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I have always been a believer in insurance and when I turned 65 I signed up for Medicare A&B and D. It may seem like that 20% of hospitalization above the threshold could cost you much, but a fella that I got to know recently taught me otherwise. He is 73 years old and wasn't able to afford the supplemental, so he went without. His wife needed surgery and the bill went way over the threshold, so he has to pay the 20%. It is a lot of money so he had to go back to work and drives a truck now. He essentially is now paying for the insurance that he could not afford before. If you are feeling that you can't afford it, I urge you to reconsider, because chances are you will end up paying for it but not having it.
 
Medicare has become a pain in the butt with the plans and parts to the plans constantly changing. Plan A isnt a problem but keeping up with what the supplements cost and what they will cover is a never ending task. To keep on top of it a person really should review every year but how many people Medicare age are physically and mentally able to do that!
 
Medicare has become a pain in the butt with the plans and parts to the plans constantly changing. Plan A isnt a problem but keeping up with what the supplements cost and what they will cover is a never ending task. To keep on top of it a person really should review every year but how many people Medicare age are physically and mentally able to do that!
 
Before the affordable health care act. My monthly premium was $179.00. Now, it is $421.00 and they have added a 50% copay. How is that affordable?
Dad says only my left side is now covered.
 
me and my wife Affordable health care is $1600, going to $2145 a month, deductable up a $1000 too. will be checking into subsidy,keep income down, thought we were coasting to medicare, gonna be uphill. gonna cut into tractor fund
 
Medicare part B is going up from $104.90 to $134.00 in 2017 depending on your income it could be higher. My Part D Silver Scrip is going
down .40 a month. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Indiana has yet let me know whats going on with my supplemental. My father in law didn't take
Part D when he went on medicare and three years later he decided he needed Part D . Until the day he died he paid a penalty for the three
year he hadn't taken it.
 
My part B and D costs less than what I paid
when I worked 12 years ago. The corporation
paid $4000 a year I picked up the rest
$1750 plus I had $1500 deductible before the
80/20% kicked in. Medicare A, B and D is
better than the private insurance I had when
I worked and it pays more.

If you think you can't afford B and D, you
better not retire.

Too risky to be without.
 
Father- in - law is 75 , recently fell down his steps . Long story short he's been in
Neuro-icu for over two weeks , with 60k plus helicopter ride . He cancelled his
supplemental policy in March . We are still trying to sort everything out . He will need
extensive rehab . His current policy will only cover 25 miles of transport. Problem is
he's 200 miles away . I'm afraid the few assets he has will be gone .
 
My part B so far has not gone up. It is $183/mo. Haven't heard from Silver Script yet. My part G is going up $11/mo to $136.
 
what gets me is aarp ad that says medicare ONLY covers 20% . i had their insurace for awhile and they only covered a small amount of the 20 %. crooked bustars were also behind ochit head care.
 
Before O care mine was 200.00. Now it would cost me 986.00 a month plus the 104.00 of part B.More than what I can afford.
 
The fallacy of external_link is that we can have affordable (some people think that means cheap) health care for ALL. There is no free lunch. My daughter is an attorney specializing in health care drug pricing for Medicare. She has been telling us for years that external_link will be a disaster when it fully kicks in and insurance companies start to understand what there costs are. Personally, I went on Medicare last year and pay $179/month for a decent supplemental policy. I'm 66. Both wife and I will retire when she hits 65 next June. We've budgeted $ 300/month apiece for health care in our retirement which is about what it is now. I expect that will go up as evidenced by the stories I hear from you guys and others. There is no way I would go without a high-end plan at this stage in my life. If I have to dip into savings to pay for it, so be it. That will just leave less for the kids when we go and we're all ok with that.
 
We had a chance to adopt a single payer system back in the 90's and we rejected it. This would have eliminated this 80%- 20% deal. All medical practices would have been charged at a flat rate. So instead what we have is a market based system where the insurance companies can charge whatever they want, in other words free market! You asked for it, you got it! BTW, if you study your medical bills you will see how much Medicare negotiated the price down quite substantially.
 
Yup. I'm paying more for medicare and supplemental now than I paid for healthcare, before you-know-who-care came along. Medicare sure hasn't done me any favors so far.
 
I live near Rochester MN home of the Mayo clinic. If you take a drive through the clinic parking ramp you see many Canadian license plates. People come down here from Canada to get the care they cant get in Canada because of the swamped system and the waiting death lists. Don't kid yourself, If we switch to a government system they will control costs by limiting and rationing care. Some European country's, Belgium, Netherlands among others even have mandatory euthanasia as part of their free healthcare. Nothing is ever free!
 
