I am sure there are a lot of people working on this - certainly some of them are well intentioned. The fact is, however, there are large numbers of lobbyists out there wanting their piece of the pie to continue, or, to get larger. The lobbyists have a huge affect on anything that is done in this country. ,, Also, there are a lot of smart, well-intentioned ordinary people out here, and on this board, who are telling of their own experiences, giving their opinions as well. I doubt anyone making decisions, will listen to them, but that doesn't mean their experiences, their ideas are not good or just as 'smart' as all those others who are thinking about it. My experience with Medicare is the exactly as I described and it is the only experience. I can't speak to what 'Medicare allows' - only what the doctor charged and what Medicare paid. I have no copy of the rules, only the medical bills. We will have to wait and see what Americans will tolerate in healthcare - because I think change is coming. I'm pretty sure some form of national healthcare is in the future - just don't know what kind. We do expect too much from medical care and too many procedures are done that I think should not. A lady I knew in her mid 80's was convinced to have bypass surgery. She was a pretty active, self-sufficient lady, and I don't know if she had had a heart attack, never heard of it, but it's possible. She lived 7 years after the surgery, but never recovered, those years were spent on dialysis, in a wheelchair and then dementia before she died. That was cruel - to her - to her family.

for 30 years I worked for Medicare. let's review a few things. by law the drs office has to accept Medicare assignment. that means whatever Medicare determines is reasonable and customary is the amount the doctor is owed. Ex: dr. charge: $300, Medicare approves $200, Medicare pays 80% of $200 which is $160, Aetna would pay 20% or $40 and no more money would be owed to the dr. Now the questions you must answer are 1. was the dr visit covered?if yes,had the deductible for 2008 been met? if not you would have to pay the decutible first, but most importantly did the dr off file the charges in a timely matter. Ask for proof from the drs office. DO NOT BE INTIMIDATED, if not they will have to eat their mistake. the proof they show you should be a payment voucher from Medicare showing the claim rec'd, paid, denied or applied to the deductible. email me if you have more ??? btw, it is too late to refile. Medicare is currently processing charges from 2010, all of 2009, and the last three months of 2008 (oct,nov, and dec) jingle2405@yahoo.com

You might want to google Senior Educators. It's an insurance service. I went to their web site and left my number and a few minutes later a very nice gentleman called me. He called me several times and helped me pick out a plan and no it wasn't the most expensive either. They can tell you about any plan that's available in your area and they will follow up later at the proper time and see if you want to change your plan.

Paying interest next month on coffee one drinks today sounds pretty lame to me, in cases where the plastic one is using is credit not fully paid monthly, thus accruing interest. I think all of this plastic for unnecessary purchases (small, in person) is driving the cost up for about everything. Isn't the standard fee on V/MC transactions 3%? That's what it cost the last retail store I where worked, in 2009. So I guess everything is somewhere around 3% more expensive than it needs to be, for merchants to make the same profit over top of that fee. Different stores may have different arrangements with their credit processing companies, IDK... We recently went on a multi-state vacation by car and our cash only policy saved us $$ the last night. We were willing to pay what seemed a reasonable amount quoted at the handy (nationally recognized name brand) motel next to where we ate dinner, having decided we were too tired to continue driving. But they insisted on obtaining a credit card number. We refused and found a perfectly good room at a mom'n'pop a few doors down, for $35 less. The un-remodeled LARGE older room was actually a refreshing change, as was the nice lady who said to let her know if anything was wrong 'cuz she owns the place. She thought we and our cash were wonderful, and likewise. Supposedly they no longer allow banks to "fake people out" by not considering a check deposited until after a few debit card transactions happen, conveniently scooping money out of people's accounts each time. But they will find other ways to steal your money. The last straw for me was the "round up" program the teller encouraged me to sign up for. Every time I used my debit card, it would round up to an even amount, with the rounded-up amount being put in a savings' account. I wasn't using that (or any) debit card often or for many purchases, but it had accumulated to $14-something before I stopped working at that job and did not have cause to use that account - in another city, which I had setup for direct-deposit of pay checks from the former employer. After 3 months of inaction in the account I received a letter that the balance was now $0, explaining that the $7-something in the account and the $14-something in the savings' account had been stolen (I've used a slightly different word than they did) to recover an inactivity fee. Guess they require more entertainment from accounts. Mine had become unacceptably boring, and, of course not generating any fees for them. When I called to ask about it, I was told I should have read the fine print when signing up for the round-up thing, which activated the possibility of inactivity fees on existing accounts. The only way these folks will see more of my money is if I drive by the bank, holding some out of it out of the window. In the 90's I used a debit card much more, sometimes constantly for about anything, and had some additional expenses, time-consuming...