In the past kamala Harris has expressed support for Medicare for All. I don't know if shewill come out for Medicare for All this time around; but as a start she could come out for elimination of the "medigap," the 20% that medicare fails to pay. This forces seniors on Medicare to either buy a medigap policy (about $200 per month) or sign on to an inferior private Medicare Advantage plan; otherwise they risk bankruptcy after a major illness. This I believe would be extremely popular with seniors (and very unpopular with private insurance companies that sell Medicare Advantage Plans and Medigap policies.)
These plans should not be able to have Medicare in their name. It is deceptive advertising that takes advantage of the less sophisticated customer.
And the gang of 5 ( the Aetna/Blue Criss/Cigna/Humana and United) that have taken advantage of our Medicare fund by up coding, should be spanked hard. Fraud. It’s fraud. They upcode but they don’t treat the patient. It’s criminal.
Lina Khan at the FTC is trying to break them up.
So We have another reason to hope for a blue tsunami in Roevember, to break up those f*ckers’ vertically consolidated asses and get a real system, with restraints on usurious profit margins. They’ve got us by the shorthairs but it’s totally feasible to change our system, and it’s the will of the people. We the people 🇺🇸♥️👊🏼
Things are about to get even worse in the Medicare Advantage world. Our supreme court in its wisdom has just decreed that all regulations and rules enacted by our government agencies to implement the broader laws that congress passes, will now be the exclusive purview of the courts! This means that the sticky and comprehensive rules guiding implementation of the congressional acts that created Medicare/ Medicare Advantage will no longer be written and enforced by government agencies that are subject matter experts, but rather will be left to the courts to decide what is good, what is bad, what is deliverable and what is not. It's the same as asking your lawyer (or better yet - hairdresser) whether you should go ahead with that heart surgery your doctor recommended.
In the future if you have a problem with health care, its providers, or its delivery, your only recourse will be to ask a judge to apply his/her medical knowledge and expertise to remedy it. And if anyone thinks that Big Medicine or Big Insurance will not do whatever is necessary to bury such judge in mountains of paper and technical BS to win their points, I have bridge I'd like to sell them. Health care delivery just got magnitudes harder.
Require that there should be no wage limit on contributing to Medicare out of your income. Make the upper class earners pay more, so that the 20% gap would be eliminated. This gap coverage only enriches the rich, but it makes these health insurance companies make billions in profit off of Medicare.
Bernie is correct! Make health insurance for everyone! Take the profit out of health insurance.
I’ve been on disability for two years now, and so I have to switch from Medicaid to Medicare. Medicare has deductibles, copays, fewer providers, and drug coverage is not included unless you go through a big name insurance provider. It doesn’t cover dental, hearing, or vision. I’m having to stop my therapy program prematurely and find another therapist, which is proving to be very difficult. I’m in the process of getting a Medicare advantage plan so that I can get help with everything that normal Medicare doesn’t cover. My Medicare savings plan (which is funded and handled through Medicaid) is not covering everything it could. This is not because my disability payments—my only source of income—are going up. I almost feel like the government is punishing me for having a permanent disability. Medicare does not cover much. My disability means that I am on seven medications, weekly therapy, monthly psychiatrist appointments, frequent blood, CT scans, and ultrasounds on my liver, etc. And few are actually covered. Medicare advantage plans are made necessary. I really don’t know what I’m doing or how any of this works.
I’m not defending the profits of managed care companies, but I would like to point out the hypocrisy of the critique given by this medical provider group.
I do take exception to groups such as PNHP, and Dr. Singh complaining about “how much money you’re paying to Medicare every two weeks” is hypocritical. The Medicare tax is 2.9% (for W2 employees split between employee and employer) up to the first $168,600 in income. Between $168,600 and $200,000, that person pays ZERO in Medicare taxes. The Medicare tax of only .9% resumes for incomes above $200,000.
I would guess that as a practicing gynecologic oncologist, Dr. Singh is probably making around $500,000 a year. On a percentage wise basis, she is paying less in Medicare taxes than 99% of Americans.
