You must not be on Medicare yet. I am. It's anything but 'OK'. For starters, even though I paid for it over the last 50, or so years, I still have to pay an additional $4,000 per year for all the things it misses.
For this, it pays the hospitals and doctors only a tiny fraction of their actual costs. Here are two examples:
1) I needed to have a detached retina reattached. For this I had to go to a specialist with many years of training, in addition to an MD degree. She had to use millions of dollars of special optical and laser equipment in her office. The procedure took nearly two hours. The bill was over $3,000. For this, Medicare paid less than $100, which, by law, was payment in full.
2) I needed a "Fusion Biopsy" for prostate cancer. It required an MRI and then special prostate ultrasound biopsy equipment to target regions on the MRI with the biopsy needle. Again, multi millions of dollars of equipment was required. The Medicare payment? - less than $200, even though the bill was $3,500.
For all this, my doctor of the past 35 years won't see me any more. He gets paid $85 for a visit that previously paid thousands. I don't blame him.
I should have been clearer. No medicare for all before age 65.
For all this, my doctor of the past 35 years won't see me any more. He gets paid $85 for a visit that previously paid thousands. I don't blame him.