Hey!!! I Get To Buy Into Medicare!!!!

Good deal. Now, to find a doctor that accepts it. In my town, some continue existing patients when they go on Medicare, but none take new patients. Fortunately, the hospital, urgent care clinic, and many specialists do take it.

If you don't mind my asking, what do the premiums run when you "buy into it"?

Really, Roger? Maybe it's a state thing. I deal with a number of elderly people in my family and they have never had a problem getting their Medicare accepted (are you thinking Medicad?- that can be a problem). I've never heard of a hospital not accepting it and that's when you really need it. My own doctors charge me the Medicare rates because I don't have insurance. My father's physical therapist no longer accepts most private insurance because he says he got tired of the paperwork and fights, but I'm fairly sure he still accepts Medicare.

I too am interested in what they will charge (not sure anyone knows yet), although I would not qualify under the age limitations. When you are paying thousands of dollars for crap insurance, or have none at all, even this is better than nothing.

I have no idea. My post is dripping with sarcasm.

a quote from an article on the current MSNBC site

And what about Medicare? It is widely accepted, with 74 percent of doctors saying in a recent survey that they're taking most or all new Medicare patients. But buying into Medicare won't be cheap, about $7,600 a year not counting out-of-pocket costs for deductibles and copayments.

What the ****? That's unaffordable AND I can currently get the best BC/BS policy available cheaper than that.... excpet that even in a state thatmandates all must be covered, I have been turned down. this is fucked, as I assumed it would be.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34352187/ns/health-health_care

I agree, Bear. Small business owners like us are doomed.

well I am now a one man group.... so I'm double whammied.

The only feasible healthcare plan... go to the emergency room and then blow off the bill like a scumbag, and resign yourself to your credit being fucked for the remainder of your life. also resign yourself to sub standard care when you finally get something big like Cancer. Just go in and ask for an unlimited pain pill prescription, then off to the liquor store and do what you can to have fun and wait to die.

You could always quite your business and become a bum. Then the taxes people like H2OMan and Mysteryman pay will go to pay for your Medicaid.

A few years ago my husband sold his guns because he no longer hunted. He did keep one handgun (all legal) - he calls it American Health Insurance for the Small Business Owner.

These are the same people that, because of what I do, think I'm a bum anyway.

No, I am speaking of Medicare, not Medicade. I got my information from one of the more informed persons at the Senior Center. Again, I've had no trouble with specialists, and the hospital accepts it as well. Darn good thing, too. Our hospital has operations all over town.

Sorry, Bear. I missed the sarcasm, and was afraid I was sticking a pin into your pretty new balloon. As I'm finding out, you take the cards you are dealt, and play them as best you can. $7,xxx is outrageous. That is the approximate cost of the policy (my cost + company cost) I had when I was working. High, but it was an incredibly good policy.

This is one of my concerns with mandatory health coverage. Way too many people are forgetting that it is going to cost more than many people have.

And not only will Medicare cost a bundle, it will lead to rationing. What will be the effect of placing millions more on Medicare? In Canada, there is a similar system and, although I understand that the Doctors there do a fairly good job of taking care of catastropic illnesses, they don't do very well with electable health problems like a knee or hip replacement. It seems that there are not enough doctors in Canada. Hip or Knee replacements go far down on the priority list.
Does it hurt? Do you have agonizing pain? Tough! Wait your turn.
That's why so many from Canada end up at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota!


BUT, this bill has not passed yet.

l. Several key Democratic Senators say they want to see the CBO cost estimates first.

2. Even after that there has to be a Senate-House Reconciliation of the bill.

Obamacare seems to be on its last legs and if it passes it will be far far from the President's wish for Single Payer Legislation!

