as the what treatment and where he receives it.
One of the reason I don’t go to VA although I have serviced connected disabilities.
That's actually the problem. They don't want to pay for him to go anywhere else.
I think it may depend on where you live. I live in the DC area. I always preferred going on Base but now where I live I can’t, and I think the base prioritizes service members, as it should.
I'll tell you what, give me a check for all the money I put into the Medicare/ Social Security bullshit since I was sixteen and I will calmly walk away, I retired five years ago.
This ! Give me **ALL **of the taxes that have been stolen from me over my lifetime and I would have been retired 10 years ago and lving good. We are all slaves and they throw us a bone once in a while. Living free is a dream that will shake us all to the core if we ever get to experience it.
14 for me
What glade said: the health care system is a cat's hairball of grift and confusion. The whole thing needs scissors, not untangling.
But I think he wants Medicare as a temporary bridge, and psychological stability for many who depend on it.
Actually, it is brilliant strategy on President Trump’s part. Campaigning on changing Social Security and Medicare is a long time part of the RINO strategy to throw an election. Any Republican who campaigns on changing these two programs is just showing their Uniparty colors. They know full well it will tip the election to the Dems.
Medicare has taken 1.25% of my income plus employer match. When I reach 65 later this year they will take 160 bucks a month and I will need to sign up for a free but very crappy supliment, or buy one for around 250 a month, Then you still have a deductible. You have a 6 month window to buy the decent supplemental or they can decline you coverage or charge more. You also need a prescription plan
Gassing then burning your finances... Medical care and insurance are the most corrupt Deep State there is.
Like rats, gov't breeds more gov't.
Optics are very important.
Say anything against Medicare, as a public figure. Allow yourself to be painted as being somehow against Medicare. Never win an election again.
Federal tentacles should not enter the 50 states of the Union. On the other hand, people are currently dependent on these systems, so it would be cruel to suddenly cancel them. Better to phase them out over time.
It is a government program, that answers all of the questions you asked. My family hasn't had health insurance for years, we just pay the bill when it comes, and generally never go to the doctor except for the ladies checkups, and even those are fewer and far between because doctors can't be trusted any longer, as their medical advice is driven by the government and not sound medical knowledge.
Just my opinion. There should be freedom of choice in which type of healthcare someone wants to use. It could be Acupuncture, Chiropractic, Herbalism, Vibrational medicine ... Whatever, the person feels is their best option for healing. The insurance companies and Medicare have created a monopoly of Allopathic medicine being the only thing they cover. There is a place for the drugs and for surgery. However, it is not the only answer. But Thanks to Mr. Rockefeller, all alternative health choices have been eliminated unless you pay out of pocket. You should also have complete freedom of which doctor you choose and which facility you choose. Freedom people. I also think that if you are responsible enough to be able to buy your medicine over the counter without a prescription than more power to you. If you hurt yourself then you made a bad decision.
We need to quit being children and act like adults. There is accountability and consequences with what we choose, even if we push our choices off on the Gov. or doctors. The problem is that we will feel the consequences for bad choices doctors and the Government makes for us, they won't. So, we are better off making our own decisions, but we need to have complete freedom of choice.
I paid into medicare...big bucks..from the day of its inception. When I turned 65, I couldn't afford it, even before I started purchasing auxiliary insurance. We just continued my husband's insurance. Everyone gets two days at a hospital but nothing else without a huge monthly bill.
It has been my opinion on the Social Security and Medicare programs that they will die or be cancelled at the hands of the late Gen X and early Millennials after people born prior have died of old age.
The programs are simply unsustainable and I would never try to justify burdening future generations with unbearable debt paying for the prior generations. With the current system, these programs will continue to be eroded by inflation as debt and reckless monetary policy destroy our fiat currency's purchasing power. They will be more and more effectively nullified as a value. By the time I reach retirement age, we will find the value prospect of these programs a net negative for everyone. Most earlier generation (older) folk I've discussed this with are determined to get something back out of it since they paid into it their entire life. I expect nothing of value out of it, so killing the program is a simple conclusion for me.
The timing of killing it will be a few years off yet. Maybe twenty years at most, but likely sooner than that with the current apparent path our nation is traveling.
Well, they’re actively trying to get my grandmother to kick the bucket at 90.
My parents are retirement age and incredibly upset about how much they have to pay for less than quality insurance coverage. They are some of the people I know keeping second jobs after 65 for coverage.
I am disabled. Medicaid is the worst and designed to keep people poor and/or kill them off.
Want to be rude about something else?