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Articles for Baby Boomers
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Baby Boomer
Health Care: Is It Medicare Or Medicrap?
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I, one of tens of millions of baby
boomers, was always under the impression that, if I was lucky enough
to reach the ripe old age of 65, all of my health care costs would
be covered under Medicare. I thought that was one of my
entitlements, my payoff for working … and paying into Medicare… and
surviving … until retirement.
I was looking forward to the day when I could drop my outrageously
expensive private PPO high-risk health care coverage (which costs
more than my monthly rent) and get what I was entitled to, get what
I paid into for an entire working lifetime … Medicare. Three months
before I became eligible for Medicare I decided to do some advance
research on signing up for Medicare and also to see what my benefits
would be.
Here is what I discovered … painfully.
I went to the official U.S. government web site for Medicare,
medicare.gov. The government web site, medicare.gov, did an
excellent job in describing and explaining what Medicare is and how
it works. And how to sign up for Medicare. The devil, however, is in
the details and the details are glaringly absent or extremely
difficult to find and/or understand. I defy any human being in
America, who is not a Medicare insurance specialist, to discover and
comprehend the advantages and disadvantages of the various
must-choose options under Medicare. It is impossible!
In essence here is what I discovered …
Plan A - covers hospitalization. Cost: free
Plan B - covers doctors visits. Cost: $110 a month
However, Medicare does NOT cover ALL the hospital costs or all the
doctor visit costs. You must buy a supplemental private insurance
policy to cover those gaps. In my zip code (Los Angeles) the cost of
a supplemental private insurance policy, to cover the 20% gap in
hospital costs and your doctor co-pays not covered by Medicare, is
over $200 a month. So now, my supposed “free” Medicare will cost me
$110 plus $200, over $300 a month. Out of pocket. But wait, it gets
worse. Medicare does not cover the cost of prescription drugs! Zero
coverage. What? No drug coverage? What kind of a health insurance
policy is that? No drug coverage? The average number of prescription
drugs taken by people age 65 and older is 11. None of which are
covered under Medicare. So, that means you have to buy yet another
health insurance policy to cover the cost of your medications. In my
case, there were some 30 different “supplemental” insurance policies
available in my area for prescription drug coverage and it is up to
the individual to compare all the plans. Did I get a headache? Yes.
Was I able to figure out on my own which plan was the best plan for
me? No. Though the monthly premiums on these plans were very
reasonable ($35-$65 per month) NONE of the available plans covered
all the costs of my medications. They all had co-pays. The co-pays
for my 5 meds would total up to as much as $300 … every month. The
co-pays are a lot less if I substitute generic brands for my meds
but I cannot, there appears to be no generics for my cardiovascular
meds.
So now, my “free” Medicare will end up costing about $600 a month.
About the same cost as any decent normal private health care policy
that you had before you are eligible for Medicare. And, under
Medicare, you could end up with 3 different policies for your
coverage (or 2 policies if you want to combine supplemental coverage
and drug coverage, which is called “Medicare Advantage”, except you
can’t figure out which “Medicare Advantage” policy is any good or
what advantages and disadvantages they each have).
So, after paying into Medicare and achieving the retirement
milestone of 65 years of age, you will end up getting nothing you
didn’t already have. Under Medicare you get no free health care
coverage, and worse, you likely end up paying about the same as you
were paying for your health care coverage before Medicare, unless
you were getting free or subsidized lifetime health coverage from
your employer. Or, if your free or subsidized health coverage from
your employer stops when you stop working, then, under Medicare, you
will be paying MORE. A lot more.
The government collected Medicare money from your paycheck (and from
your employer) all through your working years. The government
collected that money all through your working years to cover the
cost of your Medicare. Only it doesn’t cover the cost of your health
care at age 65. Far from it. Instead of getting free and full health
care under Medicare, at age 65 you may have to pay $500 or more per
month, out of your own pocket, to get proper and full medical and
drug coverage. And, to add insult to injury, the government wants to
cut Medicare benefits even further!
This is what baby boomers worked a lifetime for? This is what baby
boomers get for paying into Medicare over an entire working
lifetime? This is the payoff for baby boomers who survive to age 65?
This begs the question: is it Medicare or Medicrap? Is Medicare a
giant government rip-off? Is Medicare a giant government rip-off of
an entire generation of baby boomers? Is Medicare a giant government
rip-off of baby boomers, aided and abetted by the private insurance
industry? As millions and millions of us approach age 65, and
Medicare, we baby boomers will have to decide … and deal with it.
And we will. Starting right here. Starting right now. We baby
boomers have power. Lots of power. We have education, we have money,
we have loud voices, and we have tens of millions of votes. Baby
boomers are activists. We marched, we protested, we changed the
world. And now we are armed with email and cell phones. We baby
boomers can bombard our senators and our members of the House of
Representatives in Washington about issues that deeply concern us.
Like Medicare. We baby boomers have power. Lots of power. Use it or
lose it!
About the Author
Andrew Lawrence is an original baby boomer, born in 1946. He is the
author of numerous books, books that make you smarter, richer,
happier and sexier, including “How To Thrive After 65”. His web site
is
http://Andrew-Lawrence.blogspot.com
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