Why Ryan might be right about Medicare

pineinthegrass wrote: Disclaimer: No personal info is requested nor is necessary. No reply requested either since I wasn't talking about premiums anyway.

Yes you were talking about premiums

pineinthegrass wrote: many say the competition between the insurance companies have driven down premiums.

So yeah, I replied, even if you didn't want anyone to.

archer wrote:

pineinthegrass wrote: Disclaimer: No personal info is requested nor is necessary. No reply requested either since I wasn't talking about premiums anyway.

Yes you were talking about premiums

pineinthegrass wrote: many say the competition between the insurance companies have driven down premiums.

So yeah, I replied, even if you didn't want anyone to.

I was referring to my main point in the first sentence of my post:

Medicare part D also uses subsidies (or is vouchers more correct?) to select from private plans and its cost has been far less than origionally projected as well.

I was talking about the cost to the government. As I said, sorry if I wasn't clear enough.

I did mention lower premiums too and now see that is what you replied to. As I mentioned in my last post in reply to you, I think Part D premiums have been lower than projected so far which is what I was talking about.

I can look it up again if it's important. That is my recollection.

So far as I know, Part D does save people a lot of money on average. I'm sure there are exceptions. I don't use my health insurance at rare times because it's cheaper to pay for it myself, particularly for a generic prescription. But in general health insurance, like Medicare, saves people a lot of money when they need to use it. But also in general, to state the obvious, health insurance costs more than what people pay into it since they don't usually need to use it, and that's how the insurance companies stay in business. Medicare, not so much. It needs a fix. If Obama wins, hopefully he'll finally tackle it.

Medicare is essential, there is no doubt about that, as is prescription insurance. My problems with the medicare part D is the confusion factor.......here you have a lot of elderly people being presented with a myriad of plans with little rhyme or reason to how they work. Medicare.gov does a good job allowing people to input their current prescriptions and they will calculate which plans in your area would be best for those particular drugs, then oops, your doctor prescribes a different drug and your current plan either doesn't cover it, or the copay is in the highest tier. That happened to me last week, which is why I will change plans as soon as I can. On my current plan the copay for this drug is $90/month, (tier 4), on a different plan it is $28, tier 2......really, they can't standardize this stuff, who wants to have to change plans every year? The insurance companies must have written the language in the bill to allow such discrepancies. And many seniors, like my mom, don't have computers and don't have a clue which plan to choose or how much they will pay for drugs till they get the bill.

Sorry, kind of a rant...it just irked me when I saw how much my latest med was going to cost, no generic, and no substitute for it.

archer wrote: Medicare is essential, there is no doubt about that, as is prescription insurance. My problems with the medicare part D is the confusion factor.......here you have a lot of elderly people being presented with a myriad of plans with little rhyme or reason to how they work. Medicare.gov does a good job allowing people to input their current prescriptions and they will calculate which plans in your area would be best for those particular drugs, then oops, your doctor prescribes a different drug and your current plan either doesn't cover it, or the copay is in the highest tier. That happened to me last week, which is why I will change plans as soon as I can. On my current plan the copay for this drug is $90/month, (tier 4), on a different plan it is $28, tier 2......really, they can't standardize this stuff, who wants to have to change plans every year? The insurance companies must have written the language in the bill to allow such discrepancies. And many seniors, like my mom, don't have computers and don't have a clue which plan to choose or how much they will pay for drugs till they get the bill.

Sorry, kind of a rant...it just irked me when I saw how much my latest med was going to cost, no generic, and no substitute for it.

Agree it takes more effort, but from what I've read it saves a lot of money too. Similar thing with "standard" Medicare in that you have to decide if you want part B, Medigap, or Medicare Advantage (and now Part D). And there are many choices to make with Medigap or Medicare Advantage.

With the ACA, you have similar decisions to make, though with younger people. Not that younger people are any smarter than seniors.

But for those seniors that need help, they do have resources outside the internet like senior centers and other places. No, it's not perfect. But like I mentioned, just signing up for "traditional" Medicare isn't all that simple as well when you consider the choices and the various premiums. Even standard Medicare Part A has different premiums based on income.

edited to add: Part B has different premiums based on income.

FredHayek wrote: Blessed are the children for they shall inherit our debts.

Spare me your crap about "the children"...We both know you don't give a sh*t about "the children." You're much more concerned that a dollar might come out of your money to pay for something for the common good....

Democracy4Sale wrote:

FredHayek wrote: Blessed are the children for they shall inherit our debts.

Spare me your crap about "the children"...We both know you don't give a sh*t about "the children." You're much more concerned that a dollar might come out of your money to pay for something for the common good....

Coming from the woman who thinks Social Security is in fine shape. Typical Dems. Kick the candown the road.

Coming from the guy that we know doesn't give a sh*t "about the children", typical Neo-Con...