Okay, Government Health Care...

My wife is qualified for Medicare - she and I and all of my working relations and most of the remainder of the United States of America pay a tax based on our income for this service, every paycheck, and have ever since Medicare was passed into law in the 1960's under President Johnson. It was to become a single payer health insurance for the aged (65+).

But her doctor's office has trouble getting Medicare to pay for my wife's treatment, they say there are other insurers that aren't paying FIRST! So they (the single payer government agency) doesn't pay. And for some reason the patient is the one that must make everything correct - not the doctor's office (do you have any idea of how large his staff is?), not the Medicare Agency (do you know how much they cost daily?). So the patient, who must be sick, must correct all the stuff because there isn't enough tax money and insurance premium around to push paperwork properly.

So, you call the 1-800-633-4227 number to get help and assistance - and receive a computer answering device of umpteen million dollars of stupidity. It's second sentence tells one to push two if you want to speak in Spanish (Chinese, French, Hindi and some others have greater population of speakers but not under Medicare?) of course it spoke that in Spanish. Why are they female voices, discriminating or thinking I won't swear at a female machine? Go through the selections and then choose to wait for a hovering in the background human being (doesn't the government know there is an employment crisis out there, hire some help!). No, I don't swear and especially against really stupid computers, but my blood pressure rises and that will kill me and cause more problems.

I did get help, human, female, and she is sending more paperwork my way since my wife expects me to be up on the front against the evil overlords, gangsters and rampant mice, moles and rat populations. The government wants me to be an unpaid agent for my wife in her Medicare issues. What is the world going to do when I am gone?

We did agree that my Health Insurance with my Employer (the State of Washington - still solvent here, California) is a primary payer and for some reason (subcontracting?) what it is called on my cards, Uniform Medical Plan, is known to Medicare as Harrington (the things I don't know), and I was to make sure (like I am an agent for making Medicare's billing properly) that the Doctor's office listed all payments made before asking Medicare for their payment.

Now, I am getting old, and ugly as it seems I will have to participate in a couple of years as my own agent and my wife's --- there is no chance that Universal Medical from the federal government will get my support - they will probably have to ENSLAVE me somehow. Or is that what they have already done, we's working for d'Man!