I really wish we could come up with a workable MFA plan

[stopbush]

I say that due my personal health experience this year - I went on Medicare on Sept 1. What a difference it has made compared to my old health plan!

Being 65, I’m having some of the typical old male problems, and then some. I just had a CT Urogram because I have been having blood in my urine on occasion. Yeah, it’s scary. My doctor wanted me to get the test a couple of months ago, but it would have cost me over $2300 out of pocket on my Covered California plan. I simply couldn’t afford it.

So I rolled the dice and waited til Medicare kicked in. My copay was $215. Same doctor, same health provider.

Fortunately, it turns out I only have a bladder stone (as opposed to something much worse) which is no doubt a result of having an enlarged prostate as do most males over 60. I’ll have a procedure done in Nov to break up the stone. In the meanwhile, my doctor wants to discuss options with me on shrinking that prostate (there are surgical and drug options). The urogram showed that kidneys etc are in great shape.

The thing is, this condition has really been a source of worry for me for months. If I had been on Medicare months ago, I would have had the CT done and I would have had a lot more peace of mind than I did. Or if I had a job that provided for affordable healthcare, which I didn’t have because it’s hard to get steady work when you’re my age. But in our country, you have to wait until you hit 65 before you can be guaranteed decent affordable health care. It really sucks! So I got to worry for the better part of the year, imagining the worst-case scenario and how it would effect my family.

Hope the above details aren’t too icky. I only meant to provide a real life example of what that socialist medical program can mean to a person and their family.

[LiberalLoner]

1. I'm so glad it wasn't too serious

And I’m so sorry you had to go through the months of extreme worry and stress. You are right, no one should go through that. We need universal healthcare ASAP. Thank you for sharing your story, it illustrates perfectly why we need to change how we do things here in the US.

[Stonepounder]

2. Tale a look at some of the Medicare Advantage plans out there.

Most of them provide coverage that is even better than Medicare and are basically no cost to you. They simply take the money that would go to Medicare and provide the insurance.

[stopbush]

6. I'm on a Medicare Advantage plan.

The $215 co-pay I mentioned is a cost that was quoted to me before I had the urogram. I wasn’t charged anything when it was done. I’m assuming I’ll get a bill at some point.

[Stonepounder]

7. Ahhh... OK n/t

[calimary]

3. I'm glad things turned out better for you, stopbush.

Universal health care is a human right.

[BlueMTexpat]

4. Thank you for sharing!

These issues are what so many - even those, like you, with health insurance - face every day. Too many also will not be eligible for Medicare for a much longer time than you had to wait.

Even with having health insurance before Medicare, the crappy co-pays for each doctor visit mount up quickly. And certain procedures, etc., are still un-affordable for most, as you learned.

One reason that Elizabeth Warren is a proponent of MFA is because her research demonstrated that medical costs were among the major reasons for individuals to declare bankruptcy.

As you also note, Medicare alone still does not cover everything. For that you need to take out supplemental "Medigap" insurance, which can usually be found at a reasonable price if one does some research.

Below is a link to an interesting article about the history of Medicare. I love it that Harry and Bess Truman were actually the first recipients! Truman had proposed and envisioned the first national health insurance fund, much as the UK and France did after WWII. Unfortunately, it was not to be in the US. It remained for Lyndon Johnson's administration to make it happen and that program was limited to those 65 and older. Even the evil Richard Nixon expanded the program to include certain individuals under 65 (those with long-term disabilities and end-state renal disease).

https://www.medicareresources.org/basic-medicare-information/brief-history-of-medicare/

[Hortensis]

5. Well, Stopbush, maybe start also wishing you could have one

implemented in less than 8 years, almost regardless of which one.

January 2021 is over 2 years away. Assuming we have the presidency and BOTH houses of congress, we would then write the MfA bill, fight the Second Healthcare War over for many months, and (presumably) pass the bill, which would take the better part of a year. Even if major parts of the ACA and its regulations were just cut and pasted into it.

Besides the several hundreds pages of the ACA itself, there are literally thousands pages of regulations. This is Boehner posturing beside what he claimed those'd look like printed out:

Then, we get to the implementation. Sen. Sanders put a time line of 5 years on that part.

*****
I've rolled the dice myself on healthcare, including the time I was afraid I could have breast cancer -- between jobs, which would make it a preexisting condition. So I did nothing while I got a job and then waited for my new insurance to kick in after 3 months or whatever the period was, plus another month before claiming to have just started feeling the pain. Lots of nights lying awake worrying, but if I did have cancer I'd have to have insurance.

As for the problem you described and those of millions of others, if only Hillary and Dems had been elected and the age to qualify for Medicare had been lowered a decade. But people in their wisdom chose the Bernie Sanders route instead...