Under Observation

There have been an increasing number of cases that seniors need to know about - the issue is two words, "Under Observation".  Medicare rules say that if you are an 'in patient' in an acute-care hospital for three days or more, you are entitled to up to 3 weeks of skilled nursing care after discharge.

The rub is, recently Medicare administrators have been forcing hospitals to list more and more stays as "under observation" stays, rather than "in patient" stays - even for severe illnesses or traumas.  If you are listed as "under observation", you have to pay for any skilled nursing care, even if you thought Medicare was paying for it.  Medicare administrators have been known to reverse designations months after stays in nursing homes, and sticking patients with unexpected bills totaling $25,000 to $30,000. 

 

Rising Tide Lifts All Boats (video)

I have often pointed out that inequality in wealth and incomes has reached epic proportions, as has President Obama, but his answers are worse than the disease.  Except for a slightly higher income tax on incomes exceeding $5 million together with elimination of tax loopholes available to the very rich, I have never advocated socialist policies.

As Winston Churchill once said,”Under capitalism a few are rich and many are poor, but under socialism everyone is poor”.  Churchill should also have pointed out that in communist and in socialist countries, politically correct people somehow end up becoming very rich without creating any wealth.

 I have also suggested that globalization and welfare policies are the main culprits in the growing inequality in the USA, and that there are ways to work ourselves out of this mess, albeit slowly.

Here below is an amusing video starring Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan:

 If video does not load go here.

 

 

test video