EyeDoc wrote:
The idea of national healthcare is a good one, but just keep in mind that our country is running record deficits yearly because we do not pay for all of the programs we currently have. Now add in what is likely to be the most expensive program in our history, and perhaps we have a recipe for problems.
What scares me is how social security and medicare are out of money and too expensive and continually causing problems with budgets and taxes, yet the government is wanting to add a much more expensive program on top of this.
Ultimately, these programs are going to push us towards a European or Canadian type of tax rate.
I guess we have to ask ourselves, "are we comfortable with this?" or do we search for alternatives? I'm glad I don't have to make these decisions, but I fear our representatives make them hastily many times.
My 87-year-old father has survived bladder cancer in 2001 (surgery and BCG post surgery), monitored every six months and was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in early 2007. He underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy and the tumor has not grown. When he gets a chest x-ray he goes to a hospital to get it done. I get it done at my doctor's office at about one-quarter of the cost. My father is thrilled that Medicare pays for a podiatrist to cut his toenails. What he pays is peanuts and he doesn't care who picks up the rest of the tab. He has no medical condition such as diabetes to indicate podiatric care. My father is wealthy, lives independently, drives, cooks, cleans, functional and sharper mentally in more ways than I am at 52 with MS. He is perfectly capable of clipping his toenails.
He and I were discussing recently that if the Obama plan had been in effect at the time of his lung cancer diagnosis, he would have been offered hospice care only.
My father analyzes his medical bills and Medicare statements religiously and keeps superb records on what was paid, done, and when. The number of errors he has found, never favoring himself, has been astounding. A urine specimen was sent out to a lab for testing at a cost of $5,000 when the usual lab the doctor used was half that cost. No one informed my father this was being done - he had an increased share of the cost. Medicare just paid it but my dad is still fighting it a year later. His internist's office charged Medicare for an office visit for a flu shot last year for the first time. My father reported his internist to Medicare, a bold move on his part, but his doctor's billing person insisted they could charge for an office visit even though he hadn't been seen by the doctor. Medicare said they were wrong.
These are just a few small things with one old man on Medicare who is sharp enough mentally to keep track of everything happening in his medical care by four doctors. One doctor for years sends a "bill" that is only a running tab in format and does not state what charges are for. I can only imagine what factor his experiences can be multiplied by to obtain figures on waste and fraud within the current Medicare system.
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