Question About Possible Medicare For 55-64... Will Those People Who Become

[ChiciB1]

eligible actually "go" for this thing? I first must admit that this is not an original question from me, just a question on C-Span this AM!

Many people in that age bracket may still have a job, many still have wives and children that will need coverage. Perhaps the husband/wife is UNDER 55 and this bill won't cover them, will THOSE PEOPLE decided okay I'll buy Medicare, but WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF MY FAMILY?

Has this been addressed, will it be addressed or is this just a silly question? I think too many will have to think long and hard to "opt into" this thing, then have to go out and buy "extra" insurance for their families!

It is an important question, I think!

[Uben]

1. If it's not affordable for the average Joe......

...it is useless. $800+/mo per person is not affordable for the average American. It would have to be in the $500/mo range to be helpful.

So, write your congressman and tell him how utterly useless he is when he considers measures that are not advantageous to the average American.

[still_one]

2. On average for a "healthy" person it costs about 1K a month for sommeone >55. I am not so sure if

500/mo is even affordable, definitely not if you are unemployed

I am not sure where you are getting your figures from, but it would definitely help those who have pre-existing conditions, and are over 55 who can afford it, so it wouldn't be "utterly useless", it wouldn't cover as many people who need it or could use it.

[Uben]

9. I am 55, the wife is 58

...she had breast cancer 7 yrs ago. Believe me, I know! We are currently paying $18K+/yr in premiums for a $5K deductible and 50% of the next $5K, so our total out-of-pocket could be an additional $10K/yr, making a total of $28K+ for one year! If the Medicare buy-in is $860/mo per person, we would have to pay $21K+ in premiums. That's more, not less. Fortunately, I can afford it, but the average person cannot. So, this buy-in proposal is marginal for me. It would be worse if I just paid premiums, but probably a little better if one of us actually had a serious illness. My insurance company actually dropped my premium by 5% for next year. That is the first I have ever heard of a premium going down!

[Ozymanithrax]

3. As a 57 year old...in a heartbeat.

Oh, yea, say goodbye to Bluecross, baby.

[ChiciB1]

4. Do You Have A Family Who You Will Still Need To Buy Insurance For??

That's my REAL question?

[Ozymanithrax]

5. I have a wife, a fiver year old, and a seven year old...

I started late.

But my wife and kids have health care through work.

If this works, it will be a breach in the Medicare rules that will, overtime, see it opened to everyone. Our system changes incrementally.

This is what Republicans are afraid of, a real single payer system. I support a public option, but prefer single payer. It makes a lot of sense to use Medicare rather than create an entirely separate health care system.

[ChiciB1]

8. So For YOU It Works... But Many People Don't Have A Wife Who Has Insurance

through their employer so then I suppose its better to have ONE person covered than none.

Let me give you a scenario here, I cross posted this too because I wonder what will happen with Medicare and how doctors will react. A true example of an experience of mine follows.

One of my doctors who I've been seeing for YEARS just recently told me that he will no longer take ANY Medicare because of low payments! Because of HMO's & PPO's I can only see certain doctors and he was on my plan, so now I will go out of network and pay his fee. Because of going out of network, it was my assumption that I would get paid the difference for the 100-70% difference. What I FOUND OUT is that I got paid ONLY a portion of the difference because of what each plan offers. So for this doctor I go to on a monthly basis for medications, he only charges $90.00, but I got a check for $33.14 as my difference. That's not what I thought the 70% meant.

Fortunately this doctor has agreed to see me every THREE months now instead of requiring me to come in every month, so it balances out. Still the "devil was in the detail for me" and I was unaware of how that 100-70% worked. I know now!

The $90.00 I pay is for about 5 minutes of his time, long enough for him to write scripts that I need for a condition I have. So, even though a doctor visit of $90.00 seems cheap these days... I'd take $90.00 for 5 minutes and be happy! But I DO understand why he did it... he said he had to hired 3 extra people to do the paper work where now he only has ONE!

This may be a trend, I don't know!

[lunatica]

7. Maybe, but if you have it and get gravely ill your family won't be stuck with

tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. That's a big plus. And it's possible that they will realize that everyone can be covered for a small premium because most people would be healthy and still paying something into it. It'll work the same way Social Security works. Everyone pays into it if they work and everyone gets something out of it in the end. And people who are handicapped or need it get it.

[Kdillard]

6. It is an excellent question and since the full details of the plan have not been

Made available no one will be able to answer your question. We still have to wait and see how the plan does under CBO scoring to see whether it is cost effective, sustainable and all the fine print.

[quiller4]

10. My spouse and I would probably go for it. We retired early.

We are paying the equivalent of Medicare premiums now for a private plan with $3500 deductibles and 80/20 split thereafter. If we had the option to buy into Medicare for the say or slightly more $$ we would.

[marlakay]

11. Everything I have read said that its not for everyone

that age but only people who are not insured or poor. While that is good it doesn't help the regular guy or the young.

The insurance companies must be pouring tons of champagne because I see nothing to control their costs for the bulk of us.