Maybe they're using the models from Medicare and Black Lung to make the case that what applies to seniors and miners could just as well apply to the public at large.
I don't think you hear too many seniors complain about their Medicare. Most have about $100 taken out of their SS benefits (involuntary) and pay around $150 a month for the supplemental insurance giving them full coverage.
The problem with Medicare is the waste and abuse. There are really stupid rules. For instance, for a senior who becomes bedridden, medicare won't pay for the cost of a hospital bed, but it does pay to rent one for approx. $100 a month. If that senior is bedridden for 4 years (as was the case with my dad), Medicare paid $4800 for a bed that would have cost $1000 at the time. It won't pay for the egg-crate pads that prevent bedsores until an actual bedsore appears.
Then there are doctors, like the one who bought my dad's doctor's practice, who never met him, but charged $300 a month for housecalls that he never made. When I caught it 9 months later and confronted him, he insisted he'd been there. He couldn't describe the house, the neighborhood nor which floor he was on. I reported him. |
