Posted on 07/09/2013 11:15:43 AM PDT by Bob Ireland
For some years I have listened to Rush Limbaugh, and heard him picture Medicare recipients as some sort of ungrateful leaches sucking off of the public dole. He characterizes them as resisting having to pay a dime for their medical coverage.
Being a fan of Rush, I have tolerated this misguidance on his part and sent him e-mails [I am 24-7 member] trying to save him from being caught in a 'lie'. He has never responded to these e-mails - for whatever reason.
Then yesterday - Monday - he mentioned a story about the Congress considering a bill to make Medicare recipients pay 'a few pennies' for their medical coverage - and the bill going down to defeat. I simply cannot remain silent in the face of this total fabrication.
I have been on Medicare for 15 years. My Medicare Part B presently costs me a little pocket change short of $100 a month - a little less that $1,200 a year. That money is deducted out of my Social Security check before I ever receive it. That benefit offers to pay 80% of my allowable medical bills, and I am responsible for the other 20%.
In my case - since I look at government programs with a jaundiced eye - I have signed my Medicare obligations over to a private HMO [called an Advantage Plan]. However, Obama's health care plan has drained the Medicare treasury by hundreds of billions of dollars; therefore the future of the program is in question. In some states I understand the Advantage Plans have already been canceled. Many doctors and hospitals are trying to figure how to get free of Medicare since the Medicare payments are either delayed, diminished or missing altogether. I still cannot be sure my HMO will be part of Medicare next year.
BUT, back to the main theme of this article: How many FReepers pay $1,200 a year for their medical insurance? Probably some do; likely most do not. I am not complaining about paying for my health care - I voluntarily and happily pay the premium.
Furthermore, if it becomes a matter of saving the dollar from total collapse I would accept the cancellation of Medicare altogether. Just stop charging me $100 a month and send the program into the Bermuda Triangle. I have led a fruitful life. HOWEVER, under Obama's healthcare program, that cannot happen. My Medicare could be cancelled and I could be set with the old Indian squaw by the side of the road to waste away - but I would still have to pay my health care premium in order to provide health care for younger folk.
Would someone who can get through to Rush Limbaugh get these points across to him - if he is really interested - so that people can understand the truth about Medicare - not a bunch of myths and misrepresentations.
The Dems want the country to go broke so they can take over and run it the way they know it should have been run from the start.
Yes, insurance policies should cover the catastrophic and the healthy... it is all supposed to balance out. If an insurance company ran Medicare, it would work - or it would go out of business [which is why I signed my Medicare over to a private HMO.] Like Social Security, Medicare has been grossly mismanaged by the same people who now feel competent to take over everyone's health care. God help us!
$100 a month is really cheap. I’m in my 60’s, not on MediCare, and pay $412 a month for catastrophic coverage (I can only get reimbursed when medical costs go over $10,000 a year).
Same here - over $600 per month - self plus wife.
BUT, back to the main theme of this article: How many FReepers pay $1,200 a year for their medical insurance? Probably some do; likely most do not. I am not complaining about paying for my health care - I voluntarily and happily pay the premium.
I’m paying almost $500.00 a MONTH, with a $3000.00 yearly deductable and 20% co-pay.
So, I guess the answer is, no, I do not pay $1,200.00 a year.
Here’s a box of cookies. They aren’t yours, you aren’t supposed to eat them, you know it’s wrong...
But until someone takes the box away, you are going to keep going back for more.
Oh...I understand completely.
Ha!!
Bob Ireland is going to save Rush Limbaugh!!
BAAAWWAAA!!!!
Just read THAT!
Are you kidding me, Bob???
I've paid at least $5k a year for medical insurance forever!!
I predict “Bob” will not respond.
The problem is that you stirred up a hornet's nest by implying that your payments cover the costs. In fact, they do not, which is why the system is bankrupting the country.
Rush is right to a degree. Once the benefits received exceed your total contributions, you are essentially getting the services for free.
You seem intent on endearing yourself to your fellow FReepers.....
I haven't heard him use the word 'leeches'; I have heard him periodically say that recipients get the service 'for free' and somewhat indignantly implying we are ungrateful for the largess. As I have said repeatedly on this thread: I do not mind if they cancel Medicare...
Despite many folk being incapable of reading this post, I have signed my Medicare benefits over to a private insurance company because if a private insurance company cannot make insurance pay, they will go out of business. Since too many FReepers are incapable of reading, they have totally missed this critical point.
I hold no brief against Rush... I simply cannot understand why he continues this misunderstanding. If I misunderstood yesterday's Rush program then the fault is mine on this occasion. Still, I HAVE heard Rush say that Medicare is 'free' to its recipients.
Intellectual honesty on the part of those who insist on “getting Medicare because they paid for it” would reject Part D coverage if they retired before the program was implemented. (Otherwide they’re getting something for nothing). If Rush’s supposed statement was limited to Part D, then he was exactly correct as it relates to long time retirees.
This doesn’t even touch on the issue of cost shifting. A significant portion of a working person’s monthly premium goes to making up for Medicare’s substantial underpayments. So, workers are paying an additional hidden Medicare subsidy.
The fact that he paid taxes during his working years in no way justifies taxing current working people. Many young people are working hard, trying to save enough to buy their first house and start a family. That becomes a lot more difficult if they are losing 15% of your income right off the top to Medicare and Social Security taxes.
I set the point of this thread when I posted, not you.
Boy! Have you nailed it!!!
You are obviously getting subsidized health care, yet you bitch about how much you pay and about people who point out that you are getting a huge assist.
Think about it. I paid MORE for Medicare that you do, the difference being that you get coverage and all I get is a bill.
I wish I could feel your pain, but my pain is so much greater that it makes yours seem like a scratch.
Actually, you do not get it at all. I think Rush is wrong for calling Medicare a free program to its recipients.
Note that I said that I have signed my Medicare benefits over to a private insurance company... the govt has no more about my medical than a small file folder [sort of.] If that insurance company looses money they will drop out... Instead, I think the govt is going to force them out of the program next year... we will see.
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