LETTER: ‘Affordable’ healthcare — or not?

I became 65 years of age in 2011. My insurance carrier and my employment, from which I’m retired, together, offered the Medicare Advantage Plan, as my health care coverage. My Social Security check reflects a deduction made by the Social Security Administration for my Medicare Advantage coverage. Additionally I have a premium deduction, taken from my employee retirement benefit check, for my Medicare Advantage coverage.

I should be well covered, excepting for the fact that my OB/GYN no longer accepts Medicare in any form, a policy decision made by not only my physician but other reputable OB/GYNs, whom I contacted in Athens. My doctor’s only suggestion was my contacting a local hospital’s mid-wifery clinic, which I did in attempting to secure basic preventive services. In calling this clinic I listened to a message in two languages and thereafter was placed on hold to talk with an appointments secretary, who cordially informed me that in two months the clinic would give me a call to make an appointment for a future date. (I might have thought that perhaps the Hippocratic oath has been conformed in its meaning, excepting for a doctor of my generation, who has made the decision to put the patient first and is seeing patients for preventative services.) I must hope now that my ophthalmologist has not decided to terminate services to Medicare patients as well, in as much as I have delayed scheduling an inevitable surgery.

I have little sense of “advantage” here. I must look to my representative government for explanation. Perhaps Medicare is poorly administered, so the doctors are not equitably/timely reimbursed. Perhaps the President’s “signature” initiative has resulted in this derailed health plan. Perhaps the profit line, of the health care “industry” at large, supersedes patient care and affordability. Bottom line for me — my health interests have not been protected, neither the availability nor quality, and I have little control in these circumstances.

This isn’t a partisan issue for me. This isn’t about liberal/conservative positions. This is a question of integrity across the three branches of this government, where semantics are used to uphold whatever whim the government wishes to pursue. My government gave me no choice, when I became of age to work. I signed up for and made contributions to Social Security, that I might secure my retirement years. “Contributions” changed without my knowledge. They became a “tax” that the government might build a fund, from which to dip with no intent to ever repay. Then imagine my puzzlement later at hearing my contributions called an “entitlement,” likened unto any other government welfare program, in which recipients do not contribute.

That trust, my grandfather, my father, and I placed in this government to secure our later years, my children do not share. It is a sad commentary. It is a harsh reality for my grandchildren. Their government is not to be trusted in its commitments to its citizens. There are disturbing ramifications in a “no confidence” vote for one’s government.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Holloway