(quoted from post at 08:49:35 11/25/16) If we only lived in a developed country like Canada or western Europe, Scandinavia, or the British isles!
Click to expand...

So we could have truly dismal care. I despise people too stupid to see that.
 
We're gonna have to re-learn about Medicare and insurance again in the not-so-distant future.
 
He's no joking. Last week I was talking to my BSBC agent and one of his clients lives in Canada and had a heart attach .His client said they told him he was going to need a operation to correct it and was told it would take month to see a specialist. His client is coming to the State to find a doctor to the operation.
 
I am no fan of big insurance companies, but do you want the government running THE ONLY SHOW IN
TOWN for health care? If we are lucky nnalert and the congress will open things up for more
competition, so you can shop for insurance, get the insurance you want for the best price.
Competition will beat government run anytime.
 
Not entirely true. If you have an urgent medical issue, treatment is prompt. If you need a knee replaced, for example, you are put on a waiting list, dependant upon the urgency of the issue. You can opt to go to the US for such surgery to get more immediate service if you so desire. I doubt anymore people here have died here waiting that in your country.

I can relate another story.....my younger brother recently holiday ed in Arizona and had the misfortune of breaking his hip. He relates the medical care he received was excellent, but the hospital was more like a resort. He was provided an extensive menu selection at mealtimes, his wife was granted every privilege she desired or needed,and the doctors took as much time as he wanted for any follow up. Here in Canada, the medical care would be on par, but any other service would be quite basic. The difference, he said, is because he felt the US system was more consumer driven, that is, the hospitals went out of their way to provide service, sort of like a business wanting repeat customers, whereas here the system is more cost driven. Our 'free'health care is provided by the taxes we pay, and is better described as universal health care where all can get the same level of care regardless of income or social standing or any other factors. For service beyond what is offered here, one is free to 'shop around' While the system is not near perfect by any means, one should not have to mortgage their home equity or farm for health care. Which system is better?...well, Canada does have a fairly significant problem with non residents trying to illegally obtain a Canadian health card....


Oh, by the way, my brother is recovering very nicely , having spent a week in the hospital there. Fortunately, he did have very good travel insurance. The medical bill would be in the 6 figure range....Ben
 
Obviously, he was not in immediate danger of dying. Scheduling such surgery elsewhere would take some time, so there is a possibility he may wait close to a month anyways. One way to look at it, is that if you are on a waiting list, you are probably better off than the person who couldn't wait. Ben
 
You right. I pay less for health care now than I did when I worked. When I worked I had the deductible to pay along with 20% of and medical work + a copay along with 20% of all my drugs. Since I have been on Medicare I have had several hospital stays and injuries and have not seen a bill.I have just two drug that fall into a tier that I have pay on and that's only several hundred dollars a year.
 
abundant aarp helped push the trainwreck unaffordable noncare act over the finish line. No one needs to belong to aarp. There is an alternative much better group called AMAC, (Association of Mature Americans).amac.us is the website. Trash your aarp mambership and join AMAC...
 
NO she can not get any thing at all. We do not make enough for her to be able to get any insrance unless we pay the high price which makes it unaffordable
 
If your medical care is as good as you say it is than why are so many people coming to this country for medical care?
 
Yep and V.A. care if you can get it has gone down hill big time in the past 8 years. When I first got into the V.A. system there where doctors that cared about a person now days they do not care and the doctor I was seeing pretty much let me tell him what I needed. Also many veterans records have been destroyed by the V.A. just to keep them out of the system
 
Maybe the government could kick in some of the money (Ours) that we pay out in Foreign Aide(welfare) to those POS countries like Pakistan. Most of those countries HATE the US and vote against us at the UN. We could use the funds here in the US for folks that can't afford to pay that 20%.
 
So are you saying they are coming down with no insurance and paying cash for American health care? If they are Canadian why would they be insured in the U.S. ?
 
I like my medicare, before I retired when the affordable heath care talk started my ins. at work went from $90 week to 213. Now B,D and the F supplement are $280 a month. The only thing I've had to pay since is the $360/ year part D deductible. Had 3 aneurysms fixed a year ago, never did finish adding up the statements I get from medicare and plan F ins. but just one charge was an $84,000 facility's charge plus thousands in tests and doctors. I didn't have to pay a dime for this or anything since I've been on medicare.
 
