Friday, October 14

Which bright lights decided this?

Way back when, I'd asked our Medicare Part D counselor about dental insurance since Medicare didn't cover it. He answered that getting dental insurance was way expensive and it would be cheaper just to pay out of pocket. Maybe he's was right then but we sure need the insurance now. I called Medicare to find out if they'd cover Ted's broken tooth since it's now an emergency and they said no.

I next called our secondary. Sometimes when the primary doesn't cover a service, the secondary will pick it up. That's when I discovered the dismaying news that the secondary is not allowed to. If it's not covered by Medicare, none of the secondaries can pick it up. I asked why and the representative could only tell me that's what the people in Washington decided.

Sure. These are the same people who enjoy full coverage of any type.

It makes no sense to exclude dental and vision from the elderly and the disabled. All of us need cavities filled or teeth pulled or root canaled or what have you. When a tooth goes bad and becomes infected, that infection can spread to the heart. That would lead to an emergency room visit and probably a hospital stay, maybe even death, and sure that's more costly than providing for routine visits so it never gets to that point. As for glasses, what's up with that? The older you are the more likely you are to need glasses. What are fixed income people supposed to do if there's no generous Lion's Club in the neighborhood? Drive around half blind? I guess so.

Hearing aids aren't covered either. As we get older, our hearing diminishes. TB is already pretty much deaf in both ears. Luckily he got hearing aids before he became totally disabled. I guess everyone else just has to take ASL classes. :P

If I ever get to the Take Over Philly protest, my signs would be about health insurance reform. I would like to see President Obama's original health bill passed but I think that will never happen unless there's a major rising. The Take Over movement has the right idea but they're not focused. Everyone's protesting different things and there's no real unity. People are just fed up with everything but I don't know that change can come of something that generic. :P

1 comment:

Gattina said...

Health insurance is quiet good here in Belgium. But for teeth repairs it's also not ideal. the national health insurance only pays a little part of the bill. Glasses are also partly payed but not the frames ! How can you hang the glasses in front of your eyes ?? For all other diseases it's OK.

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