Medicare?

I know that some people think Medicare is the end-all program for seniors. NOT!

Take for instance scooters. You can buy a big expensive scooter with all the bells and whistles and medicare will cover all (about $2,500) but 20 percent of the bill which my secondary will cover. So, a free scooter. BUT...

It can't be an "outdoor" scooter (even though all the scooters CAN be used outdoors). It has to be a chair scooter. It can't be a stand-up scooter (which cost around $900 with a seat attachment) even though you can use it indoors. I don't get it.

We really want to get a stand-up scooter (with seat), but Medicare doesn't even recognize that as a need for people who can't walk. Walking, by the way, requires different muscles and abilities than just standing up.

A power chair is our second choice, which Medicare will cover, but really isn't very useful out of doors.

In other words, if the chair isn't made to keep you housebound, you're on your own.

And this $250 "gift" to seniors? Forget it. First of all it's taxable income. If they would just keep the COLAs coming on social security, instead of cutting off all COLAs for the next three years, and if they hadn't raised what we have to pay Medicare each month to keep our hospital benefits (a raise of about $30 per month from last year), we elders would be much happier and the gov't would benefit more from the taxes we have to pay on the taxes they collected from us to award us our SS and Medicare benefits.

I'm ticked, oh yeah, I'm ticked!

ttfn