When one uses 'the Google' and enters a search for Medicare help, almost 13 million responses are returned. Now, that's a lot of help.
And, as a matter of default, the older one gets the more help one needs---especially when trying to decipher paperwork and policies from our US. Government.
But thirteen million? Where does one start?
If you enter Medicare 2011 information, you only get 4 million responses from Google, but the fine folks at Medicare.org convinced us they will make absolutely sure you understand the complexities involved, and clarify all the new changes coming in 2011.
Now, if one were to undertake a historical analysis of the original Medicare program, a good general overview is needed:
1945 Harry Truman sends a message to Congress asking for
legislation establishing a national health insurance plan.
Two decades of debate ensue, with opponents warning of the
dangers of "socialized medicine."
By the end of Truman's administration, he had backed off
from a plan for universal coverage, but administrators in
the Social Security system and others had begun to focus
on the idea of a program aimed at insuring Social Security
beneficiaries.
July ,1965 Medicare and its companion program Medicaid, (which
insures indigent recipients), are signed into law by
President Lyndon Johnson as part of his "Great Society."
Ex-president Truman is the first to enroll in Medicare.
Medicare Part B premium is $3 per month.
1972 Disabled persons under age 65 and those with end-stage
renal disease become eligible for coverage.
Services expand to include some chiropractic services,
speech therapy and physical therapy.
Payments to HMOs are authorized.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is established
for the elderly and disabled poor. SSI recipients are
automatically eligible for Medicaid.
1982 Hospice benefits are added on a temporary basis.
1983 Change from "reasonable cost" to prospective payment
system based on diagnosis-related groups for hospital
inpatient services begins.
Most federal civilian employees become covered.
1984 Remaining federal employees, including President, members
of Congress and federal judiciary become covered.
1986 Hospice benefits become permanent.
1988 Major overhaul of Medicare benefits is enacted aimed at
providing coverage for catastrophic illness and
prescription drugs. Coverage is added for routine mammography.
1989 Catastrophic coverage and prescription drug coverage are
repealed.
Coverage is added for pap smears.
1992 Physician services payments are based on fee schedule.
1997 Medicare+Choice is enacted under the Balanced Budget Act.
Some provisions prove to be so financially restrictive
when regulations are unveiled that Congress is forced to
revisit the issue in 1999.
1999 Congress "refines" Medicare+Choice and relaxes some
Medicare funding restrictions under the Balanced Budget
Refinement Act of 1999.
2000 Medicare+Choice Final Rule takes effect.
Since 2000, more changes have occurred, most notably the example of the Medicare Drug Plan from the Bush era, which essentially got middle class Americans to pay massive amounts of money to drug companies to provide over-priced drugs to old people. It would behoove all seniors to check into the new medicare part D, as it directly affects prescription drug costs.
Also emerging are horrendous examples of fraud and abuse of the entire Medicare system. Consider the following:
"Each year, billions of American taxpayers’ dollars are wasted on improper payments to individuals, organizations and contractors. These are payments made in the wrong amounts, to the wrong person, or for the wrong reason. In 2009, improper payments totaled $98 billion, with $54 billion stemming from Medicare and Medicaid."
SOURCE: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, March 10, 2010
"The United States spends more than $2 trillion on health care every year. The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association estimates conservatively that at least 3 percent -- or more than $60 billion each year -- is lost to fraud. Although it is not possible to measure precisely the extent of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, everywhere it looks OIG continues to find fraud against these programs. ... OIG opened 1,750 new health care fraud investigations in FY 2008."
SOURCE: Testimony by Daniel R. Levinson, United States Inspector General, before the Senate Special Committee on Aging on fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, May 6, 2009
"The units of measure for losses due to health care fraud and abuse in this country are hundreds of billions of dollars per year. We just don't know the first digit. It might be as low as one hundred billion. More likely two or three. Possibly four or five. But whatever that first digit is, it has eleven zeroes after it. These are staggering sums of money to waste, and the task of controlling and reducing these losses warrants a great deal of serious attention."
SOURCE: Testimony by Malcolm K. Sparrow, professor of the Practice of Public Management, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, before the Senate Subcommittee on Criminal Prosecution as a Deterrent to Health Care Fraud, May 22, 2009.
All in all, dealing with the vicissitudes of the Medicare system can be frustrating, annoying, and downright confusing. Best talk to the experts.
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