OLD PEOPLE HAVE TO VOTE
The
old rusty Nail
A JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE
Russell Burton, an Old Person
I am posting this article on the first of October because I
wish to encourage all of us old people to vote.
We must vote to protect what we have paid for like Social Security and
Medicare. And, we must protect the Affordable Health Care Act, sometimes called
Obamacare. I know the word Obamacare is
used by those who do not like it but I think that it is descriptive and honors
the president that finally got a health-care program through congress.
Republicans have never been our friend. Their political platform had a plank in it to
repeal Social Security until the mid 80s.
And, of course now they have plank in it to remove Obamacare.
Now, as a younger person not on Medicare I really did not
think much about it, but I paid by dues so when I was old enough, I got
Medicare A and I bought into Medicare B.
I have not used the drug one because I have other insurance that buys my
drugs. Wow, what a fantastic program I
discovered with Medicare.
Of course, when I was in my late 60s at the start of my
Medicare experience, I was young and healthier than I am now. Looking back on
it, I didn’t use it much until my late 70s when I was approaching old age. Suddenly I required some serious and costly
surgery. Prostate cancer is not your
friend and a chunk of fat-like junk broke loose from someplace and got stuck in
a major artery to my right leg. Surgery
fixed both problems but at pretty steep costs.
For instance, the leg thing cost over $70,000.
My best friend who I loved with all of my heart (he didn’t
like me telling him that because he thought that was gay talk) died a few years
ago. He was several years older than I,
so it would be expected that he would die first. But, of course dying at age 80 is only
average and he was far above average. He
had several heart surgeries that cost Medicare several hundred thousand
dollars. And, he told me, “Russ I could
have never afforded these surgeries nor would my insurance have covered them.
Thank God for Medicare.” But, you know what, he was a Republican!!!!! Oh well…
But, I still loved him.
That shows what an understanding and forgiving guy I really am. Of
course he was a very lovable man. In
fact, he was the kindest most giving person I have ever known. We can’t let politics get in the way of
friendship.
Back to voting, I have nothing against Republicans, many of
my friends are Republicans and they are nice decent good fun loving people who
pay their bills and taxes (of course begrudgingly). And, they all love Medicare. Now, I must admit that many of them are
retired military guys and gals. This
always amazed me that the military people live in a socialized world but
usually vote Republican. Your world in the military, if you make it your
career, is one of government care from cradle to grave.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that they have earned every
bit of it and I salute all of them. But,
why do they not want us civilians to have some of the same benefits that we are
willing to pay for?
Of course, the Republican’s worn-out argument is that
Medicare is going broke. How
interesting, that Medicare started under LBJ has survived for over 50 years and
still not broke. I admit that as people grow older, remember when it started
life expectancy was late 60s so people were on it for fewer years than they are
now. But, there are ways of fixing it
without turning it into a voucher program that will cost old people an average
of $6,000 each and every year that they live. Now, that is average telling us
that many people will pay far more than that.
In fact, some will have to pay many thousands more than that if the
insurance company drops them.
Well, if you are a wealthy person you don’t care but for
most of us, we could not pay that so we would either become a burden to the
taxpayers or just die. The latter is not
an option that appeals to me! And, don’t kid yourself insurance companies are
not your friend! They look at us like we
are Mr. Goodbars.
Now good ole Mitt, says that he will not change it at all
after he becomes president and gets rid of Obamacare. That is he is saying, he
will return Medicare Advantage that costs billions of Medicare funds and
quickly see the Medicare that Obama fixed go broke! Oh my, it is broke so we will have to make
some serious changes – like vouchers?
Let’s address Medicare Advantage for a minute. I didn’t know what it was until I began
living during the summer in upstate New York
So, I looked into its history that I found interesting. This Advantage program was a payoff to
private insurance companies that was supposed to show that they could compete
with the government plan. Well, they
charged more but that extra cost was supposed to come down after a few
years. If, it didn’t then the insurance
companies would not be able to sell this expensive plans and those people using
them would have to revert to the government Medicare. Okay, you guessed it, because of lobbying the
costs did not come down nor was it disbanded.
It just kept coasting along costing all of us billions of dollars each
year. Yes, everyone including me who is using the less expensive program.
Of course, Medicare Advantage was dropped by Obamacare
because it costs lots of money and was not fair to people using the government
operated one. Oh boy, how the
Republicans jumped on that complaining that Obama robbed Medicare by over $700
billion dollars over ten years. Of
course, they really will raid it of more than that and leave old people with
$7,000 vouchers with no plan to increase them with the rising costs of medical
care.
Does anybody believe that insurance companies will sell old
people adequate medical coverage for less than $600 per month? Want to buy a bridge? Okay, Mitt and Paul tell us that our Medicare
will not change. And, that their wonderful program will not begin until younger
people like my son become eligible. Well, I want my son and his family to have
the same wonderful medical care that I have when they get old.
So, how to fix it? Of
course, income for this program must increase.
One way that will accomplish this is to continue to have people pay into
it after they make more than something like $100,000. I was amazed that after my annual salary was
something like $90,000, I didn’t pay more money into it! Suddenly, in the fall of the year I received
a notice that my pay just went up because Medicare payments were not taken out
until the beginning of next year. How
crazy is that! Making that much money I
should have been paying more into it instead of nothing.
Of course another way is to increase the age at which someone
can begin to use it. I didn’t start
using it until I was 68 when I retired.
Increasing the age makes lots of sense because like I wrote previously,
life expectancy has increased by several fold and the costs of medical care has
increased a bunch. Not only has it gotten more expensive but of course much
better. That is why our finish line
keeps getting further and further away.
Well its closing time for this chapter of The Old Rusty
Nail. Please vote and protect what is yours!
