They didn’t even know what they were dealing with until he had been in the hospital for a week.
Though I supposed they could have just said, he’s 81 so we aren’t even going to try.
When you buy home owners insurance you only pay a fraction of what it will cost the insurance company if your house burns down. But not everybody’s house is going to burn down.
Same thing with Medical care. Sure he probably got out more than he paid in. But my Mom didn’t get out more than she paid in. Because she died fairly quickly.
That’s the way insurance works. Most people are going to pay it and never get anything back. Some people are going to hit the jackpot...if you can call it that.
Insurance works when you cover the costs. They would need to quadruple Medicare premiums and payroll tax to have the average person remotely come close to paying for their Medicare. The only reason it stayed afloat as long as it did without deficits was the no income cap - someone with a 30m/yr salary was contributing was contributing $870k/yr with employer match.