Retirement. Lots of good things can be said about retirement. Basically no mandatory work, no schedules, no need to know what month, day or time it is. Time to slow down, relax, and smell the roses. Time to do or go where ever you want. Time to spend with family and friends. Lots of positive aspects.
But with anything, there's always the good & the bad.
You worked all your life, enjoyed good health, good job, good benefits. Good health insurance when you were healthy and really didn't need it.
Now your older... retired... and things change.
Health issues start to creep in little by little.
Begin retired means you are no longer part of the work force that is supporting the society... You are in fact a drain on it. Never mind that you paid into the system all your life... you are no longer contributing.
You have, as far as society is concerned, become a third class citizen.
For the most part... I really don't care.
Ah, but health insurance & health care is something different, as is the big pharmaceutical companies and medications.
Health care is a big business... for the most part, they will keep you alive treating the symptoms... The longer you live, the more money the system makes.
Problem number one... you now have health insurance that you really cannot afford, and really cannot afford to use because of high deductibles and copays, and when necessity strikes, you are financially deep in a hole.
Problem number two... you now have third rate insurance, to go along with being a third class citizen. So many doctors & services are limited... And when you have third rate insurance ( that pays the doctors less), you will have to wait for special medical attention until there's a opening around these with top shelf insurance.
Problem number three... you have lived your life, and since you have nothing left to contribute to society, either by working, taxes, or spending, you won't be a candidate for medical procedures. The younger, who still contribute to society, are candidates for procedures ... You, older, not so much.
Getting back to them keeping you alive. Well, there's a positive note to this, but then again on the negative side, there's plenty of other older retired folks to take your place. And after all, your are a drain on the health insurance companies that benefit from younger healthier people that don't have health issues... so they really don't care if you die... nothing personal, its just business.
Now, this feeling of how the entire health care system works may be an extreme observation, and not completely true on the surface, but deep down, its happening.
Kudos to all the hard working & caring health care professionals that provide care with compassion. The underlying problem is the system behind them.
Again... you can't afford not to have health insurance (you get fined), you can't afford to have it (it costs too much), and you can't afford to use it ( deductibles & copays). And the whole process sees you as a third class citizen with third rate insurance.
Life in these here United States. Politics & Big Business. Our Heath care system is both. But its not personal... it just business.
