Posted on 03/22/2015 3:00:43 PM PDT by Jonty30
I am arguing with a leftist on Facebook, who tells me the government requires people to purchase Medicare from one of thirty companies. Since Obamacare also requires you to purchase from companies, there is no difference. (His argument)
So what does Obamacare do that Medicare doesn't?
Obviously a place with plenty of young folks to work on.
Good for him.
Around here that would be a starvation diet.
Your example is great. But, I’m not sure it answers my question. Are we paying more in total or just seeing that the cost has been shifted from general funds to medical premiums? Before,costs of treating the uninsured were pawned off on the hospitals and Medicaid.
my husband worked from the time he turned 18, paid the taxes and died at 51. He never received any benefit, but paid into the fund...many people are like that...died too early to collect, but paid in all their working life. I get tired of hearing people complain about paying for those on medicare...I am 76, my children are in their 50s and my grandchildren are nearing or beyond 25 years old....I complain that I should not be paying school taxes, but all us oldsters are still supporting all you young folks schooling for your kids. And that tax keeps going up ever year or so when voting to up property taxes..
You pay a premium for Medicare. It’s taken out of your social security check. Medicare pays for 80% of services they cover (some services they don’t cover). IF you want to buy another policy, called a supplemental policy, to pay the 20% Medicare doesn’t, you may buy that supplemental insurance from any company that offers that policy.
You do not have to participate in Medicare or its additional parts.
“Perhaps the “discount” is not as great a hit as I believed.”
No one pays the discount. That is a discount Medicare gets. Then, Medicare pays 80% of the remainder and the patient pays only the 20% left. If the patient has a supplemental policy 2nd to Medicare, that insurance pays the patient part so the patient pays nothing.
The Medicare premium to have that insurance, comes out of the patient’s social security check. The patient him/her/self pays for the supplemental insurance if he/she wants that insurance.
Before being sucked into irrelevant details, I would like to point out what Medicare WAS before Omugabe destroyed it, by first taking almost a trillion$ permanently out of its operating funds.
Now what is the difference?
Medicare was a self sustaining program funded by the beneficiaries, retired workers who actually had paying jobs and, in addition, paid decades of income tax.
Obamacare was/is a monumental new welfare-transfer of wealth program the beneficiaries of which have never contributed a cent to its operation and have never paid any income taxes in their lives, nor likely to do so in the future.
Once you explain it to a third grader, he can actually understand the concept.
Liberals?
Not so much.
Can you choose to hit 65 and NOT join Medicare?
People who don't contribute, don't get the coverage. It isn't a freebie.
People who don't contribute during their working years can buy the coverage after 65...about $500 monthly.
People on Medicare pay about $100 monthly for coverage.
They are the same. Both are Unconstitutional and unsustainable. The both put the “P” in Ponzi.
When Medicare was introduced, I believe the proponents said it would never cost over $20,000,000,000 a Year adjusted for Inflation.
Well, we all know how well that worked out. Obamacare will make Medicare look like a walk in the Park.
It pays the "premiums" and benefits from money the government takes from people who actually work for a living, and pay income taxes.
Medicare is funded totally by its recipients, during their working lives.
It's NOT rocket science.
Interesting...all those years I paid that 2.9% tax...
too late for me but what is the secret?
The government requires you to contribute to Medicare Part A which covers hospital care once you reach age 65 or become disabled earlier - you contribute during your working life through Medicare taxes deducted from your pay - you may also purchase Medicare Part B once you actually reach age 65, to which you contribute usually by deductions from your Social Security payments - Part B covers outpatient visits to various doctors and such other services as ambulance and physical therapy - up to 80% of the government allowed cost - Parts A and B are paid for by the government but may be administered by private insurance companies - you can buy supplemental policies from private companies to help cover the residual costs if you want - up until Obamacare came along, there were also many government Advantage plans, which helped people primarily of limited resources to help cover the additional costs of Medicare, but Obama took about three-quarters of a trillion dollars out of scheduled Medicare funding which ordinarily would have paid for Advantage plans to instead cover the costs of Obamacare - Obamacare is a plan which forces people to buy plans from private insurance companies - the money stolen from Medicare goes to pay for the government subsidies which go back to those people who qualify for tham by income level and residence - thus, briefly, the government pays for Medicare with minimal contributions from the enrollees, while Obamacare is paid for by the insurance companies from premiums and subsidies paid to them by the government funding......
You have to pay into medicare but you do not have to take medicare.
Yes, if you do not take SS before your full retirement date. If you do before then you are automatically enrolled and cannot unenroll.
I think to answer your question it would take an entire world of accountants a long time to just get the numbers and do the math.
One fact I do know: in Texas if you compare just the rates paid to a provider for mental health services if: Child is/was covered by standard Medicaid versus the child is/was covered by United Behavioral Health and ins was through his parent’s employer versus the child is/was covered by UBH under a Federal government funded plan, the government funded plan pays almost 30% more than either of the other two.
Given this one isolated instance, it’s costing us a whole lot more.
This statement is 100% wrong.
The word "subsidized" is used inappropriately.
The proper word is "funded"
"Taxpayer" is used ambiguously, too.
The proper source is the working taxpayer through contribution by his employer AND deductions from his earnings. No workee no Medicare.
That is and, of course, always has been the case. When I referred to a "hit" I was referring to the discount the medical provider was not permitted to bill and therefore required to absorb.
You will see from the numbers in my initial post the "remainder" was $870.88 of which Medicare paid 53% and the patient paid 43%.
It may be, since so many are confident of the 80/20 formula, that there is a distinction in the billing formula applied to out-patient services and that applicable to hospitalized patients. I am unfamiliar with the latter.
Hope you have a good week.
Just saying Hi.
The weather has been nice here.
Kind of like the difference between Fascism and Communism.
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