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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Katelew who wrote (130499)	2/8/2010 7:48:43 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 542043

Me: And that I have to go to an inconvenient hospital for my colonoscopy. You: Then whip out your checkbook and pay for it yourself. Pay enough and you can have the procedure done in the convenience of your own home. Kate, we already had this discussion. I don't intend a repeat performance. No, I can't whip out my checkbook and have it done anywhere but a hospital. I do not have that choice. It is against the law to perform the procedure on someone of Medicare age outside a hospital. So, I can choose to have it in the hospital, go somewhere even more inconvenient, Costa Rica maybe, to avoid the inconvenience of the hospital, or not have it at all. My home and Dupont Circle aren't options. We aren't forced into Medicare....anyone can opt out. Not really. There are Medicare policies that apply to anyone over 65 regardless. But you complained that Medicare doesn't cover annual physicals, shingles vaccinations, and multiple heart scans. So which is it? Do you want more coverage or less coverage? One more time--that's not a complaint about my coverage. It's an illustration of a public policy point. Personally, as I said before, I am pretty much indifferent to what it covers for me. What it doesn't cover, Blue Cross usually does. And what it doesn't, I do. I got my shingles vaccination and my heart scan, and I don't see the utility of an annual physical. This isn't about me. I don't mean to be ugly, but the nature of your complaints makes me think that you are the one with the rose-colored glasses... I don't mean to be ugly, but you just aren't paying attention. Perhaps my use of personal anecdotes and personal experiences with Medicare to illustrate what are public policy arguments has caused you to think I'm complaining about my coverage and to refuse to believe my protestations to the contrary. Nonetheless, I am not complaining. I am arguing from a public policy perspective that, while Medicare is an OK system for its purpose, it has features that make it an imperfect model for a broader system.