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Interesting! I always wonder if doctors refusing to see Medicare patients is a myth.
It is absolutely NOT a myth. Health practioners must be required to accept Medicare, or Medicare will be the same as uninsured. This is the grim reality.
Forty years ago, I was telling people that pregnancy was not a disease. Now I am telling people that old age is not a disease.
I haven't found it difficult to find medical care without having insurance because I am willing to pay cash. I have had a couple of minor surgical procedures with no problems finding care. I am not interested in being run through every machine that an insurance policy will cover, or having every test, or seeing every specialist. I'm not convinced that these things contribute to quality of life.
Now, someone is going to tell me that I have just been lucky up to now. That could very well be.
I don't think we have a healthcare problem in this country. I think we have an insurance problem, created 50 years ago when insurance began to be offered as a perk to employees that was, in the beginning, cheaper than giving them a higher wage.
So now we have a society that is neither sick nor well, who feel mistreated if someone doesn't pay for them to see the doctor, and who for the most part, are not content unless they leave the office with a prescription or an appt with a specialist.
I certainly can't figure it out. I think every person who needs care should get it and not have to worry about the cost. The system we have now does not appear to be working for the patient. It does appear to be working for the insurance industry.
I have no property to protect. I have only myself to care for. I have a good income. As the young people say, I can walk the talk.
So I pay for my care. And the government carrot, Medicare, hasn't tempted me yet.
It is absolutely NOT a myth. Health practioners must be required to accept Medicare, or Medicare will be the same as uninsured. This is the grim reality.
I'm not sure this is true. As we discussed above, you can pay the doctor and then have Medicare reimburse you for a percentage of the fee. In some cases, you can negotiate with your doctor for a lower fee when you pay cash.
I am not wealthy, lol whatever that means, in case anyone is wondering. It is my experience that people who have money don't want to pay for their own health care any more than people who can't afford it.
This makes me more grateful for where we live. Mom, who is 80, moved here from another state. She got a Medicare Advantage plan and immediately found a primary care doctor right across the street from her complex. She has received good care and her plan is associated with the hospital only a mile away.
We do live in a big Midwestern city with great health care facilities and probably more competition for patients.
This makes me more grateful for where we live. Mom, who is 80, moved here from another state. She got a Medicare Advantage plan and immediately found a primary care doctor right across the street from her complex. She has received good care and her plan is associated with the hospital only a mile away.
We do live in a big Midwestern city with great health care facilities and probably more competition for patients.
That is fortunate. We are planning to retire in Colorado Springs and have been trying to locate a doctor that will accept new Medicare patients, and after two years looking have found a grand total of = 0.
<snip> It's SUCH a racket. All of my friends who are caretakers of elders have had the same experience. If Granny doesn't have a doctor who's been treating her since before she was Granny, she's in big trouble. I do think Obamacare is already and will continue to improve healthcare access for the many, but doctors are milking the current system for every dime they can, while they can. And NO WAY do I believe they're not making a profit. My mother's back doctor (who primarily treats elderly arthritis patients on Medicare) drives a Porsche and goes on vacation about eight weeks a year. And she's not even 35.
Thursday I had an appointment with my primary care physician. Since my last one, he and his staff have moved and partnered with another practice. While checking in I noticed a plaque that declared this family practice office a Medicare Certified Rural Health Clinic.
Checking further just out of curiosity I found that there are, by a large margin, more such clinics in this small state of six million residents, 374 in all, than there are in any other state. Why, California with 36 million residents only has 292 statewide. New Jersey and Rhode Island have none.
Here's the link if you wish to use the information in your "To move or not to move" decision making process:
Guess the Hippocratic Oath went out with "under God."
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