Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Medicare Deductibles - Quality of Life Dropping Rapidly
Well dang! I went to the Drugstore tonight because my breathing was giving me fits and was going to pick up my medications before I ran out. I have 4 days worth left. With the way gas prices are verses what I drive, 15 miles each way is a long ways to go and I try to time things where I am not wasteful. Well, anyway, I go into the pharmacy and have my standard amount in hand to pay for my medications. They come back with an outlandish amount and I said there must be some mistake. Nope!! No Mistake. My insurance does not cover anything that is a Medicare covered drug. With my insurance the deductible would only be $5.00 per medication. I Take 22 scripts. But since it is medicare the best each of them will be is $55.00 for one and $5.00 for the other. ummmm That is AFTER I meet the deductible. The medications are still there at the pharmacy as I cannot afford them.
You know, I don't get this. They tell me I qualify for poverty level medicare rates and give me a little over $900.00 for SSD. Then they turn around and give me this deductible. It makes no sense to me how they figure this. This puts me further behind than I was two years ago.
Well I got snitty. Not at the person helping me, but at the situation. I told her I have friends that would be dead in two days if this happened to them. She agreed. Then I furthered to say that maybe this regime is working towards a pure society and deliberately trying to get throw aways off the roles by placing us in the position we could not get our medications. She looked stunned.
Now I know I am a good person and not a throw-away, but after watching what happened during the aftermath of Katrina I began to realize there is a huge difference at the help someone from Palm Beach gets vs. someone who lives in the poorest neighborhood of New Orleans. Don't laugh or roll your eyes... I don't think this is that far fetched. Look back... Seniors and disabled were the last taken out; even then it was in the back of U-Haul trucks. Do you remember the heat index? It was over 100 degrees. I think our current president would be more than happy to have a pure white society.
I live frugally. I don't go out to movies and I rarely go out to eat. I try to budget my comfort level here at the house. Even after budgeting my electric, for which I was still cold, my bill was $140.00. My partial solution to that was to turn off my cable television. the only frill, and then it is not a frill is my computer, which a church member donated.
I know I cannot be the only one who is going through this. I simply can't be. Two years ago I could make ends meet. Even a year ago, but it was tight.
I know God will take care of me as God always does. But darned, I am to the point of having to beg for help and I don't like this one bit. And you know, I see a lot of people on the streets that I know God loves. So my hopes of how God will take care of me may not equate to how it plays out. For any of us for that matter.
The waiting lists for senior and disabled housing are upwards of 3 to 5 years down here due to the hurricanes. Even then, with the cuts in all the programs, will I be any better off? How long will they last? At least here, even though I live on unfinished plywood floors I know I have a place. I don't think there is much difference here than there would be in an apartment complex for seniors and disabled individuals.
Already I have had to stoop to receiving groceries from food pantry's. And even then a good share of it I am not supposed to have and is not good for my already high cholesterol and my heart. My doctor writes down non-compliant every time I go in. My bad cholesterol is 198. My overall cholesterol is 325. Yet another doctor wants me to move to a dryer climate. HELLO!! Financially that is not going to happen unless I win the lottery.
I used the calculator online at the Human Services site for food stamps. I'll be darned.. It appears I may qualify. Yet two years ago I did not. The economy is so upside down it is just awful. Maybe we can help even things out with that.
Society seems to be set up to punish seniors and people with disabilities. And yes, those who are less advantaged, not as attractive, and not as smart. I know this is not about me and I am just one of many who this effects. But you know, I try to be there for others, I try to be giving, and I try to do the right things... I was always taught if I worked hard, treated others right, and did things a certain way the rest would come.
Well I am done ranting and will go figure out other ways to work around this.
Thanks for listening.
Ya Think?
2 comments:
You are right. I try not to be frightened about what is happening, but I am. The government has very sneakily been cutting away at social security retirement and SS disability. And its not handouts - we paid into it all our lives. They have borrowed out of our funds and no one protests that can do anything about it.
It doesn't make sense - now if a person can somehow get disability, then you don't get your medicaid for two years. You know people will die - there just has to be some reason the government is doing this. The Republican philosophy is that people are all born healthy and have a good family to get them on their feet, and then you take care of yourself while becoming well to do. Life does not work that way.
Now doctors are more and more refusing to take care of people on Medicare, Medicaid saying they can't afford to. I would think conscience would get to them, but then they have to pay overhead and bills too -
Some of what you say seems extreme, yet we look for a reason for what they are doing to their own citizens. This is not third world country - or that was not the intention of our founders. I can't think of any other reason to think any different than what you state you think is going on.......perhaps its just a more "civilized" process than the ovens of Hitler.
I don't think you have the health to move one more time. I know living out in the swamp is not the best for your lungs though.
I recently saw a story about a little black boy with a cavity. His mother didn't have money for the dentist. It was let go until he became very sick. They took him to the hospital, but it was too late, the cavity had turned to the root and to infection which went to his blood stream. He died for the lack of $100 or $200 for a filling.
Actually, when I was in college two years ago an english professor made this statement.
People you have got to go to college.. You are not going to be awarded the opportunities your parents were. Flipping burgers is not manufacturing. People you are now living in a third world nation.