Medicare for All - It Is the Solution. Here's Why:

[MineralMan]

I'm 68 years old. I have Medicare and pay for a supplement from Blue Cross. I have zero deductibles. Together, the Part B and Supplement cost me just over $220 per month.

So, yesterday, I noticed that a sebaceous cyst on my cheek had become inflamed and probably an infection was starting. I'm traveling on Friday, so this morning, I called the multi-specialty practice clinic I usually go to. I wanted to get started on the inevitable antibiotic, and can't prescribe for myself. This is a familiar issue for me, and the answer is always the same.

The clinic is happy to serve Medicare patients, and the woman at the appointments desk set up an appointment with my regular primary care physician for two hours after I called. I showed up, and the doctor looked at it and, wonder of wonders, prescribed the antibiotic and recommended that I use hot compresses. Then, we chatted about our respective families for a few minutes. I'll be seeing him again in 10 days for my annual checkup, lab tests, and other such things, so he said he'd have another look at it then. It's possible it will need minor surgery, which will also be covered 100%, and be performed by one of the general surgeons in the practice. I doubt it will be needed, though.

Medicare and a supplement. You call. You see the doctor. You leave. No co-pay. No deductible. No nothing. You get what you need, and you go home. The prescription? It's a generic and cost $6 at my local Walgreens. That's the only cost for this minor medical issue.

This is what healthcare should be for everyone. One pool. One payer. Maybe supplemental insurance by private insurers to cover the 20% Medicare doesn't pay. If everyone has this, the Medicare system can control healthcare costs, the private insurers can sell those supplemental policies, and people can go see the doctor when they need to. How simple! How practical!

My Medicare Part B premium is low, because I'm old and qualify for that. For younger people, the premium might be higher, but it would be averaged out through the huge pool being covered. Medicare doesn't care about pre-existing conditions. It doesn't charge higher premiums for them. If everyone were covered from birth to death, premiums would be quite low for everyone, and Medicare could keep healthcare costs low by paying providers fixed rates for care. If you're poor, your coverage is subsidized, but you're still covered.

Medicare works! Let's make it our national universal healthcare coverage. I don't mind the supplemental private insurance. Those companies love it. They clamor to sell it to all of those older Medicare people. They're making money with it. So, let them do that and keep the Medicare 80/20% coverage. Everyone wins, and everyone gets healthcare.

It's what the United States should do.

[LiberalEsto]

1. K&R!

You are absolutely 100% right

[MineralMan]

3. Thanks. It just seems so simple to me.

Let's elect big Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in 2014 and 2016, along with a Democratic President and just freaking do it. We can do it if we have the will do do it. But it will take some considerable work.

[aptal]

2. K&R!

[loudsue]

4. I totally agree. Now we just have to convince one person at a time, until

our voices are raised so loudly that no store-bought politician will have any deniability.

It sure worked to help repeal nafta....which something like 85% of Americans wanted to repeal. Congress just doesn't give a damn about doing the will of the people. They are supporting their employers, who are the 1%.

[MineralMan]

5. Elect people to Congress who will do it. My Reps will vote for it,

as will both Senators from my state. Everyone needs to work on that, for it is the only way this will happen.

GOTV 2014/2016!

[loudsue]

6. We have one republican senator, and Kay Hagan, who keeps apologizing for Obama.

Too much Koch money in North Carolina these days.

[MineralMan]

7. I can't help in North Carolina. It's up to you folks who live there.

Every Congressional race is a local or state race. Those races have to be won in each state. Convincing voters, one at a time, or through advertising, is the only way this can work. Feet on the ground. That's the answer, and that has to come from people within each state. Local elections...that's what Congressional elections are.

[loudsue]

8. I know, MineralMan.

I know only too well.

[MineralMan]

11. I'm sure you're doing everything you can do.

It's difficult in many states. But, we can get a Democratic majority in Congress, even with some red states not being in play. I'm counting on it. Thanks for keeping up the fight where you are!

