By Woodrow Wilcox
Some politicians are calling for “Medicare for All.” If they knew the Medicare system, they never would suggest that.
Although there are many more, let me mention just three big problems with the current Medicare system:
- The current Medicare system makes fraud easy. The bookkeeping is broken. The problem resolution system is lousy. On April 9, the Associated Press reported that the federal government “busted” a massive $1.2 billion Medicare scam. Another error discovered showed that Medicare reported it had paid a hospital more than $500 over what Medicare had approved to pay the hospital. The bad systems of Medicare cost taxpayers’ higher taxes and senior citizens on Medicare higher premiums. When you consider there are millions of Americans currently on Medicare, these errors quickly add up. The Medicare system sucks money from the public treasury and from consumers’ wallets and erroneously pays them out.
- The Medicare system makes scamming seniors easy. Many times, false bills are sent to senior citizens over 100 days after the senior’s insurance company had already paid the bill. However, the medical-billing firm cashed the check from the insurance company and billed the senior citizen for the same money that was already paid by the Medicare supplement insurance company. This happens often and scams unsuspecting senior citizens of millions of dollars per year.
- The Medicare communication systems fail regularly. The systems break down hundreds of times per day for a second or a split second at a time. When that happens, claims and payments data are lost. Often, this results in Medicare supplement insurance companies not learning about claims and not paying the claims out of ignorance. You can’t blame an insurance company for not paying a claim that it never got from Medicare. Medical firms bill seniors for the balance that the insurance companies would have paid if the Medicare system worked properly. The result is that senior citizens pay balances that they really don’t owe. This one Medicare problem alone costs senior citizens over one billion dollars per year in wrongful medical bills.
The current Medicare system is far from perfect. Therefore, any “Medicare for all” system will create more problems for more citizens and more opportunities for fraudulently taking money from the federal government and from innocent patients.
So why are these politicians pushing for “Medicare for all”? Because these politicians are really striving for socialized medicine with a “single payer system”.
Let’s quickly examine what has happened in other countries with socialized medicine.
Here are three examples:
- Nazi Germany: Over six million Jews and various dissidents were murdered in concentration camps. The government decided that they did not need healthcare, or the same level of healthcare as other people favored by the government. The official name of the Nazi Party was National Socialist German Workers Party. Adolph Hitler and the Nazis were socialists. That socialist government decided who would and who would not get health care.
- Syria: The Arab Socialist Ba’th Party has governed Syria for decades. Government health care is provided only if you don’t disagree with government officials. Doctors aren’t free to serve those who need medical help. Citizens who are not favored by the government must pay bribes to government officials in order to get needed health care. Doctors who give medical attention to wounded enemies of the government are routinely arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and killed.
- Venezuela: This country rich with natural resources enough to create and sustain a vibrant economy is today under extreme civil unrest, due to its socialist policies.
Ronald Reagan said that a government that can give anything to you can take everything from you. Socialist countries have a history of using free or socialized health care to control and punish the citizens in order to suppress disagreement and political opposition. Is that really what you want for America?
America wants a private health care system where patients pay money to a doctor rather than pay a bribe to a government official. “Medicare for all” is a really bad idea.
Woodrow Wilcox is the author of the book “Solving Medicare Problem$.” For more than 16 years, he has helped senior citizens fight mistakes and fraud in the Medicare system. Wilcox has saved senior citizens over two million dollars by not paying bad medical bills.
ur mom
My sister had Medicare due to ESRD at age 63. Medicare was new to me but what I saw was a program with no quality of care concerns and just keep paying the claims regardless of injuries or medical problems due to extremely poor care. She was in various hospitals and facilities over a nine month period before she died in 2012. She was transferred around about 14 times in that nine months but Medicare had no systems in place to raise a “red flag” as to why this was happening. When I called, I was told there are no reviewers when problems occur and physicians are responsible for any quality of care issues…not Medicare. She was in an acute care hospital, 2 long term acute care hospitals, 2 rehab hospitals,and a nursing home where she suffered a brain injury due to improper medication issue and ended up on life support for 3 months. It was a terrible experience for both the patient and family but I got no answers other than they had to pay the claims. This is a terrible system where they care more about the providers and nothing for the patient. I found the government at all levels and the politicians don’t care about this mess of a system that we have and the lies and falsified records that were accepted by all only made it worse. They say the U.S. has the best healthcare system in the world….No. I would say one of the worst.
MEDICARE FOR ALL is a fantasy created by today’s new wave of Congressional Democrats (supported by veteran liberal politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders, a socialist, and others of his ilk, i.e. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, etc. etc.) It’s clearly a scam designed to get the votes of people who think the government has an obligation to provide their health care at the expense of other taxpayers. If such a program were enacted by Congress, it would bankrupt our economy in short order and destroy private sector health care, including the insurance industry. Socialized medicine has proven more of a curse than a blessing in any country in which it’s been tried. The negative effects of “Obama Care” are an example of what happens when the arrogance of liberals who think they know what’s best for you and me begin tinkering with areas of our lives they should leave alone. Our country cannot afford a “single-payer” system (the Gov’t). The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) estimates the cost of “Medicare For All” at $32 trillion in the first 10 years. We would be looking at 70% or higher tax rates just to keep such a system afloat. That also means drastic cuts in other critical areas, i.e. national defense, for example. And, predictably, that number would go higher; the true cost of anything the Gov’t. gets its hands into invariably skyrockets, just as the Affordable Care Act did, to the detriment of the very people it was supposed to help. As a previous respondent astutely pointed out, Ronald Reagan’s observation was right on the money: “A government that can give anything to you can take everything from you.” We cannot afford to give liberal politicians that luxury. There is an old axiom that says: “ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.” Be careful what you wish for, and be skeptical of politicians promising “free stuff” whose only real interest is getting more power over you.
When Congress APPROVES Medicare for ALL MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, the House AND Senate members, I’ll certainly go along with it. Then, and ONLY THEN, can Healthcare be equal for all! … Until then, We the People should tell ALL MEMBERS OF CONGRESS to stick Medicare up their oysters…. They Need to Practice What They Preach!!!