Email I Received: Virtual Medicare Signup Action

[Contrary1]

Why Limit It To 55? Why Can't EVERYONE Buy Into Medicare If They Want?

Use this page to tell President Obama and your members of Congress that YOU want to sign up for Medicare too!! If we want any real change, FIRST we must DEMAND it.

Think about it, folks. They would not be on the TV trying to sell us so hard on fake reform measures if they did not NEED our acquiescence. When enough people declare that we will no longer settle for coal in our Christmas stockings, then and only them will we get the real deal.

Last week the Senate floated the idea of making it possible for
people 55-64 to buy in to Medicare. The original proposal was just
another fake health care reform scam, to try to offload those with
the most medical needs from for-profit insurance company obligations.
The problem for them is that everyone LIKED the idea so much, that it
gave people an actual glimmer of hope that real change might happen,
and they have tried to deep six the idea as fast as possible, before
the Congressional Budget Office even has a chance to score it.

But not so fast. Tell your members of Congress that YOU want to sign
up for Medicare NOW! You aren't really signing up for Medicare by
submitting the form of course. But it will send your instant fax to
them, and President Obama at the White House too. All we need is for
people to declare that is what they want, that we will accept nothing
less, and it HAS to happen.

Fax Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1023.php

[napi21]

1. Be careful what you ask for. Last I heard, the monthly premium

for medicare for those who have not paid into it for years was $600! You wouldn't and shouldn't get the same price that those 65 who have paid into the program for YEAARS get which is $97/mo. Ypu may think it sounds good but you don't really know what it means! BTW, Medicare pays 80% of your HC costs, and you pay 20%! I didn't realize what that meant until I broke my ankle several years ago & had employer sponsored healthcare. There were set copays for the Dr., the hosp. days, and the meds, but all the rest was at that infamous 80/20 program. Well I found out that a simple fractured ankle that required surgery, to insert 2 pins and one overnight stay in the hosp. MY share of the costs were $2,500 and the only reason it stopped there was that there was an out of pocket cap of $2,500. Because I was stupid enough to have done this in Oct, the final treatments carried over into Jan so the 20% started all over again!

Now I'm on Medicare & have to buy a suplement because I can't afford the risk of 20% of an unknown amount! Those supplements cost around $125-$150 per month per person!

[maglatinavi]

2. medicare

Did you say $600? Per Month? Are they out of their frigging minds? I must be reading something wrong...
:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[napi21]

3. I'm not kidding! Right now the price is based upon people who have paid into the fund for years!

I will try to find a link to what I've heard, and I've heard it several times!

Here, read it for yourself!

Unlike a public option, which was crafted in the context of the nonelderly population, Medicare would enroll a population older than rest of America. They would have more health issues and thus cost more to insure. So Medicare would likely need to charge higher premiums to those opting to enroll. A Congressional Budget Report from last December examined the possibility of Medicare giving 62- to-64-year-olds the option to buy in to Medicare. They found their premiums would be about $630 per month. On average, the same age group pays under half that— $312—in the private, individual market. (One caveat: insurance costs under the newly proposed Medicare buy-in, which would stretch down to 55, would likely be a little bit lower than that CBO number because of the younger subscribers included.) These significant price differences beg the question, could Medicare's preferential rates lower the premiums enough to compete with plans with healthier subscribers?


http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/12/16/who-would-have-really-won-with-a-medicare-buy-in-the-young.aspx