Press reports indicate that Democratic Senators are working on a plan to improve health care. The plan would cover 97% of Americans. This begs an important question: Who would in the 3% to be left out? I am afraid that people who are disabled but who are trapped in what amounts to a 30 month waiting period for Medicare will be a major part of the 3% who are left out. Does anyone know?
Update: I have found a copy of the Kennedy-Dodd bill which is the hottest health care bill at the moment. I see nothing in it that would eliminate the Medicare waiting period. This would mean that disabled people would be prominent among the 3% left out.
Update: I have found a copy of the Kennedy-Dodd bill which is the hottest health care bill at the moment. I see nothing in it that would eliminate the Medicare waiting period. This would mean that disabled people would be prominent among the 3% left out.
If Obama already intends to spend a trillion or so dollars on national health care, how can he ignore the Medicare waiting period? He is totally dropping the ball on this, and I am more disappointed as time goes on. He should be taking care of that, and resolving the disability backlog, before going after pie-in-the-sky schemes.
ReplyDeleteThis is bound to be a ginormous bill, with thousands of provisions in thousands of pages. The Medicare waiting period for DIB benes has come up recently in blogs relating to SSA other than this one. The National Committee to Preserve Our Social Security and Medicare is one pushing this idea, and so is AARP. I think we need to wait and see about the Medicare waiting period. It was one of those things that never received serious consideration during the Reagan Era, or the various Repub. administrations since then, because of the deficit. Star Wars Yes. Waiting period No. It was a question of priorities.
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