Thread: Medicare for expats

With the state of the US economy, the reality will be that the US government will look for any and every excuse NOT to give individuals any benifits (unless they are a minority, gay, or in the country illegally).

Wait and see.

Originally Posted by BillyBobThai

and do not feel bad about now receiving money from the corrupt US government

If the guilt ever gets too much for you I will happily carry the burden and the cash.

Most of the other people receiving government benefits from the corrupt government paid into the system also. You are just another begging socialist, communist, lay about who thinks the government should provide for you. Why don't you just buy insurance coverage for yourself, like a good capitalist should?

Originally Posted by BillyBobThai

For the record, I think Qbama will go done as the worst president in US history.

Yes, you also went on record with that during his first term. In fact if I recollect correctly now, you also went on the record saying he'd be a one-term/lame-duck President.

As to your OP, could you imagine the administrative nightmare of having medicare pay for foreign treatments? The costs alone would be prohibitive, not too mention all the bureaucracy it would add - I thought you lot were against growing government?

There are two sides to healthcare reform in the US, being the social or 'human', and the hard nosed financial.

Socially, there is of course the massive amount of uninsured folk in the USA, plus the possibly even larger problem of the 'underinsured'- those who lose jobs, careers, go bankrupt etc because of health care costs, and being refused further HC because of pre-existing conditions, or clauses in their insurance contract. Yes, this is important- and it is also where the main right wing resentment about the AHC seems to come from- 'we don't want welfare bums receiving free medicare from the state". OK, whatever.

Financially, you are of course paying well over double every other advanced nation in the world for healthcare- and this for incomplete health care, what an almighty rip-off. The USA is, of course, unique among advanced nations in not having a national health care system. I'll leave those with a more liberal bent to reassure me about the human elements- but personally, my yardstick of how successful or not Obamacare proves will be to what extent it reduces health care expenditure (whichever sector that money comes from) as a percentage of GDP over the next decade or so. It is crippling your competitiveness as a nation.

Originally Posted by BillyBobThai

Our current president wants all Americans to have health care. With the cost here in Thailand for health care, Medicare would be better off paying the bill here than back in the states....

It makes perfect economic sense for the US government to encourage its elderly to reside overseas and even pay for their medical expenses through Medicare. But there is one major obstacle: America's medical-industrial complex is engaged in a multi-billion dollar racket that is inextricably tied to Washington's political establishment. Do you realize how many hospital, staffing, nursing home, pharmaceutical, medical equipment and 'medi-gap' insurance corporations would crater if droves of subsidized elderlies moved offshore and spent their Medicare dollars at places like Bumrungrad Hospital? Lobbyists throw millions of dollars at spineless Washington politicians to make sure that ideas like yours never see the light of day. And all we have is an Internet forum.

Originally Posted by sabang

Obamacare

The Republicans should take credit for it. It's their idea! The Heritage Foundation thought of it, Gingrich's Congress fought for it, and Romney was the first to implement it. The real insanity is them now fighting tooth and nail against an idea they wanted 10 years ago.