MEDICARE: Let's all be responsible

Accountability.

I agree 100 percent with last Sunday’s editorial that something is going to have to be done if Medicare is to survive at least partly intact. Most of us in our 70s will not have to worry, but future generations definitely will.

The fact that we’re living longer of course is the major reason Medicare will eventually have to be fixed, either with higher payroll taxes, mandatory Part B and supplemental private insurance, but also the health care itself.

I know a lot of Medicare recipients are indifferent to what the cost is when they get ill or hospitalized, but we all should be, and ask for an itemized list of what the charges are for each provided service. If you had to pay for these services yourself I’m sure you’d question why “the proverbial aspirin” cost $10, especially if you never received it in the first place.

There is another factor that our government should start doing something about, and that is what the medical profession themselves charge and what Medicare pays out.

According to a recent article in “The Week,” April 18, a doctor (ophthalmologist) received $21 million in 2012, and another 100 doctors received $610 million in the same year. Even discounting their education cost, this is absolutely absurd.

Its also disgusting to learn that the AMA has fought to keep these costs secret since 1979, and of course the AMA’s lobbyist and political contributions only help. We all owe it to our future generations to be whistle blowers when we see these things happening and start sacrificing to make Medicare continue to work for all of us, and ask before a medical service is given. Is it really necessary that this X-ray, CT scan, MRI, etc., be given? The answer might be no, not really.

PAUL J. UNDERWOOD

Saint Maries