Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, was another important part of the social-insurance structure designed by Franklin Roosevelt thirty years earlier-a structure, FDR said at the time, that was “by no means complete.”Īfter LBJ ended his remarks, New York Times Washington correspondent Max Frankel approached him. Medicare, the president told the crowd at the Harry S. No longer will young families see their own incomes and their own hopes eaten away simply because they are carrying out their deep moral obligations to their parents, and to their uncles, and to their aunts. No longer will illness crush and destroy the savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime. . . . No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine. When Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law fifty-one years ago, on July 30, 1965, he made a number of ambitious promises: Empire “was innovative.” As proof, Davis said, “You can see your doctor online and call customer service.” When a woman complained that it was hard to reach Empire on the phone, Davis was reassuring. She mentioned “one of Empire’s most prized benefits,” the SilverSneakers program, which granted free gym memberships to enrollees. “I find it really wonderful there’s a nurse help line for you twenty-four hours a day,” she said. And she knew all the right words to get the seniors to sign up. Davis simply said, “For 2016 there’s a zero-premium plan.” Clearly eager to reiterate that magic number, she added, “All your preventive care is covered at zero dollars.” She went on to pitch as special perks such services as colonoscopies and mammograms, which the federal government makes available for free to all Medicare beneficiaries.ĭavis didn’t dwell on the fine print. One man wanted to know if the next year’s premium would be free as well. Lured to the sales event with a mailing that promised no monthly premiums for their plan coverage, they came seeking a way to stretch their budgets “free” health insurance is almost as irresistible as free food. That crucial point probably went over the heads of most attendees at the coffee shop. There he could have read that beneficiaries were on the hook for 20 percent of the cost for radiation treatment and 20 percent of the cost for chemotherapy, up to the $6,700. The patient’s share of such costs was “written in black and white,” Davis answered, vaguely referring him to page 6 of the booklet while noting that “a lot of people would be excited about a twenty-dollar copay for chiropractors.” didn’t actually address his question, but pages 7 and 12 did. One senior asked, What if someone had cancer?-a diagnosis whose costs could quickly escalate. We never make you pay more,” Davis promised. This makes it a predictable health-care cost. “The maximum amount you pay out of pocket for major medical expenses is sixty-seven hundred dollars. She was promoting MediBlue Plus (HMO), a private plan that Empire offers as an alternative to traditional Medicare. While waiters set down blueberry coffee cake, grape jelly, coffee, and orange juice, Maxine Davis, a Medicare account representative from Empire BlueCross BlueShield, raced through the first several pages of the company’s sales booklet. On a brilliantly sunny afternoon last October, twenty-eight New Yorkers-some clutching walkers, others in wheelchairs-crammed into a tiny space at the back of Manhattan’s East Side Cafe.
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