I feel badly for the people who sit in cubicles and crunch numbers, coming up with ways to get more money out of people who can't afford it. (Wading through health insurance plans, which I am currently doing, is the perfect example, with co-pays, deductibles, out-of-pocket, cost-sharing.)
I feel badly for the people who sit in cubicles and crunch numbers, coming up with ways to get more money out of people who can't afford it. (Wading through health insurance plans, which I am currently doing, is the perfect example, with co-pays, deductibles, out-of-pocket, cost-sharing.)
I worked in life and health insurance for 10 years from paying claims to the marketing office. I left and returned to college for my computer science degree about a year after HMO’s hit the markets. It was a nightmare just to put together packages for these plans and horrifying to see how a number cruncher was suddenly the person deciding how many days you could stay in a hospital after a heart attack or surgery.
I’m thankful for the experience because it has helped me pick plans and get claims processed over the last 40 years but I do go crazy trying to pick a medicare plan based on who I can see or what drugs they will pay for. Our senior citizens should never have to sort this out and certainly not because the plan they’re on changes every year.
Medicare was created by Congress by mostly old men who have free lifetime healthcare insurance, which includes dental, vision, hearing, and my guess mental. Those old coots didn't bother to include dental, vision, and hearing coverage in Medicare, which was f*#king stupid, since when we grow older, those three things are important.
Medicare began with Part A and Part B, but it didn't include drug coverage. Ah, but good old Congress has allowed private insurance companies and drug companies (Big Pharma) to get their dirty hands into the pile. Supplemental private insurances and Advantage private insurances are not part of Medicare, and they should not be allowed to call themselves Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplemental.
Furthermore, the drug part of Medicare, which is called "Part D", is not public. It is all run by Big Pharma companies.
Lastly, if you have Medicare and receive the annual big Medicare booklet, over half of the damned thing is used by the private companies that supply Advantage, Supplemental, and drugs.
We need true Medicare for all that gives us seniors all insurance needs, not those private companies that are making billions of bucks that keep us poor. President Biden, when he was campaigning for the presidency told up he did not want single payer health insurance, but that he would consider a public option. You know what a public option is, don't you? That's right, that would allow more those who can't really afford those private plans to choose between what is call "Original Medicare" and those private plans. Biden is crazy, especially since he is another old man who used to be in Congress.
I directly asked Biden - via video - about the obvious need for single payer healthcare with the pandemic hitting & people losing jobs. (This was on an MSNBC Town Hall in May of 2020, with Lawrence O'Donnell and Stacey Abrams) Got the run around answer I expected. I'm one of those socialists who believes that healthcare for profit is a crime! And I"m about to face the Medicare Maze.....appreciate this comment!
Yes, my first insurance job was to pay Medicare supplement claims for the Retired Officers Association. I handled customer service calls from these white, old jerks. They were extremely rude and entitled and I would frequently have to ask them to call me back when they calmed down.
I moved on even doing a stint paying gun loss claims to NRA members, then cancer claims on their supplemental policies. I was a nurse on a cancer ward previously and spent a year of my time in cancer claims getting the insurance companies to finally pay for reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy. It was hard work compiling data and looking at devastating pictures in medical records.
I moved on to marketing offices when we relocated.
Congress makes there decisions based on lobbyists and Biden is no exception. He spent too many years in the Senate to be naive about how it works. He dropped the ball on voting rights.
Congress needs to be on the same Medicare coverage as their constituents.
Exactly - I’m 66 with rotting teeth, blind as a bat, and don’t sit to my right - I won’t be able to hear a damn thing you are saying. Yes, pretty f-ing stupid. The mind reels!
I despair on this topic. No politician would ever be able to outmaneuver the insurance industry. Your blood must boil when you hear Repubs pontificating on the commitment to “Choice” (a.k.a. commitment to the wealthier class’ ability to retain real/boutique options; to the hands off continuation of the Insurance, Medical & Big Pharma Industries life blood) and the rest of the population finding themselves “gifted” w “affordable” plans, ie. “you’re on your own, buddy”. (and boy, is buddy in for a surprise at the end of the road. It always seems to me that talking about the way things “should be” in healthcare, misses point: the power of these behemoths will never let it happen….IMHO…..
