This year I switched to Original Medicare for 2026 after being on super duper insurance industry enhanced Medicare for the first five years. I should've known that it's super duper for them but not so great for the insured person or the taxpayer, that is -- me. They have set it up so they can scam it 18 different ways, Some of the "services" they offer are just ways for them to charge the government more for your care, in return for doing absolutely nothing. #
So today I had my first Regular Medicare experience. I went to renew my prescriptions, and the vendor already knew my insurance info which was impressive use of computers. I was prepared to give it the new info. And in case you're confused, you still have to pay the insurance industry for Regular Medicare, even though that's actually a deal between me and my government. No way to deal them out, though I'm sure it would make total sense for us to do exactly that. Don't believe that when it comes to health care the US has been anything like a democracy.#
Where the old plan each prescription cost $0, this time I actually have to pay out of pocket approx $100 for a 90 day supply of five different medications. On the other hand, I'm paying much less for this insurance. I haven't done the math yet, but it feels like I'm not getting ripped off. See how many qualifiers there are.#
Oh the great old US of A where you can give your tax money and retirement funds to insurance companies who buy politicians etc and so on. Maybe the only thing to appreciate is that we get some health care for all our tax payments over our careers? #
And one good thing is now I get to keep most of my Social Security payments instead of it all going to United Healthcare. ;-)#
You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)