{"id":6360,"date":"2014-08-30T02:14:36","date_gmt":"2014-08-30T02:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=6360"},"modified":"2014-08-30T02:14:36","modified_gmt":"2014-08-30T02:14:36","slug":"hooray-for-socialized-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=6360","title":{"rendered":"Hooray for socialized medicine!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on impending retirement.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>: My Medicare card arrived in the mail today.<\/em><\/p>\n

It arrived much more quickly than I was led to believe it would get here. It doesn’t matter.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m quite thrilled about it, to tell you the truth. My Medicare benefits take effect Dec. 1, which is 16 days before my 65th birthday.<\/em><\/p>\n

The most curious feeling I have at the moment is this strange desire to get sick enough to present it to a health care provider. It’s not that I’m wishing bad things to happen. It’s just that now that I’ve got this Medicare benefit card, I’m strangely anxious to use it. <\/em><\/p>\n

Is there something wrong with me?<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The United States Postal Service delivered an important piece of mail to me today.<\/p>\n

It came from the Social Security Administration and it informed me that — get ready — my Medicare hospitalization insurance takes effect in December.<\/p>\n

I think I’ll remember this day right along with the day I got my draft notice.<\/p>\n

I’ve just taken another step toward retirement. Man, it feels good.<\/p>\n

The application was far easier than I thought it would be. I logged in at usa.gov, assigned myself a goofy password, filled out a questionnaire, swore that everything I said on it was factual and true, and then submitted it.<\/p>\n

I’m now in The System.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned here before, I will forgo all the various parts A, B, C, D … whatever. The Veterans Administration health care system — in which I also am enrolled — is likely able to take care of other health needs if and when they arise.<\/p>\n

We’ve heard a lot lately about “socialized medicine.” Critics of the Affordable Care Act — aka Obamacare — just can’t stomach the idea of The Government providing health insurance for people who don’t have it. They’ve sought to demonize the notion of socialized medicine.<\/p>\n

It’s a hilarious effort to walk themselves back from a program that’s been in effect since 1965.<\/p>\n

For nearly 50 years, elderly Americans have had access to socialized medicine. It’s working quite well.\u00a0 This December, when I turn 65, I’ll receive another piece of mail from the Postal Service. It will be my Medicare card, which I’ll get to show health providers when I need medical care.<\/p>\n

Now, that\u00a0socialized medicine system\u00a0— Medicare — has another customer.<\/p>\n

That would be me. I’m happy to be on board.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on impending retirement. Update: My Medicare card arrived in the mail today. It arrived much more quickly than I was led to believe it would get here. It doesn’t matter. I’m quite thrilled about it, to tell you the truth. My Medicare benefits … Continue reading Hooray for socialized medicine!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[164,2989,4303,4977],"class_list":["post-6360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-political-news","tag-affordable-care-act","tag-medicare","tag-socialized-medicine","tag-u-s-postal-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}