No, the Doctor didn't charge us....The "statement/bill" noted what the charge was, and what Medicare paid, and we could see from the Supplement paid, how comparatively little that was.
The amount that the Doctor received was about 1/4 to 1/5 of the entire charge.
What continually surprises me are a couple of things:
--that regular folks 65 y/o and who don't have government insurance, have to take Medicare, because there generally aren't any other alternatives. This appears to be the way things are UNLESS a person is one of the very few who have never had a thing wrong in their entire lives so wouldn't be disqualified from another insurance.
and
--when we bought a Medicare Supplement, we both thought it would help to cover things that Medicare didn't.
Through a play on words, what actually happens is that IF Medicare doesn't ALLOW the charge, Medicare won't pay for it, and the Supplement won't either, BECAUSE Medicare won't allow the charge. Alice in Wonderland stuff.
And evidently, this is happening to people who aren't on Medicare yet as well. The Hospitals are using Medicare rules to bill everyone, as near as I can figure.
One more thing:
IF EVERYONE in the US, including ALL the union workers, and the Government workers, including Adm and Congress, and Senate as well as all State and City, etc workers were made to follow whatever rules the US eventually decides is the way for the US citizens to go, I don't believe we would have a problem.
There would be a large risk pool, and the costs for everyone should come down. |
