Questions for those on Medicare (or who have experience with it)

[MindandSoul]

8. Your co-payment for each medicare service covered is 20%

My husband has been on medicare for about 8 years, and he has had several major surgeries since then. Medicare pays 80% and you are responsible for the other 20%.

However, we chose to take a Medicare supplemental insurance (many types exist, but we took the "cadillac plan" which covers the COMPLETE 20% that Medicare doesn't cover). These can be (depending on the coverage you choose, quite expensive, but well worth it as the needs increase with age.

Let me give you an example and compare this to an "investment."

My husband pays about $55.00 per month for Medicare for a total over the last 8 years of (about) $5,200.
He is also covered by a supplemental insurance that costs us ABOUT $180.00 per month for a total of $16,000 (approximate).

Over the last 8 years, the cost of his health care (including the 4 surgeries) came to close to $200,000 IF HE HAD NO COVERAGE AT ALL. Because he was covered, and medicare has "special rates" for each services, the cost went down to about $100,000 (I.e., this is a rounded figure to make the calculation easier).

Medicare paid 80% of that which came to $80,000
The private supplemental insurance covered 20% of that which came to $20,000

Now. . .which "investment" do you think would be the smartest?

Investing $5,200 and saving $80,000?
or
Investing $16,000 and saving $20,000?

Now, please note that both are "good investment," but . . .when you look at it that way, you can see WHY Medicare is in trouble (pays too much for too low a fee, for people who, because of aging, will ONLY have greater needs in the future), but we keep on complaining about medicare not "being efficient!"

While we praise private health care industry for being "more efficient" than the government. . .but the only reason they are more efficient is because they charge A LOT MORE for A LOT LESS coverage!

I have always wonder why Medicare doesn't offer an option to reimburse 100% of the cost of care for people over 65 at a cost of (let's say), $100.00 extra dollars per month (for a total of $155.00 per month, you would have 100% of your health care need paid for by Medicare)

This could TRIPLE the entry in Medicare funding, AND would take away the co-payment paid by the elderly for a much smaller pay out.

In the case of my husband, for example, it would look like this:

Over the last 8 years, instead of paying $5,200 to Medicare AND $16,000 to a private insurance (for a total of $21,200)
We would have paid, $13, 200 to Medicare alone.

AND, obviously, Medicare would have paid received $13,200 INSTEAD of $5,200
and would have disbursed $100,000 instead of $80,000

Both party (My husband AND Medicare) would have greatly benefited from that arrangement. . .the only party left out of this "win/win" situation would have been. . . Private health care insurance covering the Medicare supplement!