As a wealthier individual, her lifespan will probably be higher than middle- and lower-class Americans so she will be using Medicare more. The question truly “who is stealing from whom”? Lower income citizens may not even reach the age of 65 to benefit from paying into the system.
If you want to take about Medicare reforms, perhaps increase the tax contributions for those who will use the system more.
So wrong. 1. There is no gap in income for Mcare tax . 2. The .9% is in addition to the 2.9%.
Will some specialists make less under SP? Probably. Primary Care, Mental Health and other underfunded practitioners will probably make more. All will be greatly relieved of unnecessary administration and moral injury.
Will improved equity contribute to quality of life and longevity? Youbetchya!
*Health insurance profits can only exist with corporate welfare.
*This taxpayer corporate welfare must go to health providers and communities for the greatest good.
*For the reference to those that use the system, insurance companies created premiums, deductibles, denials of providers orders and copayments that equal more profits for health insurance companies; with bankruptcy and pain for patients.
Read PNHP Ed Weisbart article "To Win ‘Medicare for All,’ First Reclaim Medicare From Profiteers"
(https://default.salsalabs.org/T3151e024-fff7-4d2a-b474-0d4f5a507891/ae7199e6-a9cd-4638-bbad-d6a0505c3349) July 30 in Common Dreams. Time to abolish Medicare Advantage & its fraud & redtape "Medigap A-N". The billions of taxpayer $$ save annually could allow basic Medicare to give hearing, vision, dental, prescriptions (no networks, no ads, no robocalls, no middlemen delaying/denying care). One plastic card with chip for life at age 65: no more each year "select the plan that's right for you". This 20+ year failed experiment deserves a RICO investigation by the FBI: see Chapter 39 of book "Demand Universal Healthcare (DUH)!". ("deprivation of the right of citizens to the honest services of their elected officials"). ABOLISH (not FIX) Medicare Advantage & Medigap. Join the PNHP choir!
In the past kamala Harris has expressed support for Medicare for All. I don't know if shewill come out for Medicare for All this time around; but as a start she could come out for elimination of the "medigap," the 20% that medicare fails to pay. This forces seniors on Medicare to either buy a medigap policy (about $200 per month) or sign on to an inferior private Medicare Advantage plan; otherwise they risk bankruptcy after a major illness. This I believe would be extremely popular with seniors (and very unpopular with private insurance companies that sell Medicare Advantage Plans and Medigap policies.)
These plans should not be able to have Medicare in their name. It is deceptive advertising that takes advantage of the less sophisticated customer.
And the gang of 5 ( the Aetna/Blue Criss/Cigna/Humana and United) that have taken advantage of our Medicare fund by up coding, should be spanked hard. Fraud. It’s fraud. They upcode but they don’t treat the patient. It’s criminal.
Lina Khan at the FTC is trying to break them up.
So We have another reason to hope for a blue tsunami in Roevember, to break up those f*ckers’ vertically consolidated asses and get a real system, with restraints on usurious profit margins. They’ve got us by the shorthairs but it’s totally feasible to change our system, and it’s the will of the people. We the people 🇺🇸♥️👊🏼
Things are about to get even worse in the Medicare Advantage world. Our supreme court in its wisdom has just decreed that all regulations and rules enacted by our government agencies to implement the broader laws that congress passes, will now be the exclusive purview of the courts! This means that the sticky and comprehensive rules guiding implementation of the congressional acts that created Medicare/ Medicare Advantage will no longer be written and enforced by government agencies that are subject matter experts, but rather will be left to the courts to decide what is good, what is bad, what is deliverable and what is not. It's the same as asking your lawyer (or better yet - hairdresser) whether you should go ahead with that heart surgery your doctor recommended.
In the future if you have a problem with health care, its providers, or its delivery, your only recourse will be to ask a judge to apply his/her medical knowledge and expertise to remedy it. And if anyone thinks that Big Medicine or Big Insurance will not do whatever is necessary to bury such judge in mountains of paper and technical BS to win their points, I have bridge I'd like to sell them. Health care delivery just got magnitudes harder.
