Doesn Medicare already pick up the slack for the people who are truly unfortunate and needy?
Even for the elderly, people who have given most of a lifetime productively for our society, Medicare covers less than half the medical expenses. For some of the disabled and impovershed Medicaid does fill in – IF YOU QUALIFY. Medicare does NOT cover long-term nursing-home care or prescription medications (now in 2006 you must buy an additional private coverage plan for prescriptions). Co-pays and deductibles are required for hospital and doctor visits. In NC, for example, in 1994, the average out-of-pocket spending for health care for a typical elderly person was 23% of family income.