The Canadians on this forum are all fairly happy with their form of coverage. I don't know of any nation with government run healthcare that is clamoring for American style healthcare. Rich people will always have access to more, but millions of middle class Americans have nothing. Others have insurance, but still end up bankrupt because insurance companies do not even fully cover procedures. Why is it good to be at the mercy of insurance companies who operate for profit? If you get seriously ill it's in their interest that you die. The irony is Massagat, if I, or my husband, get very sick and end up losing everything we worked for we will need a government handout- and it's people like you who will end up paying for people like me. Wouldn't it be better if I could put my money into a pool with yours and we would both have guaranteed healthcare? Healthcare without some CEO's flunky deciding if we are worthy a particular treatment? It would actually be cheaper for you (based on Canadian and French rates) to have such a system. United we stand, divided we go bankrupt.

Dear Green Witch: Please read and reflect on the following:

Supreme Court Strikes Down Quebec Medical Law (posted 6/9/05)

6/9/05 . The Supreme Court of Canada has decided to strike down Quebec's prohibition of using private insurance for services covered under medicare because the care was poor, the wait lengthy, and they realized that forcible socialized medicine was harming more Canadian citizens than it was saving. Just kidding! The last part wasn't actually in the news article, but perhaps should be. Zeliotis spent more than a year in pain, waiting for a hip replacement in 1997. He finally got a new hip but says he should have had the right to pay earlier for the surgery himself, even though it's illegal to pay for health services covered by medicare. He and Dr. Chaoulli (His doc) argued that spending months waiting for surgery amounts to a violation of their constitutional rights to life, liberty and security of the person. Of course, he's right. The Canadian government decided to destroy Zeliotis's life, liberty and pursuit of happiness in order to, ostensibly, provide life, liberty, and happiness to others. Don't be shocked. After all, we make a regular practice of this in the Untied States too. Phillippe Trudel, who's representing Zeliotis, told Canada AM ahead of the ruling that he didn't believe that a decision in his client's favour would lead to the destruction of the public health system. How can it? Zeliotis is still forced to waste his tax dollars on the public system or face jail time. All he is fighting for is his 'right' to pay extra for real care. This reminds me of the current US public school system. Parents are forced to pay taxes to the public schools, despite their decision to either homeschool, or pay extra to send their kids to private schools. However, before this recent Canadian court ruling, it would have been analogous to the US Government making it illegal for private schools or homeschoolers to even exist! If the Canadian health system is so great, why not let people choose to opt out of it? Not just pay extra for private care, but really opt out of it, and not be forced to pay any taxes towards something you won't use. The government will never let its citizens do this because the elitists know it would set off a stampede out of the government care.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings; the inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of the miseries.

- Winston Churchill

Dear Green Witch:

If you have ever visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota, you must have noted that there were a great many people from other countries at that Clinic.

I wonder why!

Years ago I used to play at the North Star Bar across from the Mayo clinic. They sent some goons around who threated us if we didn't join musicians union # 256. I explained to him that we weren't sophisticated big city Yankees but rather small town Southern boys and if he didn't leave we'd be forced to beat the **** of him. He left. But I digress.

There's nothing cheap about the Mayo Clinic and by the way, these guys aren't running a big charity. Check out their website .

How did I miss this from last year? Oh well, better late than never.
You know who you will never see at the Mayo Clinic? - me and millions of other Americans who can't afford American healthcare. Have you ever been to the Institution Nationale des Invalides in Paris? It's one of the best hospitals in the world and every French citizen, no matter what there income, can be treated there without walking out with a life crushing bill.

(First I responded to a David gun thread and now a Massagat healthcare thread. I must be in a fighting mood today, either that or my peri-menopause hormones are kicking in)

Your signature line purporting to quote John Maynard Keynes is an internet-perpetrated fraud. Keynes never wrote that ungrammatical phrase. Not in his books, not in his articles, not in his personal or professional letters http://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=&as_vt=john+maynard+keynes&as_auth=&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_isbn=&as_issn= and nobody else who was present when Keynes spoke can be found to affirm hearing it from him.

Now that you know that fact you're going to change your signature line, right? Unless you already knew about the false attribution but it suited you to ignore it.