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Senior Citizen Politics
Medicare Makes Patients Happy, But Can It Last?
Many of the nation's most satisfied health care
consumers are recipients of an existing government health plan: Medicare
By Julie Rovner, NPR News
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President
Lyndon B. Johnson signing Medicare into law as his wife watches. |
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Sept. 22, 2009 - Whether or not to create a new
government-run health plan may be the biggest source of discord in the
ongoing debate over a health overhaul. At the same time, however, many
of the nation's most satisfied health care consumers are recipients of
an existing government health plan: Medicare.
Audrey Bernfield is one of those very happy
customers. "I feel very grateful," says Bernfield, 71, who lives in New
York City. "I have wonderful coverage, and the few times that I've had
to pay I've been reimbursed adequately," she says.
Red-haired, petite, and perky, Bernfield appears
the picture of good health. As she walks around her neighborhood on
Manhattan's west side, you'd never know she's a two-time breast cancer
survivor.
"In 1994 I had breast cancer. And then I was free
and clear until about 3 years ago when I got a recurrence on the same
site," she says, which metastasized to the bones. "But it's very much
under control," she says in her characteristic matter-of-fact manner.
"I have the kind of physicians who say: 'This is a
chronic disease and we're dealing with it and if one thing doesn't work
another does.' "
Another thing she Bernfield says works for her is
her Medicare insurance coverage.
In fact, she adds, sometimes Medicare even provides
more coverage than she expects. Recently, when she went to get a new
breast prosthesis, "the woman said, 'but you're also entitled to six
bras.' I said, 'Excuse me?' She said, you're entitled to six bras with
this. I said, 'Who needs six bras?' " Bernfield laughs and shrugs. "So
now I have a brown one and a red one and a white one."
But Bernfield's life hasn't been without its
challenges. After she married her high school sweetheart, a prominent
research scientist, and they moved to Maryland, she wanted to study
international affairs at a local university.
But that plan was thwarted. "They told me I
wouldn't get accepted as a fulltime graduate student, because that place
was saved for men," she says.
It was the 1960s, so Bernfield says she did the
obedient thing — she went home and had three children. But when the
family moved to California so her husband could work at Stanford, she
carved out a career of her own, eventually becoming the head of
undergraduate advising for the University.
The family later moved to Boston; Bernfield helped
students at Harvard Medical school design research projects.
Policy's Flexibility Is Key
After her husband died in 2002, she waited a year
before deciding to move to New York. That's where her two of her three
children and all of her grandchildren live. One thing that made her
moving decision easier is the fact that her Medicare coverage follows
her, no matter where in the country she goes.
And, now that she's in New York, Bernfield also
volunteers her time to help others manage their health. Among other
things, she counsels women about their own health care, through a group
called the Caring Collaborative, "which reaches out person-to-person to
take somebody to the doctor or listen to the doctor, telling them what
their diagnosis so they understand it better," she says. "And it makes
the process easier."
Bernfield found her own doctors the old fashioned
way. She called a friend, "and she referred me to somebody who was
fabulous who referred then me to the next doctor." Under Medicare, she
can choose any doctor she likes. And now, she says, "all of the people I
go to know each other and collaborate and take care of me and
unfortunately I've needed a lot of different services and it's worked
perfectly."
Well, not always perfectly. Bernfield has a
supplemental health insurance policy from Harvard, where she last
worked, for which she pays about $200 a month. And she's been treated by
a couple of doctors in New York who don't accept Medicare, so she had to
pay upfront, and wait for Medicare to reimburse her. But she says that
left her wondering:
"I walked out of one experience like that and said
' What if I couldn't pay? Then would I have to go home and find another
doctor who would take my Medicare and by this time the problem that I
have is going to grow and it's really a significant problem?"
A Medicare Supporter
Bernfield says she's not at all worried about
claims that the bills now under consideration in Congress might cut back
on her Medicare benefits. In fact, she thinks the country would be
better off if everyone could have the same Medicare benefits she enjoys.
"I think people don't understand that instead of
government in their business they have health insurance companies in
their business," she says. "Somebody is overseeing your health care no
matter what your status is. Whether it's to tell you you can have it or
you can't have it, somebody is there checking off a box."
"And I would rather have somebody in the government
who had some training, I hope, than somebody in an insurance company who
is getting a bonus because they refuse X number of people in any given
year."
So Bernfield says she's happy with the way things
are; she has good medical care, satisfying work to do, and time to spend
with her children and grandchildren, whose pictures cover the top of a
bureau in her bedroom.
"And you never realize how kids look growing. I
mean, you miss six months and you miss a whole part of their lives," she
says. "So I hope Medicare stays healthy for a long, long time because
I'm planning to take advantage of it."
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This
information was reprinted from
kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J.
Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up
for email delivery. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All
rights reserved. |
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