Is anyone here old enough to recall the first days of Medicare?

[hedgehog]

What was that roll out like?

[unblock]

1. omg my dial-up modem took for*ev*er to connect!

of course, back then it was just the "american wide web" and it was way cool but sooo sloooooww and you had to deal with 80-character lines.

thank goodness we've advanced so far since then!

#140characters!

[HereSince1628]

4. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back. 1234567890.

ryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryryry

mamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamama

Oh! I just loved working on teletype.

Well, honestly, no, I didn't.

[madrchsod]

6. i had a mimeograph machine

a bit slow and difficult to put through the tv......

[enough]

2. I was alive then, but in college, and not paying much attention to

health care for the elderly. Most of the people who were approaching 65 in 1965 are no longer with us.

One huge difference was NO INTERNET. Back then, nobody expected anything to happen instantly.

It's a very interesting question. I hope other DUer's were paying more attention than I was and have some answers.

[northoftheborder]

3. I was still young, and my mother was not that age yet, so don't remember much about it.

I suppose by the time she was of age to go on Medicare all the kinks had been ironed out.

[madrchsod]

5. well i was dazed and confused those days but....

i can't remember the world coming to an end. i do remember my parents having to find my grandmother`s church baptism record. today the republicans would be screaming bloody murder.

remember in those days the majority of republicans gave a shit about america.

[randome]

7. The Medicare Part D rollout was quite a kerfuffle, I heard.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[bemildred]

8. Not much to recall, the government was still allowed to work back then.

Edit: The thing you have to understand about Medicare, like Social Security, is they hate it because it works.

[SheilaT]

9. I was around then, but only about 15.

What I do remember is the claim that Medicare would be the end of American Medicine, The Best Health Care in The World (trademark symbol here).

My guess is that there wasn't a hugely hyped first day for it. I heard something the other day on one of my public radio stations that the ssa more or less just went through all the paper records that they of course had then. At first all we had were parts A and
B. C and D were added later.

The biggest problem at the beginning and still is to a lesser extent now, that some doctors won't take Medicare patients. I seem to recall that being a huge issue in early years. Occasionally someone here on DU will report it.

The reason the vast majority of hospitals take uninsured patients, especially in the ER, is that if they don't do so, they aren't eligible for Medicare reimbursement, which is a huge part of their income.

It's also important to understand that Medicare has lots of rules about what it does and does not cover. It does cover most of what people need, which is nice, but there are certain limits. I'm not terribly familiar with them, but I've run up against them a little bit when I was doing out-patient registration at a hospital a couple of years ago. Every so often you'd need to issue an ABN, Advance Beneficiary Notice, which is basically a heads-up that Medicare might not pay for the procedure or test the patient was getting.