Astoria Doctor Begins Charging Medicare Patients $600 Per Year Retainer

Want the privilege of going to one Astoria doctor? If you are a Medicare patient, you must pay $50 per month just for the privilege of keeping a PCP. Why? He claims government reimbursement rates are horrible for Medicaid and Medicare patients. To make ends meet, or just to force those patients out, he is charging the retainer to Medicare./Medicaid recipients.

So far, he's lost over 100 patients who can't afford the retainer. Among them, was the old woman interviewed on the news for this story. She's gone to this doctor for twenty years. Now that's she's on medicare, she can't afford the retainer fee and is looking elsewhere.

This behavior creates more rifts between rich and poor. This behavior highlights our broken health care system that will become even more broken in July, when the feds cut reimbursement rates an astounding percentage again. Most likely, it will become nearly impossible to find medical care if you are a medicaid or medicare recipient.

How does this relate to the election? Senator Obama's plan leaves in place most existing institutions as is, like medicare. This won't help those on medicare find a doctor. It will solve nothing, in fact. Senator McCain's plan does nothing.

So what, you say, if poor people and old people and disabled people can't get any medical treatment. Who cares? Well that's exactly how Hitler thought, so he began rounding up such people, including the disabled, mental patients, homosexuals, the poor, abused women, runaways and gassed them to death even before he started in on Jews.

Maybe the mostly vacant HP campus in Corvallis can be used for Oregon's concentration camp for the purpose of gassing the poor, disabled and elderly.

Just kidding, but man things are getting bad.

In related news, I've badly injured my right knee. The tendon or ligament or muscle running diagonally, from the top inside to top outside, is really swollen and even hot. What does that mean? I don't know, except it hurts. I suppose I'll need to operate on it myself if it rips off. Any self knee operation hints out there? Should I just bite down on a piece of leather and shut up?