To me, your complaints are example of complaining just to complain. Why? Because Medicare was never designed to cover everything. If it did, the cost to beneficiaries would have to go up, too, wouldn't it?
I'm not complaining, let alone just to complain. I'm trying to point out the shortfall in Medicare to those who seem to think it or something like it for everyone would be just lovely. I'm operating in the abstract with my systems hat on, not as an enrollee. The only complaint I have made here about Medicare is that you can't avoid being affected by it. That's a major complaint. I think that's flat wrong. And that I have to go to an inconvenient hospital for my colonoscopy. That's a minor complaint that I only made in passing while discussing the cost inefficiency of it. Medicare's shortfall doesn't really impact me much since I have other resources so there's little to complain about. In the abstract, though, I find its quirks fascinating.
It leaves people 'free' to choose from any one of a number of private plans to cover the other 20%, plus a few extras. Or they are 'free' to not get a supplement at all.....just pay the 20% out of pocket. I thought you believed there should be choice, and not a cookie cutter insurance world?<?i>
We're talking about two different things. As I posted to Cogito, I don't consider a fixed package of benefits where all you get to "choose" is the size of your co-insurance percentage to be choice. Choice would require different sets of benefits and different cost structures.
And, for the record, I wouldn't want Medicare to offer that choice. You get choice from the market. From government you get a standard package. That's as it should be. And that's why I prefer a market solution for most of the population.
Would you prefer that Medicare cover everything under the sun from backscratching to hangnails.....and pay through the nose for this coverage whether we want them or not?
I never said or suggested that I wanted Medicare to cover everything or anything. I'm just trying to point out that it is somewhat arbitrary in what it covers, that it rations, and that it's one size fits all. That's for the benefit of those who apparently haven't recognized that. There must be a big sale everywhere on rose-colored glasses.
Had I expressed a preference re Medicare coverage it would have been that it cover less rather than more. |
