No!

I’m 76, and I have Medicare. Some years ago — maybe when I was 65, and had to get Medicare — I also signed up for co-insurance. The usual intention of co-insurance is to cover the 20% that medical insurance (Medicare, for those of us who are over 65) doesn’t cover, but it’s variable. For one thing, both Medicare and co-insurance have deductibles. You have to pay the deductibles yourself before Medicare or co-insurance kicks in. The deductible for Medicare isn’t too high. It’s about $200-$300 per year. Co-insurances have variable plans, so you can have a low deductible plan, which costs a high premium, or a high deductible plan, which costs a lower premium.

I don’t remember how I found the guy who sold me the Mutual of Omaha co-insurance plan, but he turned out to be an obnoxious and insulting jerk, and I continued with Mutual of Omaha, but just dealing with their in-house agents. My current premium is a little over $160 per month.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. First, I’m a medical doctor myself. Second, I hate the American medical industry, and doctors. I rarely go, and when I do, I’m always disappointed and frustrated. The American medical industry is not “health care.” We do not have health care in this country. Real countries have health care. The American medical industry commonly has little or nothing to do with anyone’s health. It’s about moving money from wherever it is to providers, other vendors (drug companies, hospitals, etc), and insurance companies. We have flirted with some improvements, but the lobby that represents the American medical industry makes sure not to reconstruct anything too drastically.

I should mention my late younger brother. His story is not strictly related to this, but it’s interesting. He developed lung cancer of a type that is most common in smokers. My brother was not a smoker. He was just unlucky. His bad luck resulted in chemotherapy twice, surgery to remove a brain metastasis, radiation therapy to reduce metastases in his spine, ER visits, and hospitalization. He told me that during one of the ER visits, they told him what he would have to pay. It turned out he had no medical insurance, and if he had been insured, he would have paid less. My brother was a lawyer and a wiseguy, and he argued that if the hospital/ER was willing to deliver a service for less if he had insurance, then that’s what they should charge him even if he didn’t have insurance. He won the argument — the hospital agreed to charge him the lower fee they would have charged an insurance company — and I don’t think he ever paid the hospital anyway. The list of mischievous and irresponsible things about my late younger brother is not short.

At any rate, today I got in the mail a “we’re sorry, but…” letter from Mutual of Omaha. Because of American medical industry costs, they’re going to have to raise my premium on September 1. To about $185 a month this time. So I called them. I told them that if they wanted help figuring out how to reduce the price of the American medical industry, I would help them. If all they wanted was to pick my pocket, so they could continue to pay the escalating costs, and it wouldn’t cost them anything, the answer was no. Yes, that was all they wanted.

So now, I will have no co-insurance. My current premium covers me until July 1. After that, NO! I rarely go to a doctor — years go by — anyway, so having medical insurance is just a loss to me.