I have read a couple of news items that says that Medicare spends 50% of its funds keeping patients alive the last two years of their life. I happen to believe in assisted suicide and wished our state offered it. I would like to have that option even if I didn't use it. Several states now offer it.

Why should I be kept alive when I don't know anyone and I am pooping in my diaper.
 
The medical care is on par. Some don't want to wait for elective surgery so they shop around. Some may carry some forms of insurance, and some can get reimbursed by our system for medical care there. I know of one family whose parent, Canadian born, but
US citizen and resident for many years, whose children legally ....and eagerly...applied for a Canadian health card to access our universal health care system. It is not a question of which medical care is better, it is how the system is accessed, paid for, and accepted by everyone. It then becomes a personal choice, given these options. Ben
 
Ben I think that all our medical systems are a nightmare.It has got so big that even the people running the systems really don't know whats going on.
 
Wow, I went two weeks ago to my Insurance's yearly meeting. No increase necessary, in fact, the Dentist part went up to $1000.00 per claim. I'M curious as to who you are insured with; we have Blue Cross Blue Shield. The 'affordable care act' had little effect when compared with our original Health Insurance.
 
I'll reply to your email since you cover the Canadian system well in your response. In the past few years, I've had three surgeries ..... one dealing with a huge swelling on a testicle (called a hydrocoele), and then last year colon cancer (cut out a chunk of my lower large intestine) and most recently I had a full knee replacement (just 7 weeks ago). Cost to me was nothing .... not five cents. Sure, I waited for the knee replacement but went to the head of the line for the cancer (like a 3 week wait). Wife and I are both retired and pay not a whole lot of income tax anymore. Don't believe all the bad press you hear about our health care system ..... do you wait for certain procedures? Yes you do if they are not life-threatening. On the other hand, you can pay up front and get it done pretty quick if you want to spend some money on things like my knee replacement and don't want to wait. A friend of mine flew to Europe and got a partial knee replacement (they don't recommend doing that here much anymore) and he didn't want to wait. I won't shock you by telling you what he paid. You can get that stuff done through the private system up here too or down in the US or elsewhere should you choose to do so. You know the old saying, if you wanna dance you gotta pay the fiddler (or something like that).
 
One can commit suicide anytime they want. If I was so inclined I would want to take responsibility for it rather than lasso some doctor into performing the act. And if a law passed a doctor would not be allowed to opt out.
 
Hey, we have a good deal with medicare let's not alienate the ones who really pay the bills-the other American taxpayers.
 
I am so amazed that in the space of a few paragraphs we solved all the medical coverage problems we have. I seriously wonder if anyone's
opinion was changed one iota.
 
They lost (destroyed) my records going on four years ago. But they do send me letters. Telling me what a good job they are doing.
 
If you think insurance companies can charge what they want you obviously have no idea how regulated the health insurance industry is. Rates and increases are approved every year by your state insurance commissioner.
 
D beatty,
What you said is not correct. Anyone on Part B now and paying $104 will continue to pay $104.
People going on Part B in January 2017 or later will pay $134. Letter I recently got from Medicare says so.
Pete
 
Yep. regulated alright. Not me personally, but I know of folks with families paying over $15k per annum.
If you call that regulation, I reckon you are right. BTW our insurance commissioner is not elected.
 
Centash, one of the times I was in Canada on a harvest crew one of the crew members got an infected hair by his tail bone. He needed surgery so we took him to a hospital in Saskatchewan, I believe it was Yorkton, but not sure on that. They did the surgery that day and he healed up fine. The big difference I saw in the Canadian hospital is it was plain Jane, nothing fancy. I liked it that way.
 
Your free to go to any one of those places and you can gain dual citizenship and pay 55-70% tax in one of the civalized countries and get the satisfaction of paying the way for all of those "refugees" while you wait for your doctors appointment. How come none of you crybabies ever actually leave? If you hate America so much why do you stay?
 
(quoted from post at 07:09:51 11/25/16) You're joking, right? Health care here is excellent in my experience. Ben
Click to expand...
entash how is the system funded there? Does everyone pay a set fee, is it a certain % based on income or is it property tax based? I have heard a lot of talk for and against it for years but never understood how it was funded. And as a follow up does it seem to cost less or more by what ever comparison that can be made than before the system you have was put in place? Would most people opt to go back to what you had before this system was put in place or for the most part are they happy with it. One more while I am asking how long has this system been in place?
Thanks for any answers you or any of our northern neighbors can give us. Not taking sides I am just curious.
 
