One other thing I learned about Medicare premiums is whether you use it or not the premium (which is different from the tax) is automatically deducted from your social security benefit. I learned this when I began investing in Central America and found some great health care providers at very low cost. In talking with some ex-pats I found out that they still had to pay the premium even though they were not in the USA.
IOW, once the govt gets control over your healthcare they won't let go.
Well, I did not realize ... and still am not sure that the Medicare premium is deducted prior to people receiving SS.
The problem with anything government controls is that they can change it at will and there's not a dang thing we can do about it.
Social Security is a good example. We were promised that SS funds would NEVER be touched or used for anything else. Guess what. They have been used for other things and the funds...which should have been sacrosanct have been decimated.
My union retirement plan invests the retirement funds and sends regular statements about the status of the fund.
So ... it looks like we can trust unions more than the government. Ain't that nice?
