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If you want to forego all the contributions you made to medicare throughout your working life, I'm sure that would let you optout. But good luck in finding private insurance. I had an individual BC/BS policy for 2.5 years on which I had not filed a single claim. The month before I turned 65 I recieved not one but two letters from BC/BS telling me that I MUST cancel my policy because they would not pay any benefits once I became eligible for medicare.
I opted out of SS and Medicare over 3 decades ago - and have not paid one dime into the "system" in over 30 years.
So, basically, Mary_Moon, the elderly DO have an option for healthcare coverage while the regular person who is not old enough to quality for Medicare has NO options if they have pre-existing conditions or can't afford coverage. Is this correct???????? Yes, LET'S do some research of things. Please. Let's.
Would you like to hear just how WONDERFUL Medicare is? Would you just LOVE to know that in my town of over 100,000 people, there are only 2, TWO primary care physicians that are willing to take new Medicare patients at this very moment?
Would you like to know that a 76 year old grandmother with debilitating back pain so severe she could not walk and was in pain despite medication had to wait 6 weeks for an MRI and another 4 after that for an appointment with a specialist to read that MRI? Another 2 weeks later, treatment was started and she finally found relief. 12 weeks after initially seeking care. 12 weeks of pain and suffering for a woman that worked for 40 years paying into the system. She was also a military wife holding down the fort at home while her husband served in WWII, the Korean War and Vietnam. Thanks to the government, she has no other option for health coverage.
Medicaid is even worse. In a town of over 100,000 people, a mentally retarded man suffering from severe paranoid schizophrenia is ASSIGNED to the only psychiatrist in town that accepts Medicaid patients. This dr. sees the patient once every three months for 10 minutes because that's all the time he's approved for as per the govt. This dr. also screws up this man's meds but because he's so burned out by his caseload, the situation falls through the cracks. The patient needs to be on 800mg of a particular medication to control the mental illness; instead, the quack puts him on 50mg - barely enough to make the patient sleepy. The doctor soon leaves his job and now there are no providers in this patient's town to treat him. Because the medication is incorrect, the paranoid delusions take over and wreak all sorts of havoc on the man's family. I should also mention that because this man is on Medicaid, he is treated like a second-class citizen by almost every health provider he sees.
These are not fictional characters. This is my mother and my brother, both of whom I care for and assist on a daily basis. I'm not opining based on assumptions - I'm in the trenches dealing with this crap each and every day.
So yes, let's do some research before you fall into the trap of believing that government run health care is the best thing since sliced bread. I would honestly LOVE to see each and every citizen of the US receive top notch health care (not just insurance - health CARE - the same level of care obama and members of Congress receive.) The reality is that the government is simply not going to be able to provide that for you. Let's reform the systems we already have - not replace it with one that's already proven to be faulty and rampant with fraud, waste and red tape. Obama himself said Medicare and Social Security were broken - why the hell would single-payer universal health insurance be any different?
Oh yeah, I also am a 'casualty' of our wrecked system. I have a pre-existing condition that I could not get coverage for. To date, I have paid $100,000 out of pocket for treatment. Fortunately, I have the means to afford this care that the majority of the uninsured do not. Would I have preferred to have my condition covered? You betcha! But I don't believe it's the taxpayers' responsibility to pay for it.
It's just insanity, people are protesting that they don't want government health care and say how as soon as it will happen it will kill them...and they honestly already have it. Medicare and Medicaid have been around for decades and these lies have never happened. I don't mind if people make up their own minds, but spreading complete lies and misinformation is complete disrespect to everyone involved.
Why hate on real senior citizens when their are fictitious racist white male bogeymen with which to slander those of us who oppose a government take over of our health care and 17% of the economy?
I'll address my comments to the white half of Odumbo if it makes you feel better. See, BO is all about BO and what's good for BO. He's a sociopath who does things that he fully realizes will harm the most needy among us, but he really doesn't care.
Cash for Clunkers will be a nightmare for the poorest Americans who desperately need those engines and transmissions that they are deliberately destroying. The price of used vehicles and running gear will increase in direct proportion to this program's "success". I envision a single mother who dropped a valve guide because all she could afford is garbage gas, never had her fuel system cleaned and now cannot afford the junk yard engine that used to be the cheap way out, but now they've become rare and pricey just like used cars.
Liberals never think things through.
Under questioning by members of the Senate Budget Committee, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, said bills crafted by House leaders and the Senate health committee do not propose "the sort of fundamental changes" necessary to rein in the skyrocketing cost of government health programs, particularly Medicare. On the contrary, Elmendorf said, the measures would pile on an expensive new program to cover the uninsured. Though President Obama and Democratic leaders have repeatedly pledged to alter the soaring trajectory -- or cost curve -- of federal health spending, the proposals so far would not meet that goal, Elmendorf said, noting, "The curve is being raised." His remarks suggested that rather than averting a looming fiscal crisis, the measures could make the nation's bleak budget outlook even worse.
I'm sorry - that is not correct. You have to apply for benefits. If you do not apply for benefits, you do not get them
Yes,you're correct....technically you apply for it.
Again, this is not correct.
I am 65 - I can never get SS or Medicare (I opted out decades ago).
I have private health insurance to. So, your comment that "they will not allow you to" is incorrect.
Yes but, you're the exception not the rule.....you made the decision not to pay into from the beginning.....are you self-employed and qualified for one of the few exemptions that allow for it?.....not everyone is able to do that.
As for private health insurance past age 65....when I said regular insurance, I meant and should have said regular individual coverage....an individual plan you pay for and covered under when you're under age 65, you can't apply for when you're age 65 or older. I suspect you're covered on a group plan.
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