Don’t trust political promises on health care

There has been much discussion in the news and editorials about what politicians love to call the “entitlement” program of Medicare. Some of these politicians talk about “giving” Medicare to everyone regardless of age as part of some pie in the sky plan for Universal “free” health care for all. Nowhere is it mentioned how much we boomers already on Medicare have paid into the program. That is at least 1.45 percent of their income (2.9 percent for us self-employed types) which is in most cases well over $1,000 a year for more than 40 years, not counting compound interest on that, before we are even covered at age 65. And, of course, we now pay at least (depending on income) $1,735 a year for the privilege to be in the program.

What most people don’t realize and I didn’t find out until I switched my Medicare supplemental insurance (which everyone really needs to be fully covered) to an Elite PPO plan with $0 monthly payments is this. The U.S. government really wants to get out of the medical insurance business and is willing to pay more than $17,000 a year to private/for profit insurance companies to get regular Medicare recipients off their rolls. So any politician promising to give Medicare for free to everybody is lying to you for your vote, it is not going to happen.

Now in the last couple of weeks there have been “dueling” editorials about the Veterans Administration as a model for universal health care and “socialized medicine.”

Again what everybody seems to forget is that VA health benefits are not another entitlement program and are certainly not free. To qualify at all for these benefits one has had to have served in our country’s armed services — voluntarily or involuntarily — for two, three, five, eight, 20, etc. years. That means laying one’s life on the line for substandard pay and delaying one’s civilian career and life. Talk about medical insurance costing an “arm and a leg!”

Unfortunately, all too many recipients of veterans health care have paid that price literally. And yet the availability of and cost to the patient of this health care is dependent on one’s percentage of disability (directly resulting from one’s military service) and one’s present civilian income. This is why I, as a four years of service veteran (a combat pilot in Vietnam) use the above mentioned PPO Medicare supplemental insurance plan. I very fortunately was not disabled during my service and have been a little too successful business and income wise to get at the end of the long line at the VA.

One of the benefits of my combat service has been to have been well-trained not to trust politicians and their promises about anything — and certainly not about health care benefits.