Medicare for All? Not Really

by: diannah

Fri Sep 04, 2009 at 10:18:21 AM PDT

I'm sure the insurance companies are tickled pink to hear that.  That means that if you still want complete coverage you still need insurance!

Now don't get me wrong, I am for a Public Option! and I'm More For Single-Payer.  But I'll take what I can get this round.  I can't be choosy.  But using the slogan Medicare for all is a real misleading statement.

And then there is Part D coverage for her Pharmaceuticals, her prescriptions, her drugs for things like Glaucoma.  After searching and searching for a cheap option for her Part D coverage she finally found one for $40 a month.  She really scrambled for that one(the one she had before had gone up to over $120 a month.) And it doesn't even cover all the drugs she has to take. Fortunately, she doesn't take that many.  And it isn't like $5 a prescription, it's a lot more depending on the drugs.  
So now we're at:

$10,188 - $4,200 - $480 = $5,508

So here we have a 82 year old woman trying make $5,508 work like $15,040 and stay independent.  She's on Social Security!  She shouldn't have to pay a dime.

When ever I talk about a Public Option I'm thinking, "ok they'll tax me maybe on a sliding scale against my income. Someone making under $20,000 wouldn't pay anything.  And it would be a gradual increase until it leveled out at $200 a month.  Maybe by the time the person was making $60k it would be $200, something like that.  

So, I really get my back up when people throw this Medicare for All" slogan around.
      THAT'S NOT WHAT WE WANT.  
We want reasonable costing HEALTH CARE FOR ALL.  We want a reasonable fee'd plan.  With everybody chipping in the rates sould go down.  With government regulation prices would be fixed at the hospitals.  Right now the cost of medical care is through the roof. We want something we can live with.

Personally, I would really like Single-Payer. But I'll take a decent public option.  I would like the option of NOT getting my coverage from a For Profit Insurance Company.
I don't want to be a "Victim of the Bottom Line."