Ok...how many here are ALREADY on government health care?

[Archae]

I am.
Medical Assistance, through my SSI disability.

Do I have any horror stories? No.
In fact last fall I had heart bypass surgery with no trouble.

BUT...

Yes, I do have hoops to jump through.
Approved doctors, and medical centers.

This year, with no warning at all, one of my medications was abruptly and with no warning cut off.
Fortunately, it's not expensive, a month's supply is $30 and I can afford that.
But one month they paid for it, next, they didn't.

Many other medications are approved, others not, and the approval seems to be a roll-of-the-dice thing.

[babylonsister]

1. We are. Tricare/retired military. And I have all the BUTS you have

but am very grateful we qualify for it.

[timeforpeace]

13. You are so very fortunate, that's a great plan.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Yup; Medicare; I'm happy so far!

[bkkyosemite]

3. Medicare here. But their Medicare D does not cover my meds I am insured thru IBM retiree program of

my husband's...but then again I'm sure they will try to get rid of us they tried last year by tricking many retirees.

[sandnsea]

4. Subsidized Insurance

I have no horror stories with the insurance company yet. My local clinic otoh, can be tiresome.

My husband has been referred to a pain clinic. I think the first of our real "hoops" is going to begin.

I've been on Medicaid in the past, would take that any day of the week over any private insurance I've ever been on, and there have been several over the years.

[havocmom]

5. Blue Cross/Blue Sheild Fed Program for Fed Workers in my state

Same problems, but at least they can't ignore pre-existing conditions. Costs enough but glad we don't have to pay the whole thing ourselves, employer (Federal agency) picks up about half.

[gleaner]

6. Medicare......

which came with disability retirement from a federal job, and my husband's federal employee plan which he kept after his retirement from a federal job.

I don't use the medicare prescription plan that Bush hit us with. It is a joke and very expensive. Other than that the medicare works very well. I use a fee for service plan through them. My husband carries me as a dependent on his insurance which is provided by a private company under contract to the Office of Personnel Management for federal workers. They are a pain in the butt. I get my prescriptions through them and they are secondary to medicare so their crap is endurable, but the prescriptions are still too expensive, they still want to tell me what doctors I can see; all the managed care crap. They call themselves fee for service, but they function as a PPO. That means that if you don't go to one of their network doctors you pay through the butt in co payments. They are my husband's sole insurance. By constantly squabbling with them we have managed to keep his care reasonably good, but if I contrast their operations with the government run medicare they come in a poor second.

[Hawkeye-X]

21. When Part D came up for a vote

I was begging (literally) to Salazar to NOT vote for it.

Idiot voted for it anyway.

So thus, I'm refusing to be on Part D. I think Medicare Part D should be free as part of the whole package.

[gleaner]

24. I think you are absolutely right...

Part D is just another Bush sortie on behalf of the big pharmaceutical companies. Medication for beneficiaries should be free, or subject to a nominal co payment of $5 dollars or so like the other services medicare offers.

People should also be allowed to buy medication from Canada or have their state governments do so and then dispense it for nothing to those who need it most.

I'm sorry that your appeals were ignored. My congressman voted against it, thankfully. He sent around questionnaires polling those of us in his district and went with the majority. He does that on a lot of hot button issues. It is a good system.

[bobbolink]

7. It's not safe on DU to question, but since you brought it up.....

Many people on Medicare and Medicaid have a lot of problems finding a dr, because the reimbursement is low, so many doctors won't accept it, or limit the number of patients they will accept. So, how can we be assured this wouldn't be the case with either single-payer or public option?

Second, people who apply for SSI or SSDI are routinely turned down on first application. That doesn't bode well for public health progrtams, either.

????????????????

[Serial Mom]

8. Neither case would apply if we had universal

doctors would all be reimbursed the same and there would be no choice for them either. And I doubt that many would leave the profession.

And if it were universal health care, there would be no application to turn down - there may be a possibility procedures may be turned down, but I would pretty well bet those would be elective and patients would be put on list such as in Canada (which Canadian I know said takes about 3 weeks wait for elective surgery).

[bobbolink]

11. I don't know why it wouldn't apply, It would depend on the reimbursement rate.

And you misunderstand me about the disability turndown. I'm talking about DISABILITY itself, not surgery.

[Serial Mom]

12. If every doctor received the same for every patient for each specific procedure

how could a Doctor turn them down? Why would a doctor turn somebody away if every one in the U. S. (his patients) had the same coverage thru a universal plan?

And I guess I do misunderstand, how/what type of disability would "they" turn down?

[bobbolink]

15. There are already doctors who won't accept ANY insurance---cash only.

I don't know if this would happen more widely if the reimbursement rate was set too low.

Remember, there are many who would want the system to fail, and one good way of doing that, the time honored way, is to underfund it.

How would we insure that didn't ever happen?

[Serial Mom]

19. Many of those doctors (who want only cash) do so because

they don't want to enter into a contract with an insurance company or don't want to file forms.

As I would think how it would work (not sure on this), if there was universal healthcare single payer, they would have to accept the plan or accept only patients who are asking for special, non-covered procedures (the very wealthy, for let's say plastic surgery or similar procedure). Otherwise I think they would "go out of business" because there would not be enough patients that would pay them cash for covered procedures.

[bobbolink]

22. That's one possibility. I really don't know, and given my experience, it niggles at me.

We've all had eno0ugh shit, and deserve to be able to relax and know we have good health care!

