From The
Idiot Factor:
I turn 65 next January. That is when I can start to benefit from Medicare. Until recently I thought that Medicare just pays for our medical bills when we get old enough to receive it. That’s not what it is at all. Instead it is a convoluted system of insurance companies that we have to choose from. We pay for the insurance, and it isn’t that cheap. I already knew that it only pays for 80 percent of our medical needs. We pay an insurance company for this privilege. Now I have to make all kinds of decisions as to what company I will use? With who will I make plans with? And—what kind of plan will I need?
I turn 65 next January. That is when I can start to benefit from Medicare. Until recently I thought that Medicare just pays for our medical bills when we get old enough to receive it. That’s not what it is at all. Instead it is a convoluted system of insurance companies that we have to choose from. We pay for the insurance, and it isn’t that cheap. I already knew that it only pays for 80 percent of our medical needs. We pay an insurance company for this privilege. Now I have to make all kinds of decisions as to what company I will use? With who will I make plans with? And—what kind of plan will I need?
What bothers me the most is that all of this is made difficult to
choose from and confusing, because here in the USA our system is dedicated to
the idea that someone must profit from those who are sick, old and dying. When
I went to Cuba this
last summer, I realized people there don’t have to pay for their medical needs.
And that goes for all
people, poor, wealthy, young or old. They also aren’t bothered by commercials
on their TV.[1]
Here in the US we
are clobbered with commercials. I
find them obnoxious, annoying and most of the crap they show us and most of
the crap they tell us is deceptive. I mention commercials because I see one
after the other, on TV, telling me that it is time to register for Medicare,
for those who are eligible (mostly people over 65), and I need to register with
these various companies. They are all trying to get me to call their number and
use their company to find a medical plan. All of these commercials have
testimonials by old people telling us they have a plan/ company/ program that
cost them either nothing or close to nothing. ”You have to find a plan that
fits you!” all these ads keep telling me. If there is a catch to all the free
stuff they advertize there are not telling us what it is. And once again, all
of this is so people can profit off of our suffering.
I’m trying to imagine who or which plan is best for me. Are there
plans where people pay a lot of money for the things they need?—in other words
there plans in which we get over charged and we have to avoid accidently
choosing those plans? It is a lot like the folks who brag that their computer
and equipment are “user friendly.” And I have to wonder if there are sales
people out there who are offering us “user hostile computers”—if we really want
them. But then who chooses the hostile computers? Who chooses an expensive plan
that pays for very little?
As difficult and confusing this process is, I’m surprised anyone
chooses a Medicare plan. But they do—apparently all old people eventually
choose a Medicare plan. This is what I must do now. I am confused and I get
plenty of headaches trying to understand all of this non-sense. Maybe some day
our politicians will build up the courage to ditch all the insurance companies
and provide us with Medicare
for all. If that happens we will have a system as generous as the system
they have in Cuba .
On that Island , where they
supposedly have “no human rights,” they have the right to get medical care when
they are sick—regardless to their age or income.
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