Universal health care system goes back to the 30's when it's founder,
Tommy Douglas as a member of Parliament saw dust bowl farmers loose everything over
health issues. The system has changed much over the years, I can recall paying
premiums based on income that were still very low. Today no one pays any premiums,
but the system is funded by government incomes, mostly collected through income
tax.Not all procedures or drugs are covered, and there are still inequities within
it....such as hypodermic needles provided free to drug addicts, but not to diabetics
and so on. Dental and optometric are only partially funded, but mostly not at all.
You can buy coverage for those. You can also purchase coverage for procedures not
covered by the public health, such as physiotherapy. I grasp only the basics of the
system, as one poster put it, it has grown so large and complex, even those in charge
don't fully understand it. Ben
 
I did not know it had its roots so far back. I also did not know that it did not cover all things. So you still need or should have some form of health care coverage that you pay for out of pocket. It sounds like it covers major medical that can have catastrophic costs but not some of the less life threatening things that you mentioned. Do you carry any of the coverage that you mentioned and how are the costs, do they seem high and going up by a great deal each year? I wonder how those costs compare to ours in the States. Who sets the cost of this coverage? In other words are the providers heavily regulated as to the prices they charge or just what ever the market will bare as ours seems to be? I find this thread very interesting as I believe we need some serious reform here I just don't really understand what the options may be. I know some of our in real costs come in the form of medication. All the while I understand the need to make a profit to sustain the cost of research and development some things are just about criminal as to the cost for some meds that are considered needed to stay alive. I have had two different friends that needed drugs that were simply out of sight. One about 15 years ago was over $10,000.00 a month and more recently another was well over $20,000.00 a month. Both were able to request assistance from the drug company's and they reduced the cost but it was still high. It shouldn't happen that an accident or illness that puts you in the hospital of a few weeks can cost you what you and your wife have worked all your life for. That can and has happened to many people.
 
I personally don't carry any extra coverage, there are lots of companies trying to
sell extra coverage, especially. to self employed people, commonly referred to as
combined insurance.....they pay the extra that the public plan does not, but in the
event of a claim, it can be very difficult to collect....who pays what, which doctor
is used for diagnosis etc. I'm not sure how coverage costs are determined, the rate
scale is likely similar to how insurance costs are determined, based on probability
and statistics with some overseeing of rates by government....they love to do that
here! Extra drug coverage is also available, many workers unions and emplyers offer
these as benefits, but the system is still skewed, like the drug user/diabetic
example I used. Heck, they're even trying to get s*x change operations publicly
funded! There must be some one on line here that understands the system better than
I do, but it is very complex. It is also always the largest budget item dollar wise
on both the federal and provincial governments and is modified almost every election.
Ben
 
D beatty,
I just now went to Medicare.Gov-Part B. This whole issue sure is confusing. What I cited above was from a recent local newspaper article not a letter from Medicare, my mistake.

We paid the same Part B premium in 2016 as we did in 2015 even though the 2016 Part B premium was scheduled to be increased to $12O . That's because there was no Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) to 2016 SS payments. If there's no COLA for 2017 we should continue to pay $104 for Part B. That's the way I understand it, but as I said it's confusing and I could be totally wrong. And maybe how much you earn factors in as well.
Pete
 
I have yet to figure this stuff out. I'm 68 and have been using Health Spring insurance at the same cost ($104./month
as MediCare), I will be changing to a different insurance company this season. Damaged my right shoulder 4 +/- years
ago, took two years to convince them that I had a problem, another six months to get an x-ray: a couple of monthly
cortisone shots and you will be fine. Another year goes by and they send me in for the MRI, another six weeks and
ortho surgeon says I have a torn rotator cup, need surgery. Make appointment for surgery in six weeks but no one will
tell me what out-of-pocket costs I should expect, also won't tell me how long the surgery takes, how much I can do
after. I live alone 50 miles from the hospital, have animals that need care, two days before the surgery I cancelled
because I still don't know what arrangements need to be made for transportation to and from and if I have to find
someone to care for the critters. One thing was interesting, the bill for the MRI was over $5000., Health Spring paid
$250. and I paid $80. co-pay.
 
We had some of those same issue's years ago with both of us here having insurance thru work. We in theory should have paid nearly nothing. In reality it was a constant battle with one or the other as to who should and would pay. In the end neither did and we would be stuck with some of the stuff that they should have paid. It seemed to us cheaper to pay the extra to both be on the same policy for cost as well as it made things much simpler.
 
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