On Medicare -- do you trust the government or health insurance companies?

I'm not sure I trust either, but given a choice, I totally and completely pick the government. I have health insurance right now. It's provided by the company I work for (I pay a portion of the premium cost; so does my company). I have a $2,400 deductible. That means that before my insurance company kicks in a dime, I have to pay $2,400 toward doctor bills, medicine, lab tests, etc. I've had an unexpected medical issue this year and I met my deductible in March. I'm still fighting with my insurance company as they keep wanting to take more out. Just last week, I had to call and argue with them. And I know darn good and well that I'm one of the lucky ones. Because:

     a.: I have health insurance
     b.: My premiums are pretty low
     c.: I know who to call when stuff gets messed up

E.J. Dionne, opinion writer at The Washington Post, has a recent piece on Rep. Ryan "losing" the Medicare battle.

He's losing because Americans are alarmed that they are paying ever more for coverage, copays and deductibles. And they're weary of battling over health bills with insurance-company bureaucrats.

Rep. Ryan and others who think that the private market is going to serve consumers rather than their own self interest cannot possibly be paying attention to what's going on out here in the real world.


My dad was a doctor. He's been dead for many years. But even when he was still practicing medicine he had concerns about insurance companies, rising deductibles, the inability of folks to understand what was and was not covered.

I can't afford for the private market to decide when and if they're going to cover folks. The private market cares about profit above all else. Any big entity has better buying power than a small one. Just think about my local grocery store. It costs them more to get stuff I can buy from their suppliers than it costs me as a customer to go in to WalMart and buy stuff off the shelf. I hate that. I haven't been in to a WalMart in at least three years because of that. But when it comes to medical care, I want the big supplier, who isn't going to turn me away, or use me as a way to make more money.