A Medicare Story

I got something called a Medicare Summary Notice in the mail yesterday. Usually I don't pay much attention to stuff like this, but I opened it and glanced at the bottom line which said I didn't owe anything, which is usually all I care about. For some reason, though, I looked at the numbers since the only thing involved was my flu shot which I got last November. Back then I went to my Family Medicine Clinic which is nice and handy and for some reason after I got my shot and went to the cashing out window, they did not have the fact that I was a Medicare patient on the record. So, I was told I owed $20 and I just paid them, got a receipt and walked out without another thought. Later in the week, I was called by someone at the clinic and told to stop by to get my $20 back since I would get my flu shot courtesy of Medicare. The one who must be obeyed who is also the one I sleep with was only too happy to get our $20 back. Now I get a Summary Notice from the Medicare folks. As I look at the numbers, here is what I see. The clinic charged Medicare $22 for the actual vaccine and $20 to inject it. Total charged was therefore $42.00. No wonder they wanted to give me back my $20. Reading further, I see that because our government is so frugal they only paid the clinic $31.54 and told the clinic to take it or leave it. The clinic took it.
Here is what I see in summary. The patient thinks he is getting something for nothing, the clinic is getting an increase of over 50% from the government for a service which almost assuredly cost them less than the $20 they inadvertantly charged me. Then the governmental agency sends me a summary which makes it look like they are being judicious when they reduced the amount charged from $42 to $31.54. When you stop and think about this nonsense being magnified many times over in millions of us oldtimers you can't help feeling this will eventually bankrupt us.