Medicare Supplements
Medicare now provides supplements to choose from so you can choose the one which fits your needs. What this means is that it provides different supplements to choose from depending on which ones you can afford. Some people have their own supplemental insurance or have insurance from their employer or former employer. The costs of the Medicare supplements vary depending on the coverage chosen. Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people over 65 or those who are disabled and can not work. If you are on Medicare, it will pay for part, but not all, of your medical needs. Medicare supplemental insurance is designed to fill in what the Medicare does not pay for. There are 12 standardized Medicare supplement insurance plans and people were given a chance to decide which one they wanted and sign up for them before May 15, 2006. These plans are labeled from A-L. Each plan offers different benefits with four of them offering high deductible options. There was a lot of misunderstanding about the new plans and many senior citizens did not sign up for any of them. They did not understand them so they didn’t bother signing up with any. They were given the ultimatum to sign up before the designated date and they felt that they were being forced to do something that would make their insurance worse. They were frieghtened so they refused to sign up for any of them. Sometimes the government does not know how to treat people and they can act like bullies and it scares people. These people felt like they were being threatened. So they shyed away. Now they may not have as much coverage as they need. Many people could not afford the extra coverage because they are just barely making their medicare premiums. The medicare costs have gone up nearly every year and usually more than the cost of living amount that is added to the Social Security checks. Many seniors feel doomed and hopeless because they barely have enough to live on. They can not afford their medications they need and groceries too or utilities so they sometimes end up giving up something they really need. But what other options do they have.
It has been said that in Canada all medical bills are paid for every citizen. It would be a good idea if the US government would check into this and see how they do it. It looks like with the amount of taxes everyone pays that the IS government could afford to do that too. Also they could stop the high cost of medications, hospital fees, and doctors charges. Why does it cost $50 for a doctor to check your blood pressure and write out a prescription? Something needs to be done with the outrageous charges everyone are getting.
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