I feel badly for the people who sit in cubicles and crunch numbers, coming up with ways to get more money out of people who can't afford it. (Wading through health insurance plans, which I am currently doing, is the perfect example, with co-pays, deductibles, out-of-pocket, cost-sharing.)
I worked in life and health insurance for 10 years from paying claims to the marketing office. I left and returned to college for my computer science degree about a year after HMO’s hit the markets. It was a nightmare just to put together packages for these plans and horrifying to see how a number cruncher was suddenly the person deciding how many days you could stay in a hospital after a heart attack or surgery.
I’m thankful for the experience because it has helped me pick plans and get claims processed over the last 40 years but I do go crazy trying to pick a medicare plan based on who I can see or what drugs they will pay for. Our senior citizens should never have to sort this out and certainly not because the plan they’re on changes every year.
Medicare was created by Congress by mostly old men who have free lifetime healthcare insurance, which includes dental, vision, hearing, and my guess mental. Those old coots didn't bother to include dental, vision, and hearing coverage in Medicare, which was f*#king stupid, since when we grow older, those three things are important.
Medicare began with Part A and Part B, but it didn't include drug coverage. Ah, but good old Congress has allowed private insurance companies and drug companies (Big Pharma) to get their dirty hands into the pile. Supplemental private insurances and Advantage private insurances are not part of Medicare, and they should not be allowed to call themselves Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplemental.
Furthermore, the drug part of Medicare, which is called "Part D", is not public. It is all run by Big Pharma companies.
Lastly, if you have Medicare and receive the annual big Medicare booklet, over half of the damned thing is used by the private companies that supply Advantage, Supplemental, and drugs.
We need true Medicare for all that gives us seniors all insurance needs, not those private companies that are making billions of bucks that keep us poor. President Biden, when he was campaigning for the presidency told up he did not want single payer health insurance, but that he would consider a public option. You know what a public option is, don't you? That's right, that would allow more those who can't really afford those private plans to choose between what is call "Original Medicare" and those private plans. Biden is crazy, especially since he is another old man who used to be in Congress.
I directly asked Biden - via video - about the obvious need for single payer healthcare with the pandemic hitting & people losing jobs. (This was on an MSNBC Town Hall in May of 2020, with Lawrence O'Donnell and Stacey Abrams) Got the run around answer I expected. I'm one of those socialists who believes that healthcare for profit is a crime! And I"m about to face the Medicare Maze.....appreciate this comment!
Yes, my first insurance job was to pay Medicare supplement claims for the Retired Officers Association. I handled customer service calls from these white, old jerks. They were extremely rude and entitled and I would frequently have to ask them to call me back when they calmed down.
I moved on even doing a stint paying gun loss claims to NRA members, then cancer claims on their supplemental policies. I was a nurse on a cancer ward previously and spent a year of my time in cancer claims getting the insurance companies to finally pay for reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy. It was hard work compiling data and looking at devastating pictures in medical records.
I moved on to marketing offices when we relocated.
Congress makes there decisions based on lobbyists and Biden is no exception. He spent too many years in the Senate to be naive about how it works. He dropped the ball on voting rights.
Congress needs to be on the same Medicare coverage as their constituents.
Biden lives in the past.
Exactly - I’m 66 with rotting teeth, blind as a bat, and don’t sit to my right - I won’t be able to hear a damn thing you are saying. Yes, pretty f-ing stupid. The mind reels!
K Barnes
I despair on this topic. No politician would ever be able to outmaneuver the insurance industry. Your blood must boil when you hear Repubs pontificating on the commitment to “Choice” (a.k.a. commitment to the wealthier class’ ability to retain real/boutique options; to the hands off continuation of the Insurance, Medical & Big Pharma Industries life blood) and the rest of the population finding themselves “gifted” w “affordable” plans, ie. “you’re on your own, buddy”. (and boy, is buddy in for a surprise at the end of the road. It always seems to me that talking about the way things “should be” in healthcare, misses point: the power of these behemoths will never let it happen….IMHO…..
If we had single payer healthcare in this country, those jobs would be fare easier and we could all be healthier.
“Managed care” has created a monster.