[Loudly]

9. Embracing Medicare for All is politically smart.

In fact, it is actuarially and fiscally smart because of the younger risk pool which would be created, as you duly note.

Right now, Medicare coverage is skewed heavily toward end-of-life care, the most expensive kind.

[MineralMan]

10. I'd like to see some actual figures about what premiums would

be for people younger than 65 if it was a universal program.

I'd like to see a number for flat rate across the age spectrum, as well as graduated rates for different age groups. I think people would be shocked when they compared rates with current commercial health insurance rates.

I don't know if this study has been done.

[spin]

12. I also have medicare and a supplement. ...

I had an operation on a blocked carotid artery earlier this year. Prior to the operation I had to undergo a number of diagnostic tests and I was required to stay overnight in a intensive care unit after the operation.

I had no co-pays for office visits with my GP and two other specialists. The rather complicated diagnostic tests to determine if I had any other symptoms of coronary artery disease and a nuclear stress test for my heart were all free. I received no bills for the operation or for the overnight stay in the cardiac intensive care unit.

I feel I received excellent care from a well qualified team of physicians, surgeons and nurses.

Medicare is a form of a single payer healthcare system. I have been advocating that our nation adopts such a system for all people in our nation for years. I have to admit that I am somewhat disappointed by the ACA but perhaps it is just the first step to finally getting a far better system in the future.

[MineralMan]

14. Going on Medicare is quite a revelation in how

healthcare should be provided, I think. I've met nobody on traditional Medicare with a private supplement who is unhappy with it. Where I live, all of the clinics and hospitals are happy to see Medicare patients. There may be some individual practitioners who don't like it, but there is zero difficulty getting care here. I can always get a same day appointment at my clinic, which is aligned with one of the excellent hospitals in the area. All of them are happy to have Medicare patients, and I'm very pleased.

There may be parts of the country where it is more difficult, but not in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Not at all.

[spin]

16. I had an office worker tell me at my doctor's office that they welcome Medicare patients ...

as Medicare actually pays the bill while getting money from the insurance companies is always a hassle.

[MineralMan]

17. That doesn't surprise me at all.

I suspect that all of those Medicare patients pay all of the overhead in those clinics and hospitals. There are lots of them, and they actually get medical care instead of avoiding it. I probably wouldn't have gone to the doctor for my minor infection when I was on regular insurance. I never did meet my deductible with it. Now that I'm on Medicare, I go when I need to go.

Now, I have no idea what Medicare will pay for the ten minutes I spent with my doctor, frankly. But, he doesn't rush me out of the room, either. We've gotten to know each other, even though I'm not in there often. This time, we talked about his mother, who he convinced to move to the US from Pakistan. She's on dialysis, but he's very glad she's here getting it, rather than in Pakistan. He comes in the room and we shake hands. When he leaves, we shake hands again. He listens. He is a good diagnostician, and he's a friendly guy.

Oh, yes...he's a Muslim. He remembers me because I'm one of the few patients who requested that he be my primary physician. A lot of people don't like Muslims. I don't think we've ever mentioned anything regarding religion, though. Nice guy.

[spin]

19. My gastroenterologist is a Muslim. ...

My primary care doctor is originally from Russia and my previous primary care doctor when I lived the Tampa Bay Area was from Trinidad but educated in Canada.

[CTyankee]

13. So many problems with the implementation of Obamacare could have been avoided if we

just built on the already up and running Medicare program, whose bugs were worked out long ago. Medicare for All would have instant appeal to the voters since people know and love Medicare. You have a time tested program that works. If only we had gone down that route and saved all this time and angst. Of course the RWingers would have had sh*tfits at first but they'd calm down a lot faster...

[MineralMan]

15. The Republicans see it as "Sochulized Medcine."

That's the problem. What we have to do is put them in such a minority position that they can be ignored completely. We can do it in the next two elections. Probably not in 2014, completely, but by 2016, we should have that majority.

[CTyankee]

18. Yes, but they LIKE Medicare and think it is OK and that was my point.

I know it doesn't make any sense to us, but that is the way they think.