Just, "Thanks."

Wow. Am I uninformed. Never heard of this. I thought buying “gap” insurance covered everything.

It’s covered all of my medical cost for years, but then my out of pocket prescription drug cost is way less than a thousand a year, closer to 500.

Using insurer’s mail order prescription service saves a lot of money on my take it forever prescription.

"Would it be difficult to do? Yes. Would it take a long time to happen? Yes. Would it be expensive? Yes. Would our taxes go up? Yes."

~~~ But our premiums would go down, and the cost of health care in general would go down once the insurance companies are no longer taking their "bite" out of everyone's cost.

Yes - Medicare for all!

Once profit for a private entity enters the picture the price goes up and the care does down.

There are many studies that disprove the fallacy that single payer will be more costly. Logic backs that up. Not only do we (individual and government) spend more for our inadequate health insurance than any other industrialized country, but we are near, or at the bottom in results.

We have the template of how other countries provide the best medical care, but do it in a cost efficient manner. There are different methods, but they are all less expensive than our "for profit" insurance. We could take the best one, or a combination of the best, and provide health care for everyone and it would include vision, dental and hearing.

The ones blocking any legislation that would move the U.S. into an enlightened and more humane system cry the old bugaboo "SOCIALISM" . Then they spread the false information that it would be too costly. This is not true. Then the right wing spread disinformation on people having to wait for surgery, etc. All have been proven false.

Until the politicians started cutting the VA appropriations they provided good insurance much cheaper than what we have now. My son is living proof of the quality care he got from the VA, with virtually no out of pocket expense. Without that care, he could never have afforded the thousands of dollars a severe accident required. The VA insurance is really socialism; the government pays the doctors, owns the hospitals, and negotiates drug prices. Some socialism is not bad.

It's true that the transition would make single payer insurance more costly initially, but once the insurance companies were out of the health care business, the savings would be enormous. There would be no more need for doctors to hire a slew of office personnel to handle the massive paper work the different insurance companies require. The government could reign in the Pharmaceutical industries obscene profits and negotiate lower prices on drugs.

The big losers would be the Insurance companies and big pharma. They will not let this happen with their hold on venal politicians who take money from them. The people better start actively letting their representatives know that they will vote out any politician who takes money from those two entities.

We, the people, had better start demanding affordable health care if we are ever to have it.

Ever notice those advertisements that come in your mailbox, and more importantly the ones on TV, meant to attract you to a particular Medical insurance company? Your premiums have to cover those and the marketing departments that think them up and produce them. Your premiums also cover a gazillion employees at insurance companies whose jobs mostly involve finding ways to say “not covered,” as well as highly paid CEOs and other top execs. Even not-for-profit insurance companies have highly paid top execs, marketing and advertising, and employees whose job it is to process bills your and tell you you’re not covered.

So don’t let people tell you that a national health insurance program would raise our rates. When you drop all that advertising, all those overpaid CEOs, and all those people whose job it is to process the paperwork and tell you they won’t pay for your care, there will be plenty of money to actually deliver healthcare services

Medicare has certainly worked well for me. It's a good thing, too, because the cost of some of my cancer treatments was mind-boggling. Just an example: The Neulasta shot you get the day after a chemo treatment ... $10,000. For a single injection. And I had four of them.

It's criminal how much the drug and insurance companies are earning on the backs of sick people! How we ever got from Marcus Welby, MD, to todays' health care system is beyond me. The doctors should be calling the shots (no pun intended) but instead we have the tail wagging the dog. It's ridiculous, expensive, and dangerous. Doctors know what's best for their patients, not the insurance companies or Big Pharma.

May your kindness and generosity be returned to you ten-fold.
And let's make sure we all vote for what we want.

Thank you, Ronni, for your kind heart and generosity.

I worked at the welfare dept. when Medicare Part D came out. I was a supervisor and got the calls. I heard many sad stories.

You made me cry you did. The first reason is obvious, the second is my gratitude for universal health care that covers me with no limit. I know the real cost of my drugs monthly is around $5,000. They keep me alive. I could never afford them and would be dead by now without them.

I hope that the USA starts caring for its citizens, particularly it's most vulnerable.

And thank you Ronni.

XO
WWW

Like Emma Jay, my spouse has a "platinum" retiree health plan from his former employer (a large HMO) that covers both of us for our lifetimes (unless they cancel it), so to date we haven't had to worry about the donut hole, deductibles or copays. We are SO LUCKY!!

As grateful as I am to have this plan, like Medicare, it doesn't cover eyeglasses, dental care, hearing aids or many "alternative" treatments such as chiropractic. Having not found effective treatment for my ongoing back problems through traditional medical channels, I recently decided to try chiropractic. In so doing, I've come face to face with out-of-pocket medical expenses --fortunately on a comparatively small scale.

I cannot imagine how average retirees--especially those who do not have a Medigap plan--manage to pay for healthcare. If I were in that situation, it's possible that I would have to let serious problems go undiagnosed and untreated due to lack of financial resources. No one in the U.S. should be in that position.

Medicare for all--VOTE for those who support it! (Thank you, Ronni, for helping that elder woman pay for her Rx. What a bad, sad situation or her to be facing late in life.)