Even though I just turned 51, I had to sign up for Medicare as of June 1 (when still only 50) because I'm on dialysis. So now I'm part of the Senior Advantage program with Kaiser Permanente.
An amazing way the government is making money is through Medicare. Yes, contrary to all that you have heard about Medicare being in dire straits, at least in its collections process, it is raking in the cash and in many cases not providing services for the payments received. Let me explain: I just received my Medicare bill for $289.20, due Sept. 23, for October-through-December coverage. So if I should die on Sept. 24, the government keeps that money, even though I am not alive to accept any services. And it clearly states on the back of the bill that I am responsible for paying the bill even if I have been taken off the Medicare rolls, as happens, for example, three years after a kidney transplant, the government assuming that a kidney patient, having been out of the workforce for years, perhaps a decade or more, can jump back in, in her 50s or 60s and get a great-paying job with health benefits that will cover the huge cost of immunosuppressant drugs. What fairytale land are they living in, huh?
So Medicare is operating in a way that would not be allowed in the private sector. Can you image, for example, having to pay your rent three months in advance and your heirs not receive a refund if you should die and they move all your stuff out of the apartment immediately? Or that you would be responsible for your rent if you were no longer living there? It just wouldn't happen, but the government can get away with this. Imagine the money they are taking in for people who die or are removed from the rolls and have already paid their premiums!
Another scam is Social Security in which payments are always one month behind because, as a rep told me, I am paid Dec. 1 for November because SS doesn't want to pay me for November on Nov. 1 as I could die some time during the month.
Mystical experiences, yearnings, politics, little dramas, poetry, kidney dialysis, insulin-dependent diabetes, and opportunities for gratitude.
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- Heidi's heart
- Southern California, United States
- Perhaps my friend Mark summed me up best when he called me "a mystical grammarian." I am quite a mix--otherworldly, ethereal and in touch with "the beyond," yet prone to being very precise and logical, when need be. Romantic in the big-canvas meaning of the word, I see the world as an adventure, as a love poem, as a realm of beauty and wonder.
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4 comments:
But Medicare is insurance. You won't get refunds on car insurance or any other insurance, except maybe life insurance, right? I am sure there is plenty to be pissed about how the system works. Just not sure I totally get this one.
1) Yes, you do get your money back if you cancel an insurance policy before it is up for renewal. My mother stopped driving before her auto insurance was due, and she received a refund.
2) You mean to tell me that, if you were no longer driving and so did not need auto insurance, you would still have to pay for it? I don't think so. As I wrote, that is the case with Medicare. If you receive the bill (for three months in advance) and you are no longer eligible for Medicare, as for example, is the case with kidney transplant patients who lose Medicare coverage three years after receiving a transplant, you still have to pay for the amount billed. This is what I wrote in my blog.
3) No, I don't think this is the biggest deal in the world, and the government is guilty of much worse than this, true enough, but my point was that it's a scam, that the government is making so much money by billing for servioes it no longer provides, as is the case of death and disenrollment, as I wrote in the post.
Thanks for explaining further. I was just trying to understand. I read your posts carefully and it was not that I missed something you said, as you seem to think by repeaing "as I wrote" three times in your response. I have kept up with your blog out of concern and because I care for you, Heidi. But I am more and more aware that my comments do nothing but agitate you. I apologize for that. And I will continue to wish you the best, even if I no longer leave any comments.
repeating, I meant to say
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