[Fredpooll]

A couple of things:

First, an 80-year-old would have regular old Medicare — not “Obamacare.”

Second, I don’t know why the “Congress made itself exempt” story endures, but it’s actually the opposite. As a “poison pill,” Republicans inserted a rule in Obamacare that says that all of Congress has to buy their plans on the Obamacare exchange (unless covered by a spouse’s plan). Obviously, that wasn’t enough of a poison pill, and Obamacare passed. What should be upsetting people is that in the Senate version of the reform bill, they DID put in special Congress-only rules.

[mewzilla]

That’s not all together true. Some seniors are dual eligibles, Medicare and Medicaid. Be interesting to find out how those patients are treated.

[zerosix]

I have an 80 something year old friend who experienced a tear in his rotator cuff on his right arm (he is right-handed so this is debilitating as to his ability to do lots of things he had been doing to car for his home, i. e. mow his yard and run his electric snow blower) and his Medicare doctor told he and his wife that "surgery wasn't warranted 'at his age' and he would just have to 'live with it.'"

They do have his railroad retirement but maybe not insurance by this time.

Simply outrageous but they sold their home and moved into a senior living apartment complexes!