Thank you for your excellent post
Require that there should be no wage limit on contributing to Medicare out of your income. Make the upper class earners pay more, so that the 20% gap would be eliminated. This gap coverage only enriches the rich, but it makes these health insurance companies make billions in profit off of Medicare.
Bernie is correct! Make health insurance for everyone! Take the profit out of health insurance.
How can I obtain the video for replay in our local area?
Patty Harvey,
Co-chair, HCA/PNHP-Humboldt
healthcareforallhumboldt@gmail.com
I’ve been on disability for two years now, and so I have to switch from Medicaid to Medicare. Medicare has deductibles, copays, fewer providers, and drug coverage is not included unless you go through a big name insurance provider. It doesn’t cover dental, hearing, or vision. I’m having to stop my therapy program prematurely and find another therapist, which is proving to be very difficult. I’m in the process of getting a Medicare advantage plan so that I can get help with everything that normal Medicare doesn’t cover. My Medicare savings plan (which is funded and handled through Medicaid) is not covering everything it could. This is not because my disability payments—my only source of income—are going up. I almost feel like the government is punishing me for having a permanent disability. Medicare does not cover much. My disability means that I am on seven medications, weekly therapy, monthly psychiatrist appointments, frequent blood, CT scans, and ultrasounds on my liver, etc. And few are actually covered. Medicare advantage plans are made necessary. I really don’t know what I’m doing or how any of this works.
Couldn’t agree more. Thank you. It's more than a scam-- It’s a criminal enterprise!
I’m not defending the profits of managed care companies, but I would like to point out the hypocrisy of the critique given by this medical provider group.
I do take exception to groups such as PNHP, and Dr. Singh complaining about “how much money you’re paying to Medicare every two weeks” is hypocritical. The Medicare tax is 2.9% (for W2 employees split between employee and employer) up to the first $168,600 in income. Between $168,600 and $200,000, that person pays ZERO in Medicare taxes. The Medicare tax of only .9% resumes for incomes above $200,000.
I would guess that as a practicing gynecologic oncologist, Dr. Singh is probably making around $500,000 a year. On a percentage wise basis, she is paying less in Medicare taxes than 99% of Americans.
As a wealthier individual, her lifespan will probably be higher than middle- and lower-class Americans so she will be using Medicare more. The question truly “who is stealing from whom”? Lower income citizens may not even reach the age of 65 to benefit from paying into the system.
If you want to take about Medicare reforms, perhaps increase the tax contributions for those who will use the system more.
So wrong. 1. There is no gap in income for Mcare tax . 2. The .9% is in addition to the 2.9%.
Will some specialists make less under SP? Probably. Primary Care, Mental Health and other underfunded practitioners will probably make more. All will be greatly relieved of unnecessary administration and moral injury.
Will improved equity contribute to quality of life and longevity? Youbetchya!
*Health insurance profits can only exist with corporate welfare.
*This taxpayer corporate welfare must go to health providers and communities for the greatest good.
*For the reference to those that use the system, insurance companies created premiums, deductibles, denials of providers orders and copayments that equal more profits for health insurance companies; with bankruptcy and pain for patients.
Read PNHP Ed Weisbart article "To Win ‘Medicare for All,’ First Reclaim Medicare From Profiteers"
(https://default.salsalabs.org/T3151e024-fff7-4d2a-b474-0d4f5a507891/ae7199e6-a9cd-4638-bbad-d6a0505c3349) July 30 in Common Dreams. Time to abolish Medicare Advantage & its fraud & redtape "Medigap A-N". The billions of taxpayer $$ save annually could allow basic Medicare to give hearing, vision, dental, prescriptions (no networks, no ads, no robocalls, no middlemen delaying/denying care). One plastic card with chip for life at age 65: no more each year "select the plan that's right for you". This 20+ year failed experiment deserves a RICO investigation by the FBI: see Chapter 39 of book "Demand Universal Healthcare (DUH)!". ("deprivation of the right of citizens to the honest services of their elected officials"). ABOLISH (not FIX) Medicare Advantage & Medigap. Join the PNHP choir!