[imdjh]

9. I'm not aware of any doctors in Florida who don't accept Medicare. Some prefer it.

One time I said something about he would drop me if I went on Medicare, and he said that it actually pays more than my United PPO plan.

[bobbolink]

10. I know that doctors say that Medicare is easier to bill, BUT, limit patients.

And I can tell you for sure that on MedicAid it is nearly impossible to find a doctor now.

[frazzled]

23. My mother and father have both been on Medicare for a long time

They are soon-to-be-93 and 84, respectively, so they have been using the system for quite a while. At their ages, they of course have a number of medical issues, though all in all they are doing extremely well.

They seem to have their choice of the best doctors around their city, and seem to get excellent treatment. My mother has been seeing a top-notch eye specialist for the last few months because of some kind of blood clot in the optic nerve (she is diabetic). About 5 years ago she had breast cancer surgery and radiation. Top surgeon and specialists. My father broke his hip around the same time, riding his bicycle and hitting a curb: he had surgery to put pins in his leg and a full week of rehab, plus in-home physical therapist who came for several weeks to supervise his exercises. I could list many many more things for which they have had Medicare coverage for their ailments (cataract surgery, diabetes treatment, urinary tract infections, etc. etc.).

They seem happy with everything except for that they hit the donut hole in the Medicare Part D, and sometimes the doctor will prescribe a drug that Medicare doesn't cover. It is usually possible for them to switch prescriptions, however. My father gets some of his prescriptions free or at very little cost from the VA hospital, and although it's a slog to go there and wait (and it depresses him seeing the young fellows so messed up), what else does he have to do with his time? Plus, it makes him proud to be a veteran.

All in all from their experience (and my mother-in-law's, who passed away at 95 last year), I can't wait to apply for Medicare.

[bobbolink]

27. Have they had the same primary care dr all that time?

The problem seems to be for first-time patients.

Some drs, and MOST Medicaid doctors, say "No new Medicare (or Medicaid) patients taken at this time."

And once you have a good primary care doctor, any specialist is available.

That is the sticking point... looking for that first doctor.

Seems that many aren't having a problem with Medicare (although I don't know how many are really new to the system---that makes a difference).

The problem could be more with Medicaid, which I KNow is a big problem.

[frazzled]

28. Their original doctor passed away, but they like the new one pretty well

Though they say, "he's no Doctor X." It's hard when you outlive your doctor!

As far as Medicaid goes, I don't have a huge experience with it. When we had my husband's mother in a nursing home (excellent experience) the last 3 years of her life, it depleted all her funds, so for the last six months or so, she switched to Medicaid. It paid fully for this very nice nursing home facility, and several hospital stays.

My one complaint about it perhaps (I say perhaps, because I can't be sure), is that I felt almost at the end as if they were giving her TOO much medical care. Thus for example, in her last few weeks of life she had to be hospitalized for an infection. We tried very hard to spring her from the hospital, because it was not a good experience and because there didn't seem to be much they could do aside from administering the IV antibiotic. The nursing home staff offered to administer the drip, but they wouldn't release her. We wanted her in a familiar, loving environment. One day in the hospital, they came to tell me they had to take her for an electrocardiogram. She was terrified, and I asked to come with. It was a long procedure, and I'm sure fairly costly. Afterward I thought, "Why did they do that? There is a DNR on her. If something were wrong with her heart, they were not to do anything anyway." I began to wonder if they were just totting up Medicaid charges.

Well, I'll always wonder. But I'll also always feel we should have tried harder to get her back into her "home" more quickly and into hospice care.

[asjr]

14. I am on Medicare but the Medicare Part D

for prescriptions sucks.

[lumberjack_jeff]

16. My kids are.

their coverage is vastly superior to either mom or dad.

[jwirr]

17. I am on Medicaid & Medicare that pay for my care through Medica

an insurance program. My daughter is on the same but through Blue Cross. Here in MN what used to be covered straight through Medicare and Medicaid is now contracted out to insurance companies. The insurance premiums are paid by the government. I cannot say that we have not had good care either way. I did have to fight my daughters company for some of her meds and some equipment. However if this would continue we would survive. I would rather go back to straight MA and Medicaid though.

[rurallib]

18. Mrs. lib is om Medicare. Sh gets GREAT treatment!

I have a private plan and it is shit. So I got probems that I hope can hold off for 5 years.

[Hawkeye-X]

20. Medicare, but my wife and son are on BC/BS

Because Medicare has a 2 year wait. I was very fortunate to get on it before they changed their policies.

[stevedeshazer]

25. No one is. Outside the military and the VA, there are no government docs or nurses.

Only government payments through Medicare and Medicais and SSI.

[Naturyl]

26. Medicaid. Haven't had any real problems yet.

My wife has no coverage and relies on free clinics. They have a way of dropping her drugs.

[bobbolink]

29. You were able to find a dr who would take it with no problems?

[Naturyl]

30. Yes and no.

When I needed a general practitioner, I hit the phone book and found one without much fuss.

However, for a different problem, there is only one agency in town that will take Medicaid. At least I'm getting services, though.

I could complain, but I won't. There are tens of millions who have nothing.

[bobbolink]

31. I'm glad you found one without "fuss". Maybe it's just Colorado....

we're given a list, and most of them say "no"

I hope your other issue is resolved quickly and easily!