Say what?
For all of America’s cherished belief in choice and freedom, it remains an astonishing fact that the U.S. government forces citizens over the age of 65 into a subpar health plan of its choosing. And so it is with some hope that we greet a new federal lawsuit that aims to allow senior citizens to flee Medicare.
The suit comes courtesy of Kent Masterson Brown, a lawyer who has previously tangled with the government over Medicare benefits. Mr. Brown represents three plaintiffs who are suing the federal government to be allowed to opt out of Medicare without losing their Social Security benefits.
Amazingly, this is not currently allowed. While the Social Security law does not require participants to accept Medicare, and the Medicare law does not require participants to accept Social Security, the Clinton Administration in 1993 tied the programs together. Under that policy, any senior who withdraws from Medicare also loses Social Security benefits.
Mr. Brown’s plaintiffs are three men who do not want to be in Medicare, even though they paid Medicare taxes throughout their income-earning years and though they are not asking for that money back. The three instead saved privately to cover their health care expenses. They now prefer to contract with private doctors and health facilities that they believe are superior to those offered by Medicare.
Read the whole thing – it’s short.
Interesting! Well, non of this is going to matter to me. Not only will I refuse medicare when hitting age 65 next year, but have no interest in Social Security retirement bennies either. Too many strings attached and it’s even taxed. Forgot about it! It’s a scam!
Seems like everybody that I know, at age 62 jumped onto the Social Security bandwagon. They were all bent out of shape when I refused to sign up. It was as if my non-participation was a threat of some kind. Some of these people actually became angry.
To each his own! For myself, I want nothing to do with the Federal Government at any level. File an income tax return each spring and that’s all there is.
Will happily work until I drop dead which in my case will be sooner than later.
Here’s the thing that people don’t understand…I read tons of entries on other sites complaining about this issue because Part A is “free” – “so what’s the big deal it costs you nothing to be in Part A”. It’s only Part A that you have to be enrolled in to get SS. The problem is, it costs you no $, but that’s not the only way to measure costs. Docs must make a decision, either they take Medicare or they don’t, there are a few ways for them to work with the program, but if you opt out, you opt out. 33% of docs already don’t take it. If you don’t take medicare, you CANNOT accept cash or alternate payment from medicare patients. It’s illegal for docs to do this and they face fines if they do. And if they do accept medicare patients, they can only provide the services according to the acceptable fee schedule from medicare. So they can’t provide services to them not covered by medicare. It’s a different kind of a straight jacket…one which prevents you from getting the care you want as a patient if you have the ability to pay for it